Hi all, rant alert warning...
"How much?!" This phrase has passed my lips more times than I care to mention whilst trying to find an insurance quote this weekend. I purchased my first car recently, a 2000 Suzuki Swift 1.3 GLS (for those who like details...box on wheels for me), having passed my test a few months ago. I'm having no end of grief trying to find an insurance quote I can actually afford. Today's batch of quotes range from £925 up to £1700 for 3rd/F/T. How can something I'm legally obliged to have be open to so much variation, seemingly random variation at that? I swear I get a different quote based purely on what colour socks I have on that day.
Prices have soared compared to when I first started looking during my early days of having driving lessons (not that I considered them cheap at the time), and I'm actually seeing £100 increases on some quotes I obtained just Thursday night. I'm assuming prices increase over the weekend on the assumption that more people have the time to sort out new insurance? The best quote I've received was £749 with eCar, but when I logged back in using the quote reference number provided, the price had increased (email complaint duly sent). Insurance being cheaper when you're older appears to be a myth I'd too readily taken as a truth. As this is all somewhat new to me, is this really the reality of motoring? I certainly don't expect it to be my cheap and cheerful privilege, but it is frankly confirming all the doubts I had about driving that had always put me off. I feel that I'm already stuck having to bite the bullet rather than completely waste all the money I've already spent on numerous driving lessons, associated test costs, and the car itself. Having not driven once since my test, coupled with this almost black hole of money demands, I'm fairly close to murdering the next person who mentions the freedom driving provides...
;P
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Don't bother with insurance, especially if you have no net worth.
If you get caught you'll get a handful of points on your licence and a £300 fine. Much better than paying £1000 to be legal.
And even if you cause £1m of damage, as you are a dole-bludger you'll have no assets that can be sued off you, so the rest of the country's insured drivers will pay up via the....
www.mib.org.uk/
/sarcasm off
You can see why some scumbags follow the logic I mention above.
Once you've a couple of years insurance under your belt (No-Claims bonus) it'll be better - after 4 or 5 years driving you'll probably be paying 200-250 quid for the same car (a lot depends upon your postcode as well).
**EDIT** - try putting your details back into whichever search engine (confused.com, etc), but add another driver such as a female partner, or a parent (even if they'll never actually drive). This can sometimes save a significant chunk of ca$h.
Edited by rtj70 on 21/02/2010 at 20:24
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I am surprised at the costs quoted for a 27 year old male. Under 25 and sure under 21 will be more.
Is your postcode in a risk area I wonder? I know things change but when I got my first car at age 24/5 I probably paid closer to £250 fully comp for a Fiesta.
Have you tried quotes for fully comprehensive? Sometimes this can be cheaper.
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The quote of £750ish doesn't sound too bad to me considering this is your first insurance and not on a particularly low grouped car which most new drivers try to get.
You might do better using a good old fashioned broker to find the best and cheapest for you.
The reality of insurance is that my pick up renewal went over £500 fully comp this year thanks partly to the no insurance and scamsRus scum riding around, aided and abetted by those who need a BMW coutesy car and whiplash compo....middle aged feller and wife only driving with 8 or so years no claims.
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22 years ago on my first car at 18 yrs old was a escort mk3 i paid £2k for the car and £500.00 insurance still had no choice and there was no internet deals or like it is today, wages were lower than today.
So it's expensive yes but just pay it eventually it comes down when you have a few years no claims under your belt.
Sometimes the differance is not much for fully comp.
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I paid £9 for a year's TPF&T on an MG Midget when I was 18. To be fair I did have a year's NCB by then and it wasn't exactly yesterday. Some 30 odd years later I pay £380 for a year's fully comp with business use on a Mondeo diesel estate with full NCB.
Your quotes of something like double that seem about right I'm afraid. They will come down in due course if you avoid solid objects.
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The cheapest quote I can get for a brand new Panda is £850 a year and I thought that was good. I am 27 too but now live in a high risk area thanks to some scumbags.
My policy is for business use though and it is a fairly high risk job.
It does come down with age and experience providing you avoid crashing or getting your car broken into.
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My policy is for business use though and it is a fairly high risk job.
dont stick your hand in the back of computers plugged in then if you arent sure of the risks...........
as for the OP this car is a potent machine with the 1300 4 pot engine its 100 bhp i seem to remember and is loved by the boys that like to show off,you really should s have gone for the 1.0 litre 3 pot model if you wanted cheap insurance
Edited by rtj70 on 21/02/2010 at 22:14
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I think the GLS has a cooking 1.3, probably 75bhp or so. The 100bhp engine came in the 1.3 GTi from around 1990.
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Cheers for the replies, and sorry for venting...gives my lady a break at least. I'll add some more info to try and broaden the picture.
I live in Staffordshire and though I don't know how areas are assessed, I'd hope I wasn't doomed by being stuck here for a while. It's not all that bad I'd have thought. I've also never really been interested in cars generally, and have simply come round to the 'necessary evil' way of thinking. This meant I was unwilling to spend a lot of money on purchasing and running a first car. Couple that with the belief that it will have to endure a fair few bumps whilst I try to remember how to drive, and thus my budget for a first car wasn't particularly extravagant. I'm also 6'3, so height caused me to reject a fair few of the more obvious first cars. I learned to drive in a Vauxhall Corsa and was uncomfortable for the duration of every lesson, and sat in a few others to see how they felt whilst looking for a car to buy. For the insurance, so far I have tried several price comparison sites along with numerous individual company sites. I've tinkered with the type of policy (usually to find costs increased), and have indeed tried adding my Father as an additional driver several times, all to no avail. As it stands I'm going to see if any prices have changed once I've finished work tomorrow (payroll), then perhaps telephone a few companies and offer them my firstborn. I can certainly see why the logic Lygonos presented exists, though I'm obviously not aiming to follow that particular path towards appearing on an episode of Jeremy Kyle.
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Hope you come here regular like Bowiefan, a bit of thinking humour never goes amiss.
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An appearance on Jeremy Kyle and a bit of televisual fisticuffs with your lady might just pay for the insurance . :-)
Good luck......Good job you don't live her in Rattle-land, like me. High risk postcode although it is the ' Primrose Hill ' of the North !
Ted
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I lurked a little whilst trying to research cars for a few months, but I'm sure I'll stick around to pester you good folks no doubt :).
To address Bell Boy, I compared various insurance quotes before buying the car I did (based on what I could find on Autotrader/eBay). There really was little difference in the quotes I was given between a 1.0 and the 1.3 I ended up buying (£20-£30), and prices were roughly the same when compared to lots of other cars that were in my budget (such as a 1.1 Fiesta). The Fiat Panda (and Punto I think) were indeed one of the few cars that did offer cheaper quotes, though I never really looked into them too much in all honesty. Guess they didn't appeal to me for whatever reason...probably confused myself having 14 different web pages open at once.
Edited by rtj70 on 21/02/2010 at 22:11
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Do try an insurance broker. One we found reasonable was called GSI (Southern) Limited. The policy was actually with HSBC mind.
No harm in calling them on 08708031685. They seemed to specialise in younger drivers.
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Thanks for that (and tidying up my edit/double post mess). I filled out my details via their website, and will no doubt get a phone-call sometime tomorrow.
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£925 up to £1700 for 3rd/F/T.
My first insurance policy aged 17 cost me the princely sum of £1,350 - that was 20 years ago - today, I pay about half that to insure three cars!
Once you have some driving experience under your belt, it will make a big difference. Driving is an expensive hobby, unfortunately...
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HI, when my son passed his test four years ago (aged 22) he was quoted just over £1,000 on a 2 year old Yaris. Rural area.
After taking his 'Pass Plus' (additional test, involving some M-Way driving, night driving, etc) the quote dropped to a shade over £550 (NU Direct)
That included all the frills - legal expenses, hire car, etc.
I don't know if NU still offer such a whopping reduction for Pass-Plus new drivers, but it's worth asking them.
Incidentally, his renewal (after 12 months accident/conviction free) came to a more than the initial premium ;)
SLF
Edited by Pugugly on 22/02/2010 at 09:27
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Try Bell Directs bonus accelerator policy, you get your first years NCB IN 10 months.
I had the same problem in 2005, at 53 years old i was getting quotes approaching £1000 for a new Fiat Panda 1.2.
Problem was i had been driving company vans and cars for the best part of 25 years and had zero NCB and was considered a new driver.
The North London post code did,nt help, Bosnia was probably safer !
Now 5 years down the line and 4 years NCB £200 fully comp for a Panda 100 HP, and the Blackpool post code i have is also considered a war zone as well.
Edited by Pugugly on 22/02/2010 at 09:28
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