Car and insurance for 17 year old

JimmyTheWig

chris1973 wrote: »

In which case then you really shouldn't be putting a price on the cost of insuring them in these expensive modern vehicles
...

A good post, but I wanted to point out that the person you were replying to wasn't the OP who was complaining about the cost of insurance...

motorguy

mikey72 wrote: »

My kid started in a classic mini. (Cheap insurance has gone for that now though, but she always wanted one since she was 5) She learnt to drive without expecting to use airbags, seltbelt pre-tensioners, abs, esp, and a 5 star ncap. As with everything, pay your money, take your choice.

So she basically drove a car without ANY modern safety features, should the worst happen?

Personally, i'd pay the bit extra - i've seen the outcome of what happens to old mini's in accidents.

kipperman

chris1973 wrote: »

In which case then you really shouldn't be putting a price on the cost of insuring them in these expensive modern vehicles, as the re-assurance to you and them should essentially be 'priceless'. In fact if you can afford to buy them a 'modern car' which has an NCAP rating of 4 or 5 (the only ratings really worth considering if you dont want to risk losing limbs, serious head trauma or other 'life changing' injuries, and also ALL of the list of features mentioned then you are looking at 3 or 4 grand plus, and if you or they can afford the very real risk of them writing off or damaging a vehicle of this value, and age then you really shouldn't quibble over paying a few grand to insure it.

Back in reality, lots of young people are driving around in 1997 Corsa's and 2000 era Micra's or Ka's with either very low NCAP ratings or too old to be classified, in addition even a 1999 Polo doesn't have features like ABS, so you must be planning on putting your Cherub into quite an expensive modern vehicle to get all of those features AND a surviveable NCAP rating at normal road speed, but then every crash or rollover happens at 15mph doesn't it.....

Example of crash ratings for 'teen popular' vehicles

http://www.euroncap.com/tests/fiat_punto_1997/7.aspx
http://www.euroncap.com/tests/vw_polo_1997/13.aspx
http://www.euroncap.com/tests/opel_vauxhall_corsa_1997/12.aspx
http://www.euroncap.com/tests/ford_ka_2000/77.aspx

Non of these look especially 'safe' with several weaknesses and v.poor / poor / marginal areas of crash protection clearly identified - frighteningly often around the head or chest (largely the injuries sustained in most fatal RTC's), and all of them lack the full list of features you mentioned. Case in point many of us learned to drive and spent our first formative driving years avoiding accidents in what essentially are the classic cars of today, and it was good enough for us, and we successfully avoided road hazards or other vehicles and that was way before even airbags were fitted as standard. Do kids these days expect to be cotton wool clad in cars as well as society?

Since paying out compensation / medical treatment represents more than the cost of replacing a typical 10 year old car to the insurance companies, then I suspect if these teenage drivers were all walking away from wrecks involving their 'modern' cars with 'modern' safety features, then they wouldn't be paying upto £3000 for insurance cover. In essence these modern cars, carry hefty insurance premiums - no smoke and mirrors and no pack drill.

Unfortunately, the belief that you have demonstrated is also the illusion which many young people share, in beliving that they are essentially indestructable, sat behind their airbags and side impact protection, which can lead to complacency and risk taking. Put them in something older which rattles and barely makes 65mph, and they tend to be less confident about showing off, racing or thinking that they are indestructable. In fact they would probably be less likely to crash if the airbag was replaced by a very sharp spike!.

By the way, the term classic cars, from an owner and insurance point of view covers cars which are as little as 15 years old. This would include vehicles like Cavaliers, which did have airbags and ABS fitted as standard, so don't imagine for one moment that the term only applies to Morris Minors and Austin sevens.

Unfortunately, insurance costs are only likely to spiral for us all, and for young drivers, then its going to be much worse. You really have no choice but to pay the costs, find ways of legally reducing them, or simply get them a rail or bus ticket - thats it - those are your choices!.

Errrr- Thanks for all the info here, but why on earth are you quoting me?

mikey72

pgilc1 wrote: »

So she basically drove a car without ANY modern safety features, should the worst happen?

Personally, i'd pay the bit extra - i've seen the outcome of what happens to old mini's in accidents.

Still drives it. She likes classic cars, she drives my beach buggy since she was 18, that's just a plastic tub on a beetle chassis cut in half and stuck back together in someones shed in the 80's. At least the mini has dual circuit brakes. (I was to put an and but I couldn't think of anything else).

motorguy

mikey72 wrote: »

Still drives it. She likes classic cars, she drives my beach buggy since she was 18, that's just a plastic tub on a beetle chassis cut in half and stuck back together in someones shed in the 80's. At least the mini has dual circuit brakes. (I was to put an and but I couldn't think of anything else).

Lucky nothing has hit her then. I've got my son into a mk 5 golf. At least he has a sporting chance should the worst ever happen.

rebelwanderer

Try Admiral multicar, (assuming that you have a second vehicle) it cost me £700 fully comp to cover my daughter (18) AND my Son (17) when learning and went up to £900 when they both passed their test within a week of each other. This is on a 2001 1.3 daihatsu yrv with ABS airbags etc. Daughter now has a daihatsu sportrack 1.5 in her own name on the multicar policy for£650. she has passed test 12 months
Hope this helps Ceri

thegirlintheattic

Just remember that if you use your NCB on the multi car policy you are putting it at risk should your DCs crash.

rebelwanderer

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

Just remember that if you use your NCB on the multi car policy you are putting it at risk should your DCs crash.

The insurance policies on our other cars are separate and NCB is protected, The children were both added to our other car as "shared drivers" initially (so not fronting) and when the policy expired DS put it in his name, he had however accrued 1 years NCB in his own name as they counted it from when he first went on on a provisional on the policy.