Small economial car to add my teenage son to the insurance

Iceweasel

jack_pott wrote: »

If you're buying an additional car for your son to use, and then saving money by putting it on your insurance with him as a named driver that's fronting. It's insurance fraud and a criminal offence. If you need to claim you'll be left with the job of having to convince the insurance company that your son is not the main driver, which probably won't be easy unless you can produce some form of evidence.

This is absolutely correct.

If you were to add him as a named driver on your existing car and teach him to drive on it then that is perfectly acceptable.

But why are you buying a cheap little car for him to learn on?

I suspect because he's young, inexperienced (no experience actually) and therefore has a much greater risk of having an accident, making a claim, or just simply being involved in an 'motoring incident'.

Presumably you don't want him to drive 'you and your husband's main car which is likely to be worth much more, be more powerful etc. etc.

Think carefully here - in the unfortunate, but statistically likely event of him being involved in any notifiable incident, expect to be intensively questioned about not just his, but your use, of this new little car.

You would need to buy this car asap referring to it as your shopping car and then some months later add your son as a named driver.

As you describe it in your opening post you do sound as if you intend to deceive the insurance company.

Sorry if the above is not what you want to hear - but it potentially could save you hassle, and money, in the long run.

Herzlos

It sounds like the OP is wanting to change their main car, to one that'll be cheaper to add the Son to in the future, not as a 2nd car to front. Is that correct?

GwylimT

I bought our son a car to drive as he was uninsurable on our family car, his was actually a volvo but it made the insurance cheaper than having a typical small car, using that to get to work got me much better mpg as well!

Buying a car to use as a your main and for a child to use is not fronting at all.

[Deleted User]

GwylimT wrote: »

Buying a car to use as a your main and for a child to use is not fronting at all.

It will all boil down to whether your idea of 'main' is the same as the insurance company's, and whether you can prove it.

xHannahx

GwylimT wrote: »

I bought our son a car to drive as he was uninsurable on our family car, his was actually a volvo but it made the insurance cheaper than having a typical small car, using that to get to work got me much better mpg as well!

Buying a car to use as a your main and for a child to use is not fronting at all.

My hubby had a 10 year old 1.8 escort estate when he was 18 as it was cheaper for him to insure than a 10 year old 1.2 Clio.
Insurance groups are irrelevant as the insurers look at how many people of your age and similar details have claimed against that car.
Saxos corsas etc are really high on insurance due to being boy racer favourites getting lots of claims against.
Personally wouldn't spend more than a grand on a car for a 17 year year old.

samphe

This seems to have moved on to a post about fronting which was not my initial question!

My husband and I have always had 2 cars. His is generally the bigger main car and mine a smaller car, which I use for going back and for to work and maybe a few other times in the week for shopping, seeing friends etc.

As my car was 10 years old, I wanted to change it for something newer. As my son will be 17 this year, I thought it made sense to buy something that as well as being economical, would be cheaper to add him to the insurance when the time comes.

He's in college so can't afford his own car. He won't be using the car for college as I will need it for work. However if he wants to go out in the evening or on the weekend, then useless I have plans he will be able to use it.

I really don't think this can be described as fronting. People are just assuming the worst!

fatbelly

I gave you my thoughts in post #9, samphe.

With secondhand, a lot depends on the actual cars available for you to buy. I drive a Mii, so if you can find something from that family I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I haven't driven anything from the C1 family but they don't seem to have such positive reviews.

The Ka may be an OK option. I didn't like the earlier models but the newer post-2008 seems to be an improvement, and honest john likes it

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/ford/ka-2008/

keith1950

Hi, does your quoted budget of " up to £5k " include the cost of the extra insurance ?


You may get a reasonable price while he is learning ( and has to be accompanied ) but as soon as you inform them he has passed his test and will be driving unaccompanied the price will rocket !


Have you tried running anonymous quotes to get some idea what it might cost you before and after.


You may be also over estimating the value of changing to a smaller car.


Whilst you insure him as a named driver the majority of any quote will be the perceived extra risk of your son and not your good driving record and as such you can expect the insurance to be very high.

samphe

No my 5k budget doesn't include the insurance.

Although the car will be mine, as I'll be adding a 17 year old to the insurance, once he's passed I know the cost will rocket, so im just trying to think ahead to keep cost to a minimum.

Mav6215

Once you have bought the car it may be worth looking at learner insurance from somewhere like insurelearner driver.co.uk. It worked out cheaper when teaching my wife to drive plus, in the event of an accident, any claim would not have affected my own NCB, etc. Edit: Of course, you must have the car insured in your name first.

On the subject of fronting the time of day comes into play, too. If an accident happens during rush hours, for example, the claims handler will look closely at whether the driver was driving to/from work on a regular basis which would constitute fronting.