Car Insurance Went Up After Switching To Smaller Car

ellbo11

I have to admit, I'm a little baffled by this one - I recently switched cars, from a 12 year old 1.6 litre Mini One to a 2 year old 1.0 litre Citroen C1. I expected the premium to come down a little - after all it's a newer car and is a lot less powerful.

I was pretty shocked when Esure told me my premium had gone up.

Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks

RS2000.

ellbo11 wrote: »

I have to admit, I'm a little baffled by this one - I recently switched cars, from a 12 year old 1.6 litre Mini One to a 2 year old 1.0 litre Citroen C1. I expected the premium to come down a little - after all it's a newer car and is a lot less powerful.

I was pretty shocked when Esure told me my premium had gone up.

Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks

There's a clue in there somewhere.

ellbo11

Really? I figured a newer car would be considered safer and less likely to be stolen.

Shows how much I know I guess!

RS2000.

ellbo11 wrote: »

Really? I figured a newer car would be considered safer and less likely to be stolen.

Shows how much I know I guess!

And probably costs more to buy and therefore replace.

ellbo11

RS2000. wrote: »

And probably costs more to buy and therefore replace.

Fair point, couldn't see the wood for the trees!

forgotmyname

Sometimes a newer car is cheaper to insure, that was the case for a younger driver, choosing a car over 10 years old increased the premiums, a 9 year old car was cheaper.

They may get more claims from C1 drivers than your previous car.

Nilrem

forgotmyname wrote: »

Sometimes a newer car is cheaper to insure, that was the case for a younger driver, choosing a car over 10 years old increased the premiums, a 9 year old car was cheaper.

They may get more claims from C1 drivers than your previous car.

The 2 year old car however will (tend to be) vastly more expensive than a 12 year old one, and much more likely to get a claim for a minor scratch or dend put through (rather than the owner just writing it off).

Not to mention at that age it'll likely need work done to a much higher standard in the event of an accident to put it to the same position as it was before.

There is probably a sweet spot in age, but I suspect it'll vary a lot for different brands (IE it might be a car that is old enough that it's very cheap to fix, but new enough that it's got the better safety features).

But there are so many variables there is no such thing as a solid rule for what cars will be cheaper. For example it can be cheaper as a young driver to insure a new Estate car than a 10 year old hatchback, due to the difference in the number of drivers of the two types (so less claims), and less likely to rag it on a country road and wrap it around a tree with 3 passengers.

gilbert_and_sullivan

You're probably part way through a years policy, easy target, they can up the cost and unless its astronomical you'll lose more by cancelling and going elsewhere.

Have you performed a search on one of the comparison sites listing both cars and see what the difference will be at renewal time?

If they're having you over a barrel you'll know what to do come renewal time.
Have you deducted admin charges from the increase, that could be anything from zero to £40.

daveyjp

C1s are low insurance group, they are therefore popular with new drivers. New drivers have more accidents, the insurance reflects this trend.

My wife changed her Aygo for an i20 and the insurance dropped, within 6 months she changed to a Mercedes and the insurance was lower than for the Aygo.

knightstyle

I had a similar surprise when I increased our annual milage from 10k to 12k miles. The annual premium went DOWN by £20!!!!!
No-one can ever understand where these companies get their figures from.

Strider590

daveyjp wrote: »

C1s are low insurance group, they are therefore popular with new drivers. New drivers have more accidents, the insurance reflects this trend.

This ^^

Insurance groups is a fallacy, what really counts is the claim statistics for the car your buying.

Most people don't believe it and a number of us have argued it till we're blue in the face, but some folk just cannot grasp the concept.

We all know you can often stereotype a driver by what they drive, so why shouldn't the insurance companies use this too?