17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!!

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Mon 19 Apr 2010 18:53
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - TrekEX8

I know this has been discusse before, but.......Wow!....insurance costs for 17 yr olds!! My son will be 17 this summer and I would like to insure him on either his own car (looking at group1 or 2 cars) or as an additional driver on a slightly higher grouped car belonging to me.

Quotes coming in at £2,050 for a group 1 car with pass plus succesfully completed.

Is there any way of reducing this?

According to my son, many kids just simply can't/don't bother with insurance.....so premiums go up.......so less people bother.....so premiums go up.....

We're not going along that route, but I really need to find lower premiums. Anyone managed to do this recently?? Thanks. PS If all else fails, will be saving up for a sex change for him, should bring the premiums down nicely.

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Mon 19 Apr 2010 20:44
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - b308

I'm glad you are considering the legal route... but there is not a lot you can do... he is a male, provisional driver with no record and under 25, so thats the worst you can get!

Looking hack to when I was a kid and had just passed, my first car cost £250 and insurance was higher, so its nothing new... if anything £2.5k is more affordable for someone working than my £250 was back in those days...

I bought a car and insured it in my name whilst my eldest was learining... and made sure that I used it for local trips and other trips to ensure that the mileage I did exceeded that she did when learing... that way I was still the main user and it was all legal...

You should have had a girl... they are a bit cheaper btw! ;-)

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Mon 19 Apr 2010 22:58
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - cjehuk

There's a few things that could help reduce the premium.

1. Insure yourself/partner on the car too - this often helps

2. Restrict annual mileage

3. Look for insurers that favour younger drivers (bell.co.uk for example)

4. Having a very old car isn't necessarily an advantage, yes it will cost less to fix when it gets involved in an accident but it's also less safe and less likely to have care taken of it because it's of less value.

5. Get one of these tracking systems that restricts when he can drive - according to some reports this can half the premium.

If it's any consolation when I was 17 (10 years ago), my first insurance payment was £1543 on a Rover 214S that was 10 years old at the time and worht about £600.

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Tue 20 Apr 2010 09:14
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - ijws15

As above - older cars can be more expensive.


Whjen we joined the game a 1.0 Corsa a year older than the one we got would have cost another £300 a year to insure.

He is now 24 and six years no claims - still costs him £800 for a 1.9 diesel Polo.

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Tue 20 Apr 2010 11:43
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - Tim Allcott

Interesting, undertaking the same exercise with junior, albeit he's 18. He's just passed his test. Checked a couple of vehicles on comparison websites: a Daewoo Matiz was going to cost nearly £2,000. A Volvo 240 estate (remember, that's a 2.4 litre engine) £745. O.k., so the petrol consumption on the Volvo would be fairly catastrophic, but £1300 still buys quite a lot of petrol....

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Tue 20 Apr 2010 13:43
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - madf

Try ringing a broker which specialises in difficult cases.

They can often save £££s.

This is a case where on-line "one size fits all" is a waste of space.

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Tue 20 Apr 2010 15:09
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - Mick Snutz

I'm sure I've read somewhere recently that having an older driver added to his policy could reduce the premium. So stick grandma's name down as a named driver and you never know...

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Tue 20 Apr 2010 18:12
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - P3t3r

I found Endsleigh to be very good when I was a student. My group 1 car was £1200 for the first year, but that was about 7 years ago, and I was 19. So it'll probably at least a few hundred more than that. It does depend on things like where you live though.

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Tue 20 Apr 2010 21:13
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - Sofa Spud

If you get an old car worth only a few hundred pounds, or maybe a thousand or two, it might make some difference if you insure it third party only.

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Wed 21 Apr 2010 04:31
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - fredthefifth

Fact is that to repair an older car still requires NEW parts so in that respect repair costs are similar to a new cars for similar damage. In general if the car has less value then the insured risk is less, write off value will be less and all else being equal the insurance should be cheaper. However the mysteries of insurance premiums will always baffle.

Best of luck.

FTF

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Wed 21 Apr 2010 13:29
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - Chris M

Repair cost to your own car are a tiny part of the premium. Whatever you are driving, if you hit a nearly new car, the cost could be substantial. Not just the actual repairs to the third party vehicle itself, but the Helphire fees can run to thousands.

Having said that, the real premium hike for young drivers, is all their mates in the car with them. A 17 year old who hits a tree and kills himself costs very little. His (or her) three mates in the car who could be left tetraplegic, brain damaged or both are going to cost the insurer millions.

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Wed 21 Apr 2010 22:56
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - fredthefifth

Umm, fair point. My logic is flawed (as they say!)

FTF

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Thu 22 Apr 2010 12:42
17yr old male drivers......insurance......again!! - Ditso

I am on my daughers policy it did make it a bit cheaper.

Edited by Ditso on 22/04/2010 at 12:46

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