UK: car insurance?

[flaninacupboard]

right, i'm a new driver. i'm male. oh dear.
after tapping in my details and my car details (a 1L suzuki swift) the first quote i got was £1750. that's third party fire&theft. comp was well over £2500.

The best option i've found so far is norwich union, but even that is £1035. anyone know of a cheaper place to look?

I've tried: Direct line, tesco, sainsbury, more than, the aa, the rac, norwich union, alliance and leicester, churchill, admiral and budget.

[Craig Tucker]

God, I am glad I am not a young new driver anymore. Insurance seems almost prohibitively expensive these days.

[flaninacupboard]

thanks for your input!

[Craig Tucker]

It did'nt make you feel any better then. To be honest you seem to have tried most of the insurance companies. Have you tried an insurance broker to try and find the best deal.

[tenders]

God, I am glad I am not a young new driver anymore. Insurance seems almost prohibitively expensive these days.

you are right

but sometimes i really wonder how they can come up with that much cash in order to get the insurance in the first place

[tgpo]

I pay $300 every six months for my insurance.....or course my car is only worth $100 in the eyes of the insurance company, but I have a brand new $500 clutch in it. What sense does that make?

[flaninacupboard]

i really wonder how they can come up with that much cash in order to get the insurance in the first place

Simple, they can't!

Looks like i'll have to get someone else to be the main driver and have me as a named second driver. that works out as around £400. how stupid is that? Any volunteers?

[Craig Tucker]

I did that with my very first car. Had my mum as the main driver and me as a named driver.

[VideoTechMan]

Unfortunately, car insurance for all new male drivers are very expensive. Reason being is because alot of new male drivers tend to have a higher accident rate, and tend to be careless with their vehicles. I know when I first started out it was like $800 for 6 months which means it wouldve been like $1600 yearly. Unfortunately ins companies dont really consider a male driver 'mature' until they reach the age of 25 (here in the states at least). And that's if you didnt have any accidents before then. I'm 26 now and my ins now is only like $370 for 6 months.....not that bad at all, and plus it depends on the age of the car; usually the older the car the less it is, in most cases.

VTM

[ChrisX]

In Australia, any personal insurance is very expensive whether is it for the house, the car and life insurance.

Insurance in business is far much worse and now so prohibitive in costs such as for doctors, retailers, special events, in building and just about any industry. Even Government bodies are affected as well.

This is due to high taxes and levies such as the GST, stamp duty and fire/emergency fees and so on that makes as a disincentive to take out insurance at all.

The taxation and fees adds 33% to the original premium rate of my recent home insurance. The home contents insurance rate is $300 per year and the extra costs bumps up to $400 per year. This is so ridiculous having to folk out this much extra money. Too expensive for me.

My car insurance was also so expensive due to the type of vehicle I did own. The vehicle was a panel van as such considered to be a commercial vehicle even though for private use only. The premium rate was much higher than a standard family car or a small car.

Just as well I am not young any more and being a young driver is also very expensive here and there is an age levy in the insurance. I think it is 25.

I did have a young friend and he always complains on the high costs of insurance and having the same vehicle, panel van. As a result he doesn't insure his car. He's a double whammy in insurance as in a risky age group and having a commercial type vehicle. He mentioned: $2,000 a year.

This was one reason why my van was sold due to the cost of insurance and to maintain the aging van. Always something to fix and to repair and this drains my money.

[EddyH]

You're trying to insure a Suzuki before you're 25? No wonder it's still over a grand. Insurance on japanese cars, even the tiny ones, is downright criminal. It's all to do with the cost of the replacement parts, most of them have to be shipped all the way from Nihon itself. Ditch it if you can and go euro.
Small engined german, french, spanish, and italian cars all have much cheaper rates, as do Vauxhalls oddly enough (but then, they're just rebadged Opels) - recent model Corsas, though they're horrible cars, are super cheap, group 1 - an honour shared by very few others, notably the ratty old Fiat Panda (not even the 2CV made it that low). Group 6 is about as high as you can go before breaking into four figure territory without a score-plus-few years and some no claims behind you.

Hell, even if you got an early 90s Astra you'd do better - that's my brother's car, 1.4, 1992, group 6, and even though we're not all that far from the rougher parts of Birmingham his premium with Endsleigh is in the low £900s, undercutting NU by about £50. Keep looking around, and - very important - play the companies off each other. Tell them the other comps gave lower quotes than they really did if you have the nuts for it.

(I'm going with Norwich this year - they've quoted me a very nice £492 for my ol' Polo (group 4.. high for a 1-litre but worth it for the space and longevity), which is even better than the £570 Endsleigh gave last year when I was both a Student - discount! - and living in a far quieter area. This year, even after doing the playing game - "well, NU gave me a quote about £300 less than yours" (truth!) Ends couldn't quite find a way to drop it in line.)

Plus, your wallet will thank you for it in other ways, fuel economy excepted (mostly - some jap cars are incredibly efficient.. others surprisingly and incongrously thirsty). Recent costs of fixing car to get it thru MOT, besides cost of regular service and test itself, £225 - for two new tyres, new shock absorber, new CV boot, replacement head-to-exhaust manifold gasket, brake light, oh and a new license plate and it's like a whole new car after that. Brakes, hubs and exhaust also quite cheap over course of year. Hate to think what it might have been on something where parts aren't ten-a-penny.

[EddyH]

Oh yeah... and always be sure to go through the extended options, you may find ways to lower the premium a little.

EG trying to bring mine down I found that it defaulted me to the car being worth £5000 (five thousand! it probably didnt cost that much from the dealer back in '91.. more like £500 at best) and doing about 10,000 miles per year. Well, i've done about 9,000, but putting 3k in brought the cost down a bit, and it'll be hard for them to both a/ check that without looking at my MOT certificates, b/ blame me for putting in the wrong amount, after all it was only an 'estimate' of how many miles i'd do the next year. How was I to know it would be so addictive! (paid for the wanderlust in petrol, after all)
And many other options.. occupation, where it's parked, extra cover for courtesy car and windscreen, pass plus qualification, stuff like that. And be sure after you've been to the website, to talk to a human at the company. They're all on commission, so they'll do everything in their power to make that sale jee.. you should have heard how eager the endsleigh guy was to trick me into renewing straight away

Get something cheap and nasty that's barely worth the damage excess you'd be sicced with, and just get 3rd party, or 3rd party fire & theft (sometimes actually cheaper than 3rd party!) - forget comprehensive. That's TRULY not worth it until your car costs more than the premium. Think about it..

As for being a second driver on someone else's insurance, that's quite a gamble. You can't really be sure if you're not the one out of ten thousand picked to have a fraud investigator / loss adjuster shadow you about and see who's *really* using the car more than the other. It's a good way to get use of your parents' ride cheaply... risky if you ask them to insure the car themselves and then 'let' you use it without ever driving it themselves. Surely their software is coded to stick out a little 'cheeky!' warning flag when someone habitually driving a 2-year old Vectra suddenly goes out and buys an ageing Swift and has a young person as a second driver on it!

[flaninacupboard]

EddyH

thanks for the (rather lengthy!) response!
The prices i've been looking at -are- TPFT, yes, £1750 for TPFT. As you say, comprehensive doesn't interest me, i'll just buy i new car if i stack it!
I know the car is in good condition, it's been got for me by my Ex-girlfriends dad (i live with her family.... and her. it's kinda odd.) and he runs a garage(of the fixy kind, not stickers and bollocks kind), so knows what he's talking about
It looks like he'll be the policy holder and i'll be named driver. there shouldn't be any problem on this one, his other vehicle is a box van: not handy for nipping down to the shops when the back is full of greasy things and tools.


Hmm, i just re-tried my application, i actually -save- money by getting comprhensive insurance this way, only £364.......

[freak_in_cage_10k]

i pay £100 a year to be a names driver on my mums 1L Nissan Micra: i dont get a no claims discount though which is a pain, but it means that when i do get my own car at least i will be a bit older.

if you are living in the uk it is worth phoning up sdome insurance companies and seeing if they reduce the premium if you hve taken you "pass plus". some companies value it a LOT! its not a test, more a "course" and u just do motoeway, night and country lane driving. it costs about £90 and most ppl do it over an entire day. (about 3/4 hours!) However, it is only vallid/recognised for the first 2 years, and you have to have recently passed to take it. however, i expect it is well worth it if you are going to be the only driver!

also, i would expect to pay about £1k, no more for insurance!! just phone EVERYBODY, and haggle, and tell them u have got better quotes elsewhere, and make sure you inquire about the pass plus cos it will really help m8!!!

PS if u want to get jealous read this:

my friend is getting a toyota MR2- and the insurance is about £300 fully comp (because its on his dads business insurance!)

His brother has an Imprezza- 0-->60 in 3.3s! no joke! he has SERIOUSLY modded it, and i saw him beat a BMW M3,Porche and even a Kawasakki 750 Ninja!!!!! That is one FAST car, although it hurts your neck when he accelerates propperly! hes only 23 also!! lol

[flaninacupboard]

although it hurts your neck when he accelerates propperly!

Coming to a ditch near you!!

[EddyH]

rather lengthy response

havent you noticed a pattern in my postings? i need some kind of anti-verbosity pill...
From the situation you describe, if i understand it right, then go for it. The uncle's going to be driving the Suzuki as the non-work car, and the van for business, and you just borrow it to go out to your mates, take the GF for a 'movie' etc £350 odd sounds like a good deal, I added more than £400 to my mum's bill when I was named driver on her car! (albeit at 17, day after passing test)

His brother has an Imprezza- 0-->60 in 3.3s! no joke! he has SERIOUSLY modded it, and i saw him beat a BMW M3,Porche and even a Kawasakki 750 Ninja!!!!! That is one FAST car, although it hurts your neck when he accelerates propperly! hes only 23 also!! lol

true dat on the getting jealous front!

...git!!!.. whatever did he do to afford that? that's well out of range of what a 23 y.o. could have easily earnt in their working lives, either he's grafted his arse off (and fair play to him) or has had some serious help :P

I don't get 60mph even in 33.0 secs when there's 4 people in the dub!

[energy80s]

Try Priviledge Insurance in Leeds. I used them for a few times after I bought my Peugeot 406. Working for the BBC is a high insurance risk and a lot of companies wouldn't even touch me - even though I'm over 30 and have a full no claims bonus! Current premium is about £800 for Fully Comp cover.

[zzyzzx]

It's no different in the US. I just dropped colission on my car after I realized that my insurance company wanted $261/year to insure $700 worth of car. Since I can get things like a bumper, fenders, a hood for $40 each, and headlinghts for $10 and a grill for $20 at my local junkyard I figure for 6 months worth of collision insurance I can replace my whole front end. And the last time I actually use my colission was in 1985.