New Young Driver Insurance Cost - Your experience

Awakeatnight

New young driver insurance seems so expensive these days. Confused.com says that "despite a drop in premiums for most, young drivers continue to battle some of the highest prices for their car insurance... paying more than £2,000, on average." MoneySuperMarket, say average price for 17 year olds is £1,974 and Compare the Market £1,848. That would have been £900 in 1993, £1000 in 2000 and £1300 in 2010. I paid £284 insurance for my first car, a Mini, when I was 17 in 1990. What was your first car, what age, and what insurance premium did you pay?

DullGreyGuy

£1,600 for when I'd past my test at 17 in 1995 for a £500 Fiesta GL which I'd put £1,000 of stereo in. Can't remember how much it was as a provisional plus was a ND on parents car before passing. 

Hoenir

1958 Ford Popular. Cost me £25 in 1974 at 17. Having passed my test 6 weeks after my birthday.  Insurance was around £12. Impossible to drive fast. With a top speed of only 60 mph and a 0-60 time of 27 seconds. A very different era. Cars are faster and equipped with devices that make even idiots think that they are Ayton Senna these days. Pure £ comparisons are meaningless. 

tacpot12

My step-son passed his test in November 2023, and bought her first car then. Insurance was £1600 for the first year. It's now dropped to £1,200. He's 26 years old. Car is the cheapest to insure that we could find (1.25 Fiesta). 

400ixl

My recent'ish experience is with my daughter.

Bought her car as a learner aged 17 (3 year old Hyundai i20 1.2) and learner insurance was under £500 quid
Passed her test still aged 17 and changed her policy to a full license one and it was just over £900
Aged 18 and 1 years NCD it was just over £800
Aged 19 and 2 years NCD it was just over £600
Aged 20 and 3 years NCD it was just over £500
Aged 21 and 4 years NCD it has just been renewed at £436

None of these were bottom dwelling insurance companies and none have required a black box or any telematics. The first years policy did require a dash cam.

All quite reasonable for a young driver IMO, so it isn't always extortionate.

chrisw

2 litre Mk1 Cavalier was around £100 in 1982 but then upgraded to Opel Manta GTE in 1984. The insurance was £189 but the brokers came back to me and said it should have been £220 but they'd honour it as it was their fault.

I've always had 2 litre cars but I think the premiums peaked at around £350 for a BMW I had. I'm still only paying £180 for my 190bhp Volvo.

Awakeatnight

400ixl said:

My recent'ish experience is with my daughter.

Bought her car as a learner aged 17 (3 year old Hyundai i20 1.2) and learner insurance was under £500 quid
Passed her test still aged 17 and changed her policy to a full license one and it was just over £900
Aged 18 and 1 years NCD it was just over £800
Aged 19 and 2 years NCD it was just over £600
Aged 20 and 3 years NCD it was just over £500
Aged 21 and 4 years NCD it has just been renewed at £436

None of these were bottom dwelling insurance companies and none have required a black box or any telematics. The first years policy did require a dash cam.

All quite reasonable for a young driver IMO, so it isn't always extortionate.

This is really interesting. The best thing is to build it up from learner insurance all the way through and by 21 you have have sub-£500 insurance. Never have your child as a Named Driver if you can avoid it seems to be the message?

Aretnap

Awakeatnight said:

400ixl said:

My recent'ish experience is with my daughter.

Bought her car as a learner aged 17 (3 year old Hyundai i20 1.2) and learner insurance was under £500 quid
Passed her test still aged 17 and changed her policy to a full license one and it was just over £900
Aged 18 and 1 years NCD it was just over £800
Aged 19 and 2 years NCD it was just over £600
Aged 20 and 3 years NCD it was just over £500
Aged 21 and 4 years NCD it has just been renewed at £436

None of these were bottom dwelling insurance companies and none have required a black box or any telematics. The first years policy did require a dash cam.

All quite reasonable for a young driver IMO, so it isn't always extortionate.

This is really interesting. The best thing is to build it up from learner insurance all the way through and by 21 you have have sub-£500 insurance. Never have your child as a Named Driver if you can avoid it seems to be the message?

Not necessarily. No claims discount is overrated and often doesn't actually save you very much money, especially compared with just being a few years older and having held your licence a few more years without having accidents. A substantial chunk of that fall in premiums would have happened anyway, with or without the NCD. If you can save a significant amount in the first year or two by being a named driver and only driving when necessary, that's likely to make financial sense in both the short and long term.

If fact from a purely money saving perspective, by far and away the best thing that a young, newly qualified driver can do is to put their licence in the back of a drawer and forget that it exists for a couple of years. Obviously that has to be balanced against the advantages of having a car, but financially there is no benefit to paying a huge premium this year in order to get a discount on a premium next year which is going to be cheaper anyway.

dinosaur66

my first car was a 1968 hillman imp in 1983-paid £200 for the car

insurance was £20 a month cash which i used to pay to a insurance brokers in kingsland road hackney

car was a piece of crap and very diffucult for a first year driver -engine was in the boot /weight was all distrubted wrong and first week after i passed my test i went round the church on stratford broadway before all the lights were put in and ended up facing the wrong way on a one way system /

i put in 8 bags of sand under the front bonnet and it stabalised it

 i also shunted the roman wall as you come off the isle of dogs and head towards the blackwall tunnel when the steering wheel sheared off while i was driving , and i could only start it with a hammer as the starting motor was knackered.

happy days