Young driver insurance… demystify the mystic

GreiginFife

GreiginFife

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Forum, I seek thy collective knowledge as AI has failed me and insurance companies are not much help beyond vagueness.

My lad is currently 16, still has a ways to go until he’s 17 (Jan) but he is currently learning to drive via Young Drivers (has completed the core curriculum and now on the “advanced”) and we’re now turning our attention to getting him a car in readiness for him “officially” learning and given that it’s nearly April already we don’t want to leave it too long.

Now, being reasonably sensible, we want to understand how painful insurance will be before we go for the car itself. He’s currently fence sitting between a Fiesta and a Polo (I’m trying to prod him to the Polo as they are just better built) and we’ve seem a few insurance group 1 models that he likes the look of. But, despite AI suggesting that quotes can be obtained prior to turning 17, it remains elusive to find such a thing.

We know that it’s going to be high and we’ve factored this in but just being unable to get any info is frustrating,

Does anyone know of a company that could answer my question. Anyone in the insurance industry on here that could let me know what the situation is as we would love to sort this out sooner than later.

One side reason I want to get the car early is I want to teach him how to do routine maintenance work like brakes, oil/filter changes etc so he has this in advance.

Any advice appreciated.
 
Not knowledgeable whatsoever but have you tried to get a quote by saying he is 17 now to the insurance companies?
Even if it’s just putting the details into a comparison site?
 
Both my daughters had learner driver insurance, which gave them a cheaper premium during their provisional license life, you just had to prove you were still a provisional during that year.
You had to be 17 though. That insurance became void the moment they passed and had a full license. One of them did get a cheaper price with the same parent insurance company, the other didnt. The no claims element did get lost though, as many companies don't do those policies.
The cost difference was about 50% less than us insuring the car and putting them on as a named driver.
 
Last edited:
Mate’s daughter passed her test approx 6 weeks ago, she’s just turned 18.

She was bought a new (parents and Grandparents) Hyundai I30 (I think) insurance via Hastings was £950, which wasn’t the cheapest but her Dad added on blackbox and another extra from initial quote of £900.00.
 
PaulMdj said:
Mate’s daughter passed her test approx 6 weeks ago, she’s just turned 18.

She was bought a new (parents and Grandparents) Hyundai I30 (I think) insurance via Hastings was £950, which wasn’t the cheapest but her Dad added on blackbox and another extra from initial quote of £900.00.
Click to expand...

I’ve read varying values but young men get hit with between 15-20% by dint of being a young man.

The Polo were looking at is group 1E the Fiesta he likes is group 3P and can’t even find any credibly consistent info on what difference that makes.
 
Something that might help for the future is that my grand daughter has been driving almost a year, after passing her test at 17.

She has an Toyota Aygo. First year premium was £1100 with a black box. Renewal has just come through at c £400 without black box requirement, rewarding her driving and lack of any issues/claims.
 
SteveJay said:
Something that might help for the future is that my grand daughter has been driving almost a year, after passing her test at 17.

She has an Toyota Aygo. First year premium was £1100 with a black box. Renewal has just come through at c £400 without black box requirement, rewarding her driving and lack of any issues/claims.
Click to expand...

Yeah, he’s got no issue with a black box so hopefully that helps. I’m also going to fit front and rear dash cams.

It’s just frustrating as seen a Polo down in Weston Supermare that looks awesome, is in budget and would be ideal. But that’s a trek not knowing if it’s even insurable.
 
GreiginFife said:
Yeah, he’s got no issue with a black box so hopefully that helps. I’m also going to fit front and rear dash cams.

It’s just frustrating as seen a Polo down in Weston Supermare that looks awesome, is in budget and would be ideal. But that’s a trek not knowing if it’s even insurable.
Click to expand...

Crikey. That’s a very long way from Fife! Is it really a saving after factoring in travel costs (two cars back!) and putting some value on your time there and back too?
 
GreiginFife said:
I’m not sure what you mean. What saving would I be making not going to WSM?
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Are you not in Fife?
I'd assumed your were - and so it was a 14 hour round car journey with associated petrol costs and takes a day or maybe two of your time.
All of those things have a significant cost - including your time (you should definitely not ascribe zero value to it!).
I was simply wondering whether if you took all those costs, put a figure on them, and added them onto your car budget instead then it will go up quite a bit - there may be just as good a car if not better closer by?

I wouldn't drive from Fife to WSM and back unless there was some sort of holiday attached or I was getting some sort of once-in-a-lifetime car bargain at the end of it :D
 
The Squirrel said:
Are you not in Fife?
I'd assumed your were - and so it was a 14 hour round car journey with associated petrol costs and takes a day or maybe two of your time.
All of those things have a significant cost - including your time (you should definitely not ascribe zero value to it!).
I was simply wondering whether if you took all those costs, put a figure on them, and added them onto your car budget instead then it will go up quite a bit - there may be just as good a car if not better closer by?

I wouldn't drive from Fife to WSM and back unless there was some sort of holiday attached or I was getting some sort of once-in-a-lifetime car bargain at the end of it :D
Click to expand...
I am in Fife but the car I saw had no local equivalent and savings aren’t really my goal. A train down and drive back will maybe add £100 on to it so not really significant on a £12k spend.
 
GreiginFife said:
But, despite AI suggesting that quotes can be obtained prior to turning 17, it remains elusive to find such a thing.
Click to expand...

Answering you comment above

I used to work in insurance and reckon brokers should know their stuff or where to get answers from.

The big online brokers such as Go Compare, Money Supermarket are just looking to get business and there is nothing in your query that will lead to business directly.
 
I'd say the 'put a year on his DOB' tip is a good suggestion and believe the adding a DL number is optional.

Otherwise I would put my own details for the different cars to see the difference. Logic says the lower priced quotes would be lower for most circumstances and will give you a real time comparison of the different groups you refer to.

That said, the base cars, with a black box I'd expect to all be similar in cost to insure.

But, you did ask for an expert and I'm certainly not one of those...
 
GreiginFife said:
I’ve read varying values but young men get hit with between 15-20% by dint of being a young man.

The Polo were looking at is group 1E the Fiesta he likes is group 3P and can’t even find any credibly consistent info on what difference that makes.
Click to expand...
Going on that, I would be leaning towards the Polo, no question.
I was advised to not put spurious details in when looking for insurance for my daughters as although you are just looking, they are expected to be correct and false details even just for curiousity now could cause problems later on.
I personally wouldnt worry too much about the insurance side just yet. He will get insurance, but the algorythms will probbaly be different by then.
I would continue with the private land practice, and study the theory to be able to pass at the first attempt as soon as he's 17.
 
Ok so I used a comparison site and used vaguely accurate details as it doesn’t seem to do an ID check without a license no.

entering worst case stuff like being a student, driving 5 days a week at peak time and parking on a driveway rather than garage…

And this was for a full policy, not a learner one with the vaguely accurate driver having passed test 2 months…

£1,022 with telematics. Now even if that’s off slightly and it’s £1500 then that’s a result.

And the boy has come back and said he actually now prefers the 1.0 Seat Ibiza which saves me £2k.

That’s a result if accurate.
 
GreiginFife said:
Ok so I used a comparison site and used vaguely accurate details as it doesn’t seem to do an ID check without a license no.

entering worst case stuff like being a student, driving 5 days a week at peak time and parking on a driveway rather than garage…

And this was for a full policy, not a learner one with the vaguely accurate driver having passed test 2 months…

£1,022 with telematics. Now even if that’s off slightly and it’s £1500 then that’s a result.

And the boy has come back and said he actually now prefers the 1.0 Seat Ibiza which saves me £2k.

That’s a result if accurate.
Click to expand...
Have you checked the insurance for the seat as they could be a jump on the fiesta. Kids like to mod them up which did cause a significant rise a few years ago,
 
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