No Country For Young Men

My Grandson was 18 in March, and passed his test in June. I have been trying to get him insured to drive a 1998 1,124cc Peugeot 106, worth £700 on a 3rd-party-only basis. A search on comparethemarket.com produced 7 quotes of £1,100 down to £1,002 per year, which is bad enough, but in each case, when I tried to take up the offer every company refused to deal on the net, and a phone call met with either a complete refusal to insure, or a vastly increased premium (minimum £2,000), on the basis of my Grandson's age, even though well aware of this when originally quoting half this figure. So, how does any young male driver ever get to insure his first car?

Asked on 27 February 2010 by M.C., Hurstpierpoint

Answered by Honest John

30% of them give up and don't bother to insure at all. The worst they stand to lose is their car, a £500 fine, and 6 points. Though if they have been driving for less than 2 years they lose their licence completely and have to re-take the test. Government urgently needs to fix this by compelling insurers to insure young people at affordable premiums. It would make no difference to other drivers premiums because mature drivers have to pay for the 30% of uninsured young drivers anyway.

Tags: insurance uninsured drivers

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