Hi guys, how much will a Van cost me per year all Van related bills included?

Isthisforreal99

It will make next to no difference insurance wise.

Margret1994

A more expensive van that lasts longer costs about twice as much? So whats the point, are both options are about equally expensive?

Cheers!

MeteredOut

Some context would be good if you're asking a question.

How do you get to "about equally expensive"? Are you assuming a £500 van will need £500 worth of fixes to make it a £1000 van and a £700 will need £700 worth of fixes to make it a £1400 van? Things don't work like that.

You could buy a £500 van and it needs no work or it could need £2K work. Your ability to know what work needs done in advance (or know someone who does) is what's needed when you're buying vehicles at that lower end of the market.

Robin9

Presume you are talking about second hand vans.

It's the annual mileage that you will be doing that affects the insurance cost.  

MyRealNameToo

Margret1994 said:

So I want to know if insurance is significantly more because the van has so much mileage 300,000 or is it more or less the same as a van with much less mileage say 150,000?

In principle the insurer could check the MOT records if it was over 3 years old and then would know the mileage at its last MOT but obviously means they have no information for vehicles under 3 years old. 

If anything you'd expect the insurance to be slightly lower on a vehicle with high mileage as its its worth less so they payout less if its stolen or written off etc. 

In practice have never come across an insurer that asks or looks it up themselves, in fact it was one of the stumbling blocks when looking to do a guaranteed valuation insurance for mass market consumer because many won't know and it will cause people to abandon the quote. 

CliveOfIndia

It'll make no difference in practice.  The main factor that affects insurance premiums is risk profile - both your own and that of the vehicle in general.

So the amount of miles that you do in a year will be factored in, but how many the miles the vehicle has previously covered doesn't affect your risk profile in any way.

Mildly_Miffed

Margret1994 said:

A more expensive van that lasts longer costs about twice as much? So whats the point, are both options are about equally expensive?

That's just an oversimplification.

A £750 van is almost certainly a heap of junk that you'll be doing well if it gets you back home. It's very unlikely to make it to the next MOT (which is, what, a month away?), and won't stand a cat in hell's of passing it.

A £1500 van is probably going to be trouble on legs, but might actually get you around for a while. With a bit of cash thrown at some minor stuff, it might even get another MOT.

And, of course, changing from one vehicle to another isn't just as simple as buying the new one and throwing the other away. You've got to muck about with insurance and tax, you've got to actually run around to look at and buy the new one. You've probably got to park two for a short while.

Mildly_Miffed

Total mileage on a vehicle? Utterly irrelevant.

The amount of mileage YOU cover? It'll play a factor, but won't be linear. VERY low mileage drivers may be a higher risk than medium mileage ones. High mileage ones are a higher risk, but twice the mileage won't be twice the risk.

MyRealNameToo

Mildly_Miffed said:

Total mileage on a vehicle? Utterly irrelevant.

Not utterly irrelevant, a vehicle with ultra low mileage is worth considerably more than one that done 10x the average. There are a number of questions that in principle are relevant to the risk that insurers are taking like mileage, what factory fit optional extras etc that can all impact the insurers liability but due to challenges in gathering the data and the low propensity of real outliers they assume an average and win when it turns out the vehicles been round the clock twice and lose when the car turns out to still have little more than delivery mileage. 

Margret1994

Thanks how much more would I have to save, is it more than two 500 pound vans? Why not buy 2 cheap ones  a new one IF it goes wrong?

Regards