First car for 17 year old

daivid

stuhse said:

WellKnownSid said:

born_again said:

At the other end look for cars that are out of the norm for a 1st time driver.

My (now 18 year old) just (May 24) renewed the insurance on his brown 163hp 5 cylinder Volvo estate for £945 (first year was £1250-ish).

The trick is to think outside the box…

Any chance you (or anyone reading this) could educate us a little more.  I can't figure out how a more expensive powerful car that will undoubtedly be in a higher insurance group can be cheaper to insure.  The figures you are quoting are half what my friends with teenagers are paying for things like clio's and Hyundai i10.  What's the model and age of car ? Which insurance company ?  I'm very interested because I'll be in the same boat this time next year when my son turns 17 and I want to buy a car to minimise insurance costs.   We have an older son who we insured on a Renault clio with a black box, and that was £1300 for his first year 9 years ago.  
I always thought the insurance group was the 'car factor ' which multiplied up the insurance cost, but people on here seem to be saying not....so how do you know what is a cheap to insure car if not from its insurance group ?

Choosing a car with a lower risk profile typically something bland favoured by older safer drivers can get favourable insurance prices, my cousin had a big engined Volvo as a first car, capable of leaving most hatchbacks for dead but far less to insure. That said there may also be other factors for Sid's child getting better prices. Premiums vary by location, sometimes greatly even over a small distance. For a young driver you could look into wether Pass Plus or an advanced driving course would help (when I was a young driver it wouldn’t have been worth it if looking just at the financial cost/benefit).

MouldyOldDough

Out of interest - I am now paying the same as I paid 43 years ago (as a 17 year old) for a similar group of car !!

ie) Sub £200 - but comprehensive now compared to TPF&T then

I have never paid any more than £400 for car insurance - and that includes a Capri 3000S, Cavalier SRi's and a Mitsubishi Shogun

WellKnownSid

The first car - an 1800cc Vauxhall Cavalier - cost me £3,500 to insure - £9,970 in today's money.  From an insurance broker in High Wycombe - back in the day when you bought things like insurance 'in person'.

Second year was £3,100.  Third dipped under £2,000!

34 years on my renewal this year has gone up a bit (£240) but after a quick look-see I can still get it in at under £200.

I'm paying less than 2% of what I paid back in 1990.

Wk67

Janey1a said:

My son is taking lessons and will be looking for a new car once passed. I’ve seen lots of sites with suggestions for first cars but we’re finding they’re not particularly accurate. For example one site states Fiesta which was always a popular first car but the insurance is sky high, even doing a quote for 21 days time.
Anyone on here actually bought a car for a 17 year old male in the last 6 months? Please could you let me know what car they bought and how much the annual insurance was.
thanks

Hello, This is what we have at the moment.

my son is 17 in April we have bought him a 2011 Mini Cooper 1.6 and whilst the car is in his name and my wife and I are named drivers this will get him learnt for £350 per yr.

at the end of that year and if he is still a learner or passes his test he would credit a 12 month NCD.

at any point he passes his test for this car could be £5 K per year we have been advised to look at alternative cars up to a 1.4 engine . My veiw is once passed he could look at selling it to fund his own way … Adrian Flux insurance where very helpful it’s worth noting we can buy the policy up to 50 days prior to his coming of age 👍

GunJack

This is a situation where the comparison sites are very much your friend. Set up the account for young person, with all driver details etc, then you only have to change the car to update the quote. Also, Autotrader ads are usually great for showing the reg plates, so even easier to change cars in the quote. As said above, you may be surprised at which cars are cheaper to insure for a young, just passed, driver.

Our oldest started out with a suzuki wagonR, as we bought the car, taxed and insured it for the year all for less than just the insurance would have been on corsa, fiesta etc. That £450 car got him his first 3 yrs NCB at a way lower insurance cost than with a "popular" young driver car. 

forgotmyname

You may find it tricky putting 1 year no claims when you put the date test passed or answer how long have you held a
full driving licence and that is less than one year.  Seen that issue popup a few times.

A few years back I needed to find a new driver a car and insurance where the price of the insurance was the biggest hurdle.
The comparison website banned me for a short while because I tried so many different cars.  A quick call to explain I was not a bot and
the price of the insurance far outweighed the vehicle choice they unbanned me.

Don't put many searches every minute when looking.

And even thoough there are 2 seemingly identical cars engine/colour/spec all match one car can be cheaper than the other
to insure. In this case they were both 2004 Ford KA's, LX models and 1300cc engines in black.

What we did find in the end was a newer car turned out to be cheaper to insure and the savings on the policy saved
more than enough to pay the difference on the newer car.  Driver was so happy with the choice they still own the car.