Car insurance

Becles

I used to have a sporty car, which was a group 12. Last year my car insurance cost £371.

Due to a combination of the car being impractical with a new baby, and wanting something cheaper to run as I'm going to be earning less money, I traded the sporty car in for a family car in group 7. I've made no claims or convictions, so was quite shocked to get an insurance renewal for £458 :eek:

Why such a big increase when I have bought a car in a lower group? The insurance company couldn't tell me.

Incidentally, I've shopped around and the cheapest I could find elsewhere was £298, plus £120 cash back from Quidco - yay :T

piggeh

My insurance came in at £450 but I went to an owners forum who have a link up with a broker. £260! Well chuffed. Maybe a suggestion for others.

I dont know if there's more uninsured drivers these days, or other reasoning, that may push premiums up across the board?

aj3001

Insurance premiums are up by 40% on last year.

And its not just insurance groups, its based on the car, its desireability to thieves, the brakes, the safety systems etc etc

An old car could be insurance group 15, but worth £1000, it could be higher insurance for a group 6 car worth £20000, because of the risk of a bigger payout for the insurance company

sisser00

Im lost. Years ago you could find the best insurance deals for particular cars. Now you have to put in all your details before you get a quote. Any body got any idea if a site like that exists, I dont want to buy a car knowing that the insurance would be sky high, my budget is limited and my purse wont stretch to a new car.

savingsara_2

I believe one of the reasons for the increase in car insurance premiums is because of the people (and I use that term loosely) who stage accidents and then claim on their insurance. Believe me, it does happen :mad:

Though not to me, so far, I'm please to say!

MSMikey

My theory is that a lot of this is just marketing. I've found that it pays to shop around every single year. I think they give you a cracking deal in the first year to get you as a customer and then push prices up in subsequent years which is where they make the profit.

vaio

MSMikey wrote: »

My theory is that a lot of this is just marketing. I've found that it pays to shop around every single year. I think they give you a cracking deal in the first year to get you as a customer and then push prices up in subsequent years which is where they make the profit.

Ordinarily I would agree with you but I’ve been with the same company for the last 3 years and each year the premium has fallen and each year I’ve been unable to get a better quote from elsewhere

Crabman

sisser00 wrote: »

Im lost. Years ago you could find the best insurance deals for particular cars. Now you have to put in all your details before you get a quote. Any body got any idea if a site like that exists, I dont want to buy a car knowing that the insurance would be sky high, my budget is limited and my purse wont stretch to a new car.

Try the article... it walks you through the whole process

Cheap Car Insurance: A speedy, powerful cost cutting system

Throbbe

Is the overall value any different. Insurance groups are a guide really, but the amount insured will affect the premiums.

I used to run two cars. One a heavily modified Group 16 'toy' with non-standard engine, suspension, brakes, insured for road and track use, and the other a sensibleish (Honda Civic ESi) automatic. The Honda cost more to insure! The really odd thing is that the 'toy' Scirocco had an engineer agreed insurance value of £5000, about 5 times what the Honda was worth.

Sometimes it just appears to make no sense at all.

anewman

Throbbe wrote: »

Sometimes it just appears to make no sense at all.

But did you actually bother to get more than ten different quotes for each car?

Throbbe

anewman wrote: »

But did you actually bother to get more than ten different quotes for each car?

Did the full comparison site, then check for offers for the cheapest few thing. In the end I rang our local broker who still beat the best quote, as they have done in the past. Four Counties if anyone wants to try them.

The Scirocco I only got 3 quotes, but modified cars with agreed value is a pretty narrow market, so you tend to get to know who to try.

I did have limited mileage on the Scirocco, but still 8000 miles, which isn't very low.