Hi Luke,

Firstly, do you mean Quinn have increased the age of drivers to 25 for them to be eligible to drive cars not owned by them under third party cover or they have stopped insuring under 25's altogether?

Apologies if I'm stating the obvious, but I'm guessing you know that when you have comprehensive car insurance, the cover is limited to third-party only when driving someone else's vehicle. i.e. you write off your dad's car, no pay-out!

I recently borrowed my father's expensive car and he wasn't happy with adding me on his policy due to a few claims on it. I used a short term car insurance policy, fully comp and has no effect on his policy. This might be an avenue worth looking into to cover you to drive family members cars temporarily. I used Aviva and it was very straightforward.

Otherwise if you still want to go down the insurance route of driving other cars not belonging to you cover, I'd recommend approaching a car insurance broker with your needs.

Cheers,

Nial

An increasing number of firms are removing the "drive other cars" benefit altogether and are not always flagging up that they have done so at renewal.

In most cases the cover only applies when the insured is the policy holder and they are over 25 and I doubt you will find anyone to cover you at 18. Quinn never gave much away whether they insured you or you were run into by one of their policyholders and are obviously running an even tighter ship now they are in administration.

That said "drive other cars" was not really intended to use how you were actually using it. It's really intended to cover you when the need to drive was almost imperative. The cars you are using have no insurance and the only cover is for the third party had you run into one. The advice given previously is good - you need to take out a short term policy when you want to drive - however most of the best known ones will require you to be over 21 (when they will load the premium) and they prefer over 25s.

Endsleigh used to be the best for this sort of thing as they came out of the old National Union of Students but your best bet may be a broker.

Just a further warning on "drive other cars" benefits.

Every year we get an increasing number of cases where the driver thought they were covered (and had been in the past) but this was no longer the case and they are being prosecuted for no insurance. They are very difficult cases to win as the court generally takes the view that they should have read their policy.

The other place this crops up is with test drives when the potential purchaser assures the owner they are covered third party. The worst scenario is if they prang it - in which case there is no cover for the owner who might have to sue them to recover any financial loss.

But even if there is no accident and they are stopped and found not to be covered under their policy **both person undertaking the test drive and the owner permitting the test drive to take place will be prosecuted** the latter on what is known as a "permit, no insurance charge which is akin to "aiding and abetting" and carries exactly the same penalty as if they had been driving the car uninsured - ie 6-8 points and a very large fine.

It is possible to argue "special reasons" in these cases if the owner believed the driver was insured and had been assured that this was the case and a court may not penalise them but it is a stressful experience and not one anyone needs.

The best advice is never to allow anyone to test drive your car unless temporary insurance is in place and you have seen the certificate.

Edited by LucyBC on 31/05/2010 at 11:44

Thanks for the replies so far. Quinn still insure all ages, but third party on other cars only applies to policy holders 25 years and over now.

I did think about the short term policies, or being added onto my relatives' policies, but this can't be done as the cars include a Range Rover and a 3.5 V6 Renault Vel Satis!