ADUK Archive

When looking for insurance quotes before the driver has passed the test. Always ask whether there will be an increase once the test is passed. When my daughter bought her car (Hyundai accent) one company quoted about 2/3 cheaper than anyone else. When I phoned them up and asked if it would increase when she passed I was told that it mighty go up a bit but they couldn't tell me by how much - which made me suspicious. I then ran another on line quote and said she had passed - the quote tripled in price!

jbsportstech wrote: He is 17 and thinks he knows everything.

He is seriously vain, won't be seen shopping with his mother and buys designer everything and insists that his hair must grow down his face into his eyes.

Gad, Sir! They should bring back National Service

One of my pupils, (ex now as he's passed his test), recently got some quotes for insuring a 1.8 VW Golf GTI. I warned him that it would be astronomical. The quotes came in at between 6k to 12k. He ended up buying a 1.1 Peugeot 106. I believe that cost him around 2K TPF&T.

Angus wrote:Where you've got lads in (relatively) decent cars, I would suggest it's either mum or dad's, that mum or dad is doing the insurance or it isn't insured.

Interestingly, I was investigating insurance for my (soon to be 17) daughter a few weeks ago. For a 3 y.o. Seat Ibiza 1.2 (apparently group 2), the cheapest quote was just under £800 with her parents as named drivers. If I insured it with her as a named driver (but with no no claims bonus) it was nearly £600.

I also managed to get a quote that was more than the cost of the car

However, after the Daily Mail's rant over a lad being quoted £17k, I should be grateful I've only got daughters.

I think that the amount of insurance you pay should be related to the number of times it took to pass! Imagine if you were the insurer and this girl came to you! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... 3-000.html

She'd be better off getting a chauffeur for the rest of her life

eeeandrew wrote:I've got my 2002 vauxhall Astra 1.6. It worked out £100 less to insure than a corsa 1.2 of the same age. Other major cost that most people overlook in insurance is the cost of spare parts for the car. This has a heavier weighting for young drivers. German cars are expensive spares as are fords and more modern french cars can cost a fortune in airbags.

I'd suggest looking at 5-10 year old cars and focus on practicalities. Also looking at which cars are made from the same factories. Example, Skoda Fabia, Seat Ibiza, VW Polo all have the same chassis front print, engine, gearbox and running gear; they then stick a different body and interior on. Fabia was cheaper to insure for me because of the cheaper cost of parts and lower residual value.

Hope that was useful.

All the best,
Andrew

They Skoda Fabia's a great car... It's like the fruit salad you get from Aldi for a pound which is packaged with a different label in Waitrose for 3...Gets my vote every time but if you're more about kudos then it'd have to be the Polo (i'm not by the way)

Does anyone know of any actual decent insurers for young drivers? Things seem to be getting a bit ridiculous these days. Someone told me that insurance across all industries had risen by 20% in the last year!!!

eeeandrew wrote:Best one I found was admiral. I'll clarify that, they are cheapest. No one else comes within £300 of their number. I was unfortunate last year(before taking IAM) and swerved to avoid someone elses criminal act which led to me making contact with another car. Admiral decided not to pursue the recovery of my monies despite the police fining the bad person in question.

I also agree with your comments on the Fabia. It is a fantastic little car. I nearly had a 1.4 estate in the SE trim which had more toys than Argos. Also drove the Seat Ibiza and that comes with a lot of kit as standard.

Sorry it's taken a while to get back, i've been on holiday...i ended up going with these guys in the end... http://www.acorninsure.co.uk/car-insurance/young-driver-insurance/ not a well know company but came in under everyone else by a margin for my personal circumstances. 6 points from 2 sp30s and all of a sudden my last insurer express insurance bumped my premium up by a grand. These guys came in 100 quid better than everyone else i contacted because they're a specialist car insurer...i guess that's the reason anyway...

Has anyone tried an insurer that fits a "black box" that adjusts premiums accordingly?

Had never heard of this until now...looks interesting! Very big brother but if it allows for a pay per use model then i can't see how it would be a bad thing so long as the factoring costs for the premium are clearly outlined before taking it on..

eeeandrew wrote:Best one I found was admiral. I'll clarify that, they are cheapest. No one else comes within £300 of their number.

Slightly off-topic, but I just wanted to amplify eeeandrew's comment. Do remember that insurers are cheaper for a reason: either they want to increase their market share and cut prices to do it or they reduce the quality and/or numbers of support staff. The latter is fine as long as you don't need to contact your insurer, but you'll pay the price (pun intended ) when you need to make a claim or sort out a problem. Just have a look on the Which? site for their insurance best buys and look at those prices on comparison sites - good customer service costs money.

When I've looked at price comparison sites, the cheapest always seem to be "no-name" insurers, which I've tended to ignore anyway as I wouldn't be comfortable going with someone I've never heard of. Any insurance is a gamble, but how much more would you be willing to pay for better service? I'm not saying one way is better than the other: just something to think about when you're looking at "cheap" insurance...

Many insurers are simply going for economies of scale, by marketing themselves under different names. Examples:

Tesco Insurance is really RBS which also owns Direct Line and some others
Sheila's Wheels is just Esure, as is Sainsbury's, and Halifax
Admiral, Bell, Elephant and Diamond are all the same company

... and so on.

I was in an accident a few weeks ago and I must say Admiral have treated me admirably. I wasn't expecting much, as you say, but they have been polite and effective. Maybe it would be different in other circumstances, and it's not completely over yet, but so far I'm impressed.

YorkshireJumbo wrote: good customer service costs money.

As they say: pay peanuts - get monkeys.

Didn't Clarkson suggest one on Top Gear a few years ago when they did a competition on the best first cars. Ended up crashing it into a wall, ISTR...

Being vain costs money and being vain about cars costs bucket loads of it.
A badge snob should fund their own habit