Options
Cost of first-time car insurance?
kingmustard
Posts: 12 Forum Member
I am considering learning to drive.
I am 28 in July and male.
I am aiming for very low running costs.
I intend to buy a group 1 or 2 car.
Do you know a very rough ball-park figure that I'd be paying in insurance?
I am 28 in July and male.
I am aiming for very low running costs.
I intend to buy a group 1 or 2 car.
Do you know a very rough ball-park figure that I'd be paying in insurance?
0
Comments
Many this affect the price, like age, postcode type of car etc.
I was 29 and my first insurance on a car cost me about £400 for the year. This was 7 years ago and im female and it was on a 1.1 fiesta.
Id do some quotes for the sort of cars you are looking for and see what comes back for you.
Try looking at things like some of the lower performance BMW's, Vectra's, Mondeo's etc rather than the typical first car (such as Corsa's, punto's, mini's, nova's), and estate cars especially can be cheaper because they're generally "lower performance" and not the sort of car people rag around in (thus less likely to be involved in accidents involving other cars, or injuries to passengers etc).
my cousin paid almost £4k for his first year with only a underpowered 1.0 petrol toyota yaris (old shape), at age 19 in leafy wiltshire.
Are all of your posts entertainment based?
I paid £60 TPFT, at age 24. Obviously some time ago (I was earning £100pw), but if you apply inflation there's no way it would reach even £1000 in today's money.
I wonder what happened to drive up the premiums? I can't imagine that driving standards were any different then; cars were less powerful, but they also had weaker brakes and there were no speed cameras either!
Cost of repairing the cars (these days it's often cheaper to buy a new panel than try and beat one into shape), cost of injuries, and associated other costs (IIRC the insurance company can be charged for some of the cost of say the time of the fire/ambulance service after an accident).
Even something like a smashed wing mirror is now often expensive and complex to deal with, as you're not talking about a bit of mirrored glass on a stalk, but a nice (often body coloured) plastic surround, with motors, and a heating element.
So rather than 15 minutes and a bit of fairly standard glass to fix, it's now several custom parts and potentially an an auto electrician to fix.
Hence a smashed mirror is no longer something you can fix for a fiver yourself, but could be £300+.
And that sort of thing is applied all round the car these days, a damaged wheel can require you to replace electronic parts rather than just a hub and tyre, a relatively low speed crash can destroy a £500 bumper where you used to just hammer it out, and set off your airbags (hundreds more to replace the bag and cover) etc.
Some of it is because we want nicer looking cars, or cars that do more, and some of it is because standards these days require the car to give much more in order to save lives, so parts are designed to be destroyed in a crash to reduce the impact on the humans involved, where you could often reuse them in the past with minimal repairs.
The number of uninsured doesn't help either.
[edit]
IIRC we also pay more (and additional) taxes on insurance services now, especially for cars.
At your age look for a modern classic (look at the 1990s stuff , or a boring mid range car (eg Mundano/Vectra coathook), no need to buy a horrid little sh1t box.
You may be surprised at the insurance.
I reckon an older E class would be cheaper than a modern FOrd
I doubt my 3rd party insurance is going to pay for someone's service! (But if it does, it explains a lot about the premiums.)
Since it is 3rd party where the bulk of the cost is, it seems unfair to me that someone's premiums should go through the roof (especially new drivers'), because other people like driving posher more expensive cars).
It seems odd also that the cost of repairs is higher, but the cost of new cars, in real terms, probably isn't much different now than when I started driving (30 years ago). In the case of door mirrors, they might be more elaborate, but they are also now spring-loaded so they shouldn't break as often.
I think that we are being ripped off with insurance, and some people are trying to make excuses for them.
(And FWIW, the cost of a new driver's mirror on my last car was £12.99 iirc - not £5, and I fitted it myself. But that was after several successive repairs, costing nothing.)
My brother took his first years car insurance last year (same situation as me, but at the age of 31, and with a learner driver on the policy) he had a 2 litre sports diesel, which cost him £500 to insure for a year. He has a garage to park in.
Lots of factors to take into account. It's a long and tedious search but worth the time you put in - have a play on the price comparison sites, find a few cars that interest you and bung in their registration plates.