Page 1 of Recommendations for cheap CAR insurance for 18-year old male ???

I`ve spent the afternoon ringing round for car insurance for my son (18 years old).
He has a `pass plus` certificate (from December 2006). He passed his test in September 2006. No convictions, fines, etc.

Best price was around £1800. The Internet came up with a couple of quotes less than £1000, but when you look into them, the price suddenly shoots up.

`ADMIRAL GROUP` (recommended in a book as `BEST FOR YOUNG DRIVERS`) couldn`t even quote for us, even though the guy told me he had already insured THREE 18-year olds the same day !!

Car was going to be a 1.4 Renault Clio Sport. Even a less powerful car seems to make little difference.

We are looking at a V/W/X registered small hatchback (Corsa / Renault, etc) and Fully Comprehensive cover.

We live in the HX6 postcode area (not a burnt out car in sight!!)

Any suggestions would be welcome.

:/

Get him something cheap with a 1 or a 1.1 engine and put him third party on it. Other than that 1.4 Clio Sport is a bit of a ratboys car, so its going to be quite dear.

I had the same problem. I had my eye on a 1.4gti peugeot 106 when I passed but the insurance was more than the car was worth because its a boy racers car.

On your first car now you spend almost as much on insurance as you do on the car itself.

First up, you want to try and get him something that is a 1.0 - 1.2 litre max - yeah the cars got no guts, but insurers like than on young lads.

You go for the car you are going for and forget it, unless as NTG says, you want to put him down as a named driver on your insurance. However, can you afford for him to do as many young lads do and f*** up your NCB?

Alternatively, rather than wasting hours ringing round insurers, why not go to www.confused.com to get a comparison from about 30 insurers at the same time. Will give you a ball park figure and see if you have been ringing the wrong places or not. Also, you can change the car at will, to see if the year, engine and model makes much difference to the quote.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 1st August 2007, 17:33

You could try a local broker, they may be able to source a better deal, possibly a Lloyds policy.

All the major brands just want nice simple low risk business; vegetarians and such like.

If your son is the main driver then he must be the main driver insured on the car, not insured in your name and him as a named driver. Its called fronting. Insurance companies do not like it and can void your insurance or refuse to pay on a claim if your son has an accident and they find he is the main driver.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 1st August 2007, 19:52

I don`t think NTG was suggesting having him as a named driver, merely that he should opt for 3rd party instead of expensive fully comp insurance (which is what I`d do). Another reason why he`d be better off with a really cheap runaround that wouldn`t be such a biggy if he pranged it.

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linkness

I scanned through and saw Matts bit about named driver. 3rd party might sound like a cheap option but if he prangs then possibly a false economy. How about upping the excess on the insurance, that can bring it down. And fewer miles a year as long as you know he wont go over them.

Did a quick Google and one site suggests buying a brand new car with free insurance.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 1st August 2007, 20:05

Quote:
All the major brands just want nice simple low risk business; vegetarians and such like.

Like Hitler.... (:¦

Or perhaps my wife :D who has smahed up one car and created a lovely dent down the side of my current one!!.. amongst other scrapes :D

mind you she does own a Heavy Metal CD which must make her a satanic sheep slaughtering witch (:¦

On a more serious note.. why not get him a classic car.. cheap insurance.. no car tax and can be easy to maintain.. plus ... if you buy the correct car.. better than a Clio :D

Try Liverpool Victoria. http://www.liverpoolvictoria.co.uk/insurance/Car_Insurance

I used them when I got my first car at 18. This was 3 years ago though so things may have changed. I looked at them after my uncle recommended them to me saying they were good for yound drivers. I had a G reg 1.1 Fiat Uno, admittely a pretty rubbish car, but I was still getting quotes of upto around a grand. Liverpool Victoria came out at just under £500 for the year. That was for fully comp, and strangely enough third party would have been around £520!

Would be worth a try though. They used to have a great little feature where if it was out of office hours you could get a kind of quick mini-quote online, where you just put in the car and the postcode and it would give you an estimate. Was fantastic for deciding which type of car to get. Unfortunately it doesnt look like you can do that anymore unless im just not looking hard enough.

When deciding on a car for our 18 year old daughter I actually went through online insurance quoting sites (I think I used the Autotrader one mainly) trying different cars to see what came out cheapest. I was suprised to find that in the end a 1.2 Corsa (which is what we ended up getting) was cheaper to insure than a 1 litre Fiesta, as well as all the usual 1 litre 106, Clio etc. Well worth researching this before buying a car, as there is an amazing variation between cars of the same engine size.

Went with Liverpool Victoria in the end, as we`re insured with them and they gave us a "loyalty discount" of 10%, plus she got 1 year NCD as a sweetener.

She turned 18 on 23rd Dec, and we were intending to insure her for the car just before that. However there was a reasonable drop for when he turned 18, and then another significant drop if we delayed the insurance until Jan 1st - something about her already being 18 as the year started.