Partner's car insurance - £1800!!!

woollisox

My partner's car (1.6 petrol) broke a few months ago and we've been looking around for another car. We have found an absolutely lovely 2011 astra, 1.7 diesel. Cars perfect loads of space in boot for future buggy, 5 door for ease of access and car has low mileage and everything. Partner's 6'4" so has plenty of room in there for him too. However my partner's insurance is astronomical, cheapest quote is £1789 for monthly payment. He's 25 years old, and he had a non-fault accident in Oct 14 and a split liability in Feb 2015. But he has 2 years no claims since this, and no convictions at all. Didn't claim on his last policy at all and the insurance was £104 pm. We knew his insurance would be around the same price of the last (though was hoping for a lower price) but is there anything we can do to lower this price?
Have gone through Martin's mantra of checking each comparison site in turn and then direct line. DL wanted £2300!
Any ideas/suggestions welcome x

Nasqueron

Nobody can lower your prices except the insurer, all people can do is suggest you follow the tips on the site such as adding a "safer" driver as a named driver etc. Alternatively get a car in a lower insurance group (the one you have is in group 14) that's less of a "boy racer" car e.g. an older Volvo estate

You don't say how long he has had a license but 2 accidents in 5 months will put insurers off (even though one was non-fault they still see you as more of a risk).

woollisox

Thank you Nasqueron, didn't realise Astra's were seen as racer-y, always saw them as a family car tbh. He got his licence Feb 2014, so both of those accidents were within a year of passing. I think we'll have to look around at a different car... Car insurance is so frustrating.

ACG

Astras are definitely used by boy racers.

One thing I did just after I passed my test was to look on ebay and put reg numbers in for some quotes. I narrowed ti down to 3 Corsas and it worked out if I spent £500 more on the car, my insurance came down by about the same amount. I have no idea why, but I would prefer to spend my money on the car than the insurance.

forgotmyname

Choose a different car?

Diesels tend to cost more than petrols to insure. Going back a few years i was looking at a Rover Montego diesel. The sport petrol turbo model with 150bhp was cheaper to insure compared to the diesel model.

ThinkingOutLoud_2

Well done for checking before you buy!

Ok so the thing that matters is the total cost of the car vs what it does for you. So price to buy plus insurance less depreciation and running costs ....a more complex equation for a used car.

But insurance is a major part of that equation - especially for the "younger" person. And five years paying £500 more in insurance is £2.5k you can't avoid!

I can't guess at what cars you like - but websites like this one are helpful and have multiple straightforward articles trying to answer questions such as yours. They also contain some decent reviews of the cars.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/insurance/top-10-cheap-to-insure-estate-cars/?image=8

My thinking for you is that there are many, many used cars for sale - more will appear tomorrow. So don't rush it, look hard and beyond one model and trading down engine size and sometimes going to petrol helps, but not always.

forgotmyname

His list appears to be just cars in order of their insurance group rating which often is not going to mean cheaper insurance.

I can insure a group 18 car for less than a group 13 car.

ThinkingOutLoud_2

forgotmyname wrote: »

His list appears to be just cars in order of their insurance group rating which often is not going to mean cheaper insurance.
I can insure a group 18 car for less than a group 13 car.

So that was not my reading of detail where they seem to have done some checking to be able to comment on insurance costs - but for example:-
"The 1.33-litre petrol model in Active trim is the cheapest to insure,".
"It might come in tenth place, but the i40 Estate still offers affordable insurance costs"
" the Golf is a good choice, but moving up to a better trim level than entry level S does increase the insurance group rating, so double check before you buy. "

This would seem to be useful insight or starting pint to finding a cheaper to insure alternative?

Honest John usually seems to do a fair job in all regards. So if you feel he has failed - a list of cars you know to be cheap to insure would be welcome for the OP.

Sparx

Rubbish to "Astra is a boy racer car"... I have a 13 plate Astra 1.7 CDTi Ecoflex - 25 y/o and insurance is £400... 1 non fault claim from 2 years ago. Shop around you tried the comparison websites I presume? Called and haggled?

Nasqueron

Sparx wrote: »

Rubbish to "Astra is a boy racer car"... I have a 13 plate Astra 1.7 CDTi Ecoflex - 25 y/o and insurance is £400... 1 non fault claim from 2 years ago. Shop around you tried the comparison websites I presume? Called and haggled?

Sorry no, your anecdote doesn't somehow change the fact that an Astra is a boy racer car.

Moreover, the 1.7 CDTi range goes from:

insurance group 12 (1.7 CDTi 16V ecoFLEX Tech Line (130bhp) (99g/Km))
to
18 (e.g. SRi 1.7 CDTi 16V ecoFLEX SRi (130bhp) (99g/km) 5d)

depending on trim according to Parkers which would also affect the price from the insurer

Data from Comparethemarket showed that teen and early 20s drivers wanted Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio, VW Golf and Vauxhall Astra, similarly ingenie showed the top 10 most popular cars for young male drivers were

Vauxhall Corsa
Ford Fiesta
Renault Clio
Volkswagen Polo
Fiat Punto
Peugeot 206
Vauxhall Astra
Volkswagen Golf
Ford KA
Ford Focus

FlameCloud

ThinkingOutLoud wrote: »

So that was not my reading of detail where they seem to have done some checking to be able to comment on insurance costs - but for example:-
"The 1.33-litre petrol model in Active trim is the cheapest to insure,".
"It might come in tenth place, but the i40 Estate still offers affordable insurance costs"
" the Golf is a good choice, but moving up to a better trim level than entry level S does increase the insurance group rating, so double check before you buy. "

This would seem to be useful insight or starting pint to finding a cheaper to insure alternative?

Honest John usually seems to do a fair job in all regards. So if you feel he has failed - a list of cars you know to be cheap to insure would be welcome for the OP.

The insurance group is only one facet amongst lots that an insurer will relate on- as it only really relates to repair costs. Their own claims experience will affect the rating far more, which he cannot possibly Know.

Honest John is dangerously wrong on lots of points, as detailed in Dacouchs thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4526799