Insuring a new(er) car

brewerdave

I apologise for what may seem to be a silly question  but ...

For the first time in ~ 15 years I'm going to replace my existing car with something much newer.
My "old" car (now nearly 16 years old) was purchased new in March 2010 and costs me relatively little to insure - I've regularly switched insurers to get the best prices. 
As it is part way thru the year is it normally best to either  1)  Use the existing insurer and pay the extra premium until the old renewal date  or 2)   cancel the existing policy and look for a new quote for annual policy starting when I pick up the newer car?

So long since I changed cars .....

wongataa

It is going to depend on the quotes which is the best way forward.  Get quotes for both options and work it out.

Keep_pedalling

You need to take into account the your current IC may charge you an admin fee to make the change, and will certainly charge you fees for cancellation. If you pay monthly you may get nothing back and still get hit by fees.

https://www.comparethemarket.com/car-insurance/content/cancellation-fees/

Mildly_Miffed

brewerdave said:

 
As it is part way thru the year is it normally best to either  1)  Use the existing insurer and pay the extra premium until the old renewal date  or 2)   cancel the existing policy and look for a new quote for annual policy starting when I pick up the newer car?

How long's a piece of string?

All you need to do is ask your existing insurer how much to change, and how much to cancel - and then do a meerkat to find out which is cheaper.

Keep_pedalling

Also newer car does not automatically mean a higher premium.

MyRealNameToo

brewerdave said:

I apologise for what may seem to be a silly question  but ...

For the first time in ~ 15 years I'm going to replace my existing car with something much newer.
My "old" car (now nearly 16 years old) was purchased new in March 2010 and costs me relatively little to insure - I've regularly switched insurers to get the best prices. 
As it is part way thru the year is it normally best to either  1)  Use the existing insurer and pay the extra premium until the old renewal date  or 2)   cancel the existing policy and look for a new quote for annual policy starting when I pick up the newer car?

So long since I changed cars .....

It varies and is dependent on:

1) Your current NCD situation and if gaining an extra year -v- losing a half a year is material
2) What your current insurer thinks of your new car 
3) Cancellation fees

Last time I switched cars the cost of cancelling was more than the cost of changing to a new car but have known people have a massive additional premium because they've gone with a car that the insurer has a very bad experience with 

Mildly_Miffed

MyRealNameToo said:

Last time I switched cars the cost of cancelling was more than the cost of changing to a new car but have known people have a massive additional premium because they've gone with a car that the insurer has a very bad experience with 

Yep, I've had that a couple of times - hundreds of quids cheaper to cancel part-way through the policy and start again with another insurer.

Northern_Wanderer

Before making a decision on purchasing the new(er) car, you have been getting insurance quotes, right? 

Why I'm asking is because for instance a Suzuki Swift is a neat little car but the insurance group is horrendous! And that's not something you want to find out after agreeing to purchase a car when you come to insure it!

vacheron

I have had renewals / asjustments from my existing insuerer that was way cheaper than any other provider, and have also experienced the exact opposite. It will depend on your personal details.

As others have said, do a Meerkat, get a ballpark price, and then call your insurer with that info and see if they are can do it cheaper or not. 

Sometimes insurance companies appear to make no sense:

I was already with Aviva last year and renewed with them for £210 as it was cheaper than anyone else. 
Meanwhile my wife got a quote from them for £180, so as we would both be with Aviva, but with two separate policies totalling £390, I did their multicar quotation to see if we could save a little more by combining them.

Their multicar price for both cars.... £990.

MyRealNameToo

Northern_Wanderer said:

Before making a decision on purchasing the new(er) car, you have been getting insurance quotes, right? 

Why I'm asking is because for instance a Suzuki Swift is a neat little car but the insurance group is horrendous! And that's not something you want to find out after agreeing to purchase a car when you come to insure it!

Insurance group is broadly irrelevant as it is predominately the cost of repairs whereas over half of all claims costs are third party damages which your repair costs dont influence and a bigger driver is how often claims are made. 

In the aforementioned case we were going from a group 20 car to a group 50 car and it made little difference to premiums and it was cheaper to go to a group 50 than a group 30 which would have considerably bumped the premium with my then insurer and still generally have been higher than the group 50 with other insurer - the group 50 was also £50k more expensive than the group 30. 

Its certainly worth checking premiums before buying though!

WellKnownSid

Insurance group probably meant something back in the day but with millions of data points available over many decades, a single number to express the entire risk profile and the propensity to many different types of peril feels a bit weird.

When our son was 17 he discovered that insuring a group 30 car cost him a fraction of what his colleagues were paying for cars in the group 1-5 range.  It turns out that PFYs are far more likely to be found at the scene of a wreckage surround by a 1 litre supermini than a brown 5 cylinder Volvo estate.