Insurance fronting - what would you do?

maninthestreet

Hammyman wrote: »

Believe what you want. Maybe its because I didn't live in a crime ridden hole - I lived in a seaside resort in East Yorkshire. And a 1.6L Cavalier would have been a fairly new car whereas mine wasn't.

I was living just outside Southampton at the time, considered a medium risk area at the worst, with a low-to-medium risk occupation, no accidents or claims. The Cavalier was over 4 years old at the time. For a 17 year old, it's the injuries and damage they are likely to cause to others and their property that pushes the premium up, rather then the damage they may inflict on their own car. A 3.5L V8 motor car is a lethal weapon on the hands of a 17 year-old.

mchale

OP, its not your business how they run their financial affairs, so I would mind my own business,

posts 5 & 9, what utter b******t, do you know this young driver?

Lum

Depends. If it's a really old V8 it probably wont make much more peak power than a comparatively modern 1.6. Also if it were a really old car then chances are not many people crash them any more, so that lowers the risk.

Of course it wont have all the modern safety features either, but that was irrelevant back then as nobody had ABS and the likes.

Personally I think the biggest cause of the massive rises is air bags and crumple zones. Repairs these days are an awful lot more expensive because back when cars were more rigid a low speed rear ender would just be a new bumper wheras now the back end of the car collapses to protect the occupants (who still claim whiplash anyway)

The classic example would be that guy with the Nissan GTR who hit the towbar of a parked car. It put a hole in the front bumper, however the car decided he'd hit a pedestrian and fired the pedestrian safety thingy, a one off explosive that pushes the bonnet upwards so the pedestrian doesn't go over the roof of the car. New bonnet, new explosive safety thingy and new computer to fire the new explosive, cost £10,000 to repair, rather than just a new front bumper.

iolanthe07

Personally I think the biggest cause of the massive rises is air bags and crumple zones.

Not really. The massive rises in premiums are mainly caused by third party injury claims. Over 65's statistically have more accidents for a given mileage than young men, but they are more likely to be slow speed shunts. Young people (teen boys particularly) are a very high risk for expensive claims, and the premiums reflect this.

I paid £11 a year for my first car when I was 18 in 1964. The car was a 1937 MG TA. A semi-skilled manual average wage at the time was about £15 a week, so it has got a lot more expensive. But then my MG could be overtaken by an enthusiastic cyclist on the open road!

Strider590

Rise in insurance premiums is engineered by the insurance companies......

They really take eachother to the cleaners and the situation will get worse and worse.

Look at repair costs!! for an insurance job, the repair cost is triple if not quadruple what it should really cost! a simple £150 dent removal and respray, gets quoted at £450+, then you add inflated hire car charges at £100+ a day and your looking at well over £1000 for minor shunt.

The business of compensation claims and young drivers is nothing but a smoke screen.

rev_henry

pgilc1 wrote: »

A friend of my son got a brand new car as soon as he turned 17. It wasnt the entry level model, so it wasnt among the minimum grouped cars.

He passed his test and went to get insurance. Tried everywhere and the cheapest quote was £7000. Thus his mother now has it insured in her name with him as a named driver for £1800

Now this is clearly fronting - apart from anything his mum has a sports car already and i'm 99% certain the car is taxed in the sons name, so if he crashes the insurance will pick up on this right away, plus he takes it to school every day, so there'll be no evidence of the mother using it for her work etc, etc.

My son is out in the car a lot with this guy.

There is only a small handful of people who know its insured in his mums name.

Should i just be minding my own business here? What would you do?

Hmm, the trouble is what can you do? You can't report it to the police, its not driving without insurance...
Friend of mine (18) is insured on his own 1.6 civic which the insurance company thinks is his grans for £350 a year or something silly like that. It irritates me but what can you do? In his case I actually did report him to the police for deciding to 'borrow' his father's civic type R without consent or insurance to show off to his mates at school (which was walking distance from his house anyway!) but I don't think they caught up with him.

Hammyman

maninthestreet wrote: »

I was living just outside Southampton at the time, considered a medium risk area at the worst, with a low-to-medium risk occupation, no accidents or claims. The Cavalier was over 4 years old at the time.

There you go then - higher risk area and a car 7 years younger and probably worth ten times what my old SD1 was...

Hammyman

Lum wrote: »

Depends. If it's a really old V8 it probably wont make much more peak power than a comparatively modern 1.6.

Personally I think the biggest cause of the massive rises is air bags and crumple zones.

You're not far off the mark - Rover SD1, hardly the most rapid of V8s

As for airbags, you're right. I owned Ford Capris for much of the last decade. They had a steering wheel which stuck out 2ft from the dashboard at exactly chest height and you were under no illusion where it was going to go if you ran into something. Sure as hell stopped tailgating.

Rolandtheroadie

But there is absolutely no comparison between the sound of a modern 1.6 (or any 1.6) and an old V8.

Edit. Nearly forgot about the OP. The frontings only going to affect them, I'd just leave it.

paddedjohn

maninthestreet wrote: »

when i tried to ensure my first car back in 1987 (1.6l cavalier), i strulggled to find any quote lower than £350 for comprensive insurance, and i was 24. So i doubt that you managed to get a quote, even just for tpft, for a v8 3.5l car if you were only 17.

i got a 1.6gl cavalier in 86 and my insurance was about £200 a fortune in those days considering my wage was about £80/week. It all depends on your area i suppose.
25yrs on and im paying less than that for a vw van