As we all know, car insurance for young people is very expensive. Prohibitively so in the case of most cars not in "Group 1". And one of the reasons given is that most cars above Group 1 are considered to be at higher risk of being crashed by young drivers.
So far so good.
But. This leads the vast majority of young drivers to buy cars in Group 1. 1.0 Corsa, Citroen C1, VW Fox etc etc. However, as we all know, young drivers have more accidents than the rest of us.
So, logically, the cars which are in insurance group 1 are more often crashed than cars of a higher grouping because they are driven by people in the age group which contributes to more accidents than any other. So surely, these cars should end up in higher insurance groups. And other, less crashed cars should be demoted to Group 1.
And yet it doesn't happen.
Why?
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Becuase the group relates to the vehicle. These cover its size and performance (so the sort of acrapes it can get inot and the damage it can do) and the cost to repair.
Nut behind the wheel factors are different.
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"These cover its size and performance"
Most significant factor is cost of repair. Group 1 cars are cheap to repair
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You forget, part of the calculation that goes into the grouping of cars is how much it costs to replace when written off, and the cost of parts and labour for those that are repairable.
Oh! and how likely it is to get nicked (or vandalised)
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they arent too cheap to repair as they buckle like sardine tins in this sector
the insurance company within reason can limit losses because these things are reasonably cheap to pay out for in the bigger picture,plus a lot of them only have 4 seats so billy loadsa mates cant claim for 5 whiplashes in one car
by the way im now seeing young boys insurances raised by a cool grand this last 6 months
Last edited by: Bellboy on Wed 6 Apr 11 at 21:35
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Beats me how some young uns can afford to run around in scoobies
The insurance premiums would probably be a decent deposit on a house
Unless they don't have any...
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my first cars were all big autos like granadas and bmw 7 series.
20+ yrs ago a small car was about 400 when 18 and bigger cars were about 800 for me at 18 but wouldnt drive those awful little cars.
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I agree with the above, it is the driver that is the risk not the car per se.
However there is a contradiction - where as a 1.2 Clicra, 1.1 Yaresta etc offer the lowest costs for young drivers, i.e. lower than their larger engined siblings, when it comes to parents insuring a car in their name with a young one as a named driver, then the larger engined siblings are, it seems, a little cheaper.
I.e.
17 year old driver, 1.2 Clio cheaper that 1.6 Clio (the latter almost impossible to insure at 17).
Middle aged parent with 17 year old named driver, 1.6 cheaper than 1.2.
Why? Perhaps because the ins co's expect the smaller engined cars to be used for kids lessons and therefore they load the premiums.
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>>Beats me how some young uns can afford to run around in scoobies
The insurance premiums would probably be a decent deposit on a house
I think you'll find there's a large proportion of our young 'yoof' prepared to pay these premiums to have a respectable motor. You'll probably find they don't drink either.
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When I switched the cover (including 17-year old daughter) on our second car from a big Volvo to a small Peugeot, the insurance doubled although it was Group 1 rather than 12.
The reason is hardly any 17 year olds drive big old Volvos, so their accident record is excellent.
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Similar expererience to Cliff. Adding 17yo daughter to insurance for Xantia increased premium by nearly 100% but still way below stratospheric premiums quoted on superminis. Changed insurer in January and it's now little more costly than me + SWMBO.
D borrows the Xant as & when she needs it (but regular driving to school is verboten). She handles it very well including the awkward curving reverse into our drive; lot to be said for getting them comfortable in anything from the word go.
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My point has been confirmed in the last few minutes, with an automatic quote from Quotezone for the Volvo of £385. That's about a third of what I am now paying on a Group 1 Peugeot. If only my daughter liked driving it, I'd put it back on the road again.
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According to gocompare.com a 2 litre petrol Titanium is Group 10 but the Ford catalogue says it's Group 17E. www.gocompare.com/car-insurance/model/ford-focus.aspx
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