My daughter will be turning 17 soon and will want to get a car at some stage.
I would like her to look at something bigger than the normal first cars that many teens go for; primarily for safety. It stands to reason that a 5-star NCAP VW Up will not be as 'safe' as a 5 star Golf, or in fact bigger cars as you go up the scale, so I would rather she went for a Golf rather than a Ka for example.
We live in a village and any journeys will likely be on relatively fast roads, and the more metal round her the better I think.
We (she and I) have had thoughts on cars, partly based on size and safety from my perspective, and style from hers - of course - but how do I get an understanding on what the likely insurance costs might be from car to car?
I fully understand that insurance companies vary on what they quote different people for different cars, so I am just looking to get a ball-park idea, not firm pricing, but until my daughter has passed her test, the online quote systems are not very helpful as they want you to enter name, address, details and things like how long a license has been held for.
I don't want to enter inaccurate info for very obvious reasons, but it would be good if we can start to narrow down options of cars based on many factors, including likely ongoing insurance costs.
Is there any way to get rough indications on what a likely cost for insuring a car would be in advance of her getting her license?
For example I jokingly pointed to a Volvo C30 and said "what about one of them?". She thought it looked great and stylish, and I would be happy from a safety perspective for her to have a Volvo for sure - and it is not too small, but would a 1.6 petrol one 5 or 6 years old cost thousands for her to insure, or not much more than a 1.25 litre Fiesta?
Any thoughts or experiences from the forum would be appreciated!
|
Having been through this with both Spamettes in recent years then we just entered vaguely plausible details into confused.com etc. based on being say 18 years old, just passed test, with 1 year provisional and compared cars. Anything fancier than the usual learner classics i.e. Micra 1.0, Corsa 1.0 soon racked the cost up.
Might be worth going a bit left field and looking at unlikely first cars, C30 is probably a reasonable place to start.
|
Yeah, we went through all this. Started out with all manner of diverse ideas. Ended up buying him an Aygo.
;-)
|
As Spamcan says, enter the details into confused.com as they are likely to be.
Its only a pain once, then you can save all the details and just keep changing the car details.
You don't have to put reg no. just say you haven't bought the car yet, for a post code just google a business near you and use theirs, you only have to put a driving licence number in if you claim a full licence. etc. etc. I have a trash email address I keep for just such purposes.
|
Been through this with the twins. The only vehicles that came anywhere near acceptable on the insurance front were 1.0 Ltr 3 cylinder jobbies. Ended up with Kia Picantos.
Then there is the inevitable first skirmish to deal with not long after they fly solo. Wing mirrors and bumper rash type things (hopefully) where you want to stay clear of insurance claims to try and give them a clean start. :(
|
|
I'm currently renting a 1.0 litre 3cylinder Focus estate in Spain. It's the 'higher' powered 123 variant, but the 100?bhp model, which has been available for a few years, might meet your criteria.
|
|
The older 1.6 petrol, 85bhp, replaced by the 1.0 3cyl ecoboost, is ins group 6. I think the 1.0 is group 10 or 11.
|
One son passed his test at 17 and tried to insure our old 1.6 Clio (he had practiced in it insured via Marmalade), £3000 + were the quotes, we sorned it for two years and he then insured it for £600 ish at 19 having had no further driving experience in the meantime.
Other son, who now lived 200 miles from home, has just passed his test at 22 and has bought himself an UP, £1500 to insure reduced to £1300 by having his girlfriend's dad as a named driver, who lives just around the corner and will need to be insured to supervise his daughter practicing in the UP as she nears her test date. She of course will need separate insurance as a learner, probably via Marmalade.
Confused.com is the ideal way of comparing costs for different cars, if the young person is not quite 17 pretend they are for the sake of a quote, if they have not passed their test pretend that they have, it's not a matter of falsifying information, it's only a quote.
|
Thanks all. Appreciated.
I was concerned about falsifying information, but it looks like I will be OK then..
|
Am sure you know this but a lot of the rating is placed on the driver rather than the car.
My son was a few hundred to get put on my wife's 1.25 Fiesta as an additional driver but within his first year of driving, any car, even an Aygo was 4 digit premiums if he wanted to buy and insure his own car.
As soon as he had been driving for a full year he got his own car, a 1.6 Fiesta Zetec S, cracking looking car sporty etc, but really not huge power, and total premium was £850 with me as a named driver which I thought was a good price.
|
Car insurance estimate? - spamcan61
