Buying a Car (Learner edition)

Lodious

My daughter is on the cusp of learning to drive. We are looking to get her something Yaris / Fiesta / Corsa size. Has anybody know whats decent and insurable? My understanding is that she has to have her own insurance if it's her who is mainly driving it, and that insurance is a lot cheaper for her before she passes her test. Has anybody any experience with how much different cars are to insure for 17 year olds? I've heard some people say that it has to be a 1L, others saying if it's not a cool car, bigger cars can be cheaper to insure. Any examples of how much people have paid for learners before and after passing would be much appreciated as would be any general advice on getting her on the road (black boxes any good? best ways to learn? etc)

wibble

Citroen C1's are very popular for young learner drivers as they're cheap to insure. Or Ford KA if you want to go older.

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/young-learnersfirst-car/

ICBM

Kia Picanto. We got a 4-year-old one for my daughter, which came with 3 years of the Kia warranty left - it's transferrable, you just have to have it serviced by Kia every year - is insurance group 2 but is a proper 4-door, 5-seat (just) car with a usable boot. It's a 1l with small wheels, but has enough performance to be handy enough in traffic, even if you wouldn't really want to use it for motorway commuting.

She loves it, and even though it wouldn't have been her first choice because it isn't one of the 'cool' brands - we got it from some relatives so it was an easy option for us - she doesn't want anything else now.

skunkwerx

I can't say and I'm an underwriter lol! 

Way too many variables. Age vs area, area, car value, car age, the list of 'steps' is as long as my arm, and the base premium can vary wildly from one day to the next, and can change depending on what date you want the policy to incept.. 

I'd be surprised if its lower than £800-£1000 annually these days, but I can't say I come across many provisional premiums though tbh.

What you want to avoid is fronting though, and with the telematics policies which many young drivers have, honesty really is the best Route because they really do track every move.. 

And get the full license within a couple years, because some insurers won't accept provisionals if they've been held for longer than 2 or 3 years. 

I'd hate to be a learner these days... 

Lodious

Thanks guys. @ICBM Can I ask roughly how much she pays for insurance?

ICBM

Lodious said:

Thanks guys. @ICBM Can I ask roughly how much she pays for insurance?

Just under a grand. She's 18 and been driving for just over a year now, without any incidents. Hoping it will start to come down next year!!

EricTheWeary

My son has a Seat Mii and the Mii and the VW and Skoda variants are nice cars. The car was insured in my name but topped up for him through Marmalade. I used the car day to day until he passed and then bought my Civic. Now he's passed he has a black box through Direct Line, it doesn't restrict him in any way it just measures his driving and the better he does the cheaper at renewal.
The odd thing about the insurance in his own name was the more named drivers we put on it ( with a good record) the cheaper it got. 

midlifecrisis

my 18 year old daughter got her first car last year, renault clio 1 litre i think insurance was about £2k.    my 22 year old daughter got her first car last month, fiesta 1.4 insurance was about £1300. i think age of person affects it more than the car.

ICBM

midlifecrisis said:

my 18 year old daughter got her first car last year, renault clio 1 litre i think insurance was about £2k.

The Clio is quite a high insurance group for some reason - 7 or 8 I think. That was one of the ones we looked at but ruled out because of that. The Fiat 500 - the one she really wanted at first - was similar.

RiftAmps

EricTheWeary said:

The odd thing about the insurance in his own name was the more named drivers we put on it ( with a good record) the cheaper it got. 

They call it ‘spreading the risk’

SteveRobinson

The Clio has a good NCAP rating which is especially important for younger drivers

strtdv

Work out the cheapest car to insure and work back from there. I'd just run lots of quotes through comparison sites.

I've heard the Picanto is cheap to insure before.
Older fiestas have a very hard ride and the 1.25L is absolutely gutless.
Old Clios will likely have electrical gremlins. They also have a bizarrely large turning circle for such a small car, and are prone to understeer.

digitalscream

For what it's worth, I got my licence a couple of years ago when I was 40 (yeah, really). My first car was an MG ZR 1.8, cost around £800 to insure (twice the value of the car...).

Got the Celica now, and my insurance is down to around £380.

Lodious

Thanks for the info.

Probably a dumb question, but is it OK to give information to insurance companies / comparison sites which is incorrect to get quotes? Do  need to create a fictitious user name? I need quotes based on her having passed her test before she actually passes and change her birth date (I guess they wont quote if she's not 17?).  I'm worried it will get flagged on an insurers database as fraudulent activity. 

ICBM

Lodious said:

Probably a dumb question, but is it OK to give information to insurance companies / comparison sites which is incorrect to get quotes? Do  need to create a fictitious user name? I need quotes based on her having passed her test before she actually passes and change her birth date (I guess they wont quote if she's not 17?).  I'm worried it will get flagged on an insurers database as fraudulent activity. 

Probably not a good idea. We didn’t, and we didn’t have any difficulty getting quotes - although she had a provisional licence already by that time. They were willing to give quotes based on passing even though she hadn’t even started learning at that point. It must be a common enough situation.

Lodious

ICBM said:

Lodious said:

Probably a dumb question, but is it OK to give information to insurance companies / comparison sites which is incorrect to get quotes? Do  need to create a fictitious user name? I need quotes based on her having passed her test before she actually passes and change her birth date (I guess they wont quote if she's not 17?).  I'm worried it will get flagged on an insurers database as fraudulent activity. 

Probably not a good idea. We didn’t, and we didn’t have any difficulty getting quotes - although she had a provisional licence already by that time. They were willing to give quotes based on passing even though she hadn’t even started learning at that point. It must be a common enough situation.

OK, thanks @ICBM. I'll give my insurer a call and see if I can get some quotes.

digitalscream

Lodious said:

ICBM said:

Lodious said:

Probably a dumb question, but is it OK to give information to insurance companies / comparison sites which is incorrect to get quotes? Do  need to create a fictitious user name? I need quotes based on her having passed her test before she actually passes and change her birth date (I guess they wont quote if she's not 17?).  I'm worried it will get flagged on an insurers database as fraudulent activity. 

Probably not a good idea. We didn’t, and we didn’t have any difficulty getting quotes - although she had a provisional licence already by that time. They were willing to give quotes based on passing even though she hadn’t even started learning at that point. It must be a common enough situation.

OK, thanks @ICBM. I'll give my insurer a call and see if I can get some quotes.

Yeah, I did this quite a lot before I passed my test - it's all good. As long as you don't buy a policy based on those details, it's not fraudulent.

strtdv

It makes no difference, you're just sticking info into an algorithm and getting a result. Things like postcode make a difference to the results though

skunkwerx

Dont change certain info dude.

thebreeze

As well as Marmalade (which Erictheweary uses), we just insured our 17yr old provisional learner with Veygo for £100 from now until mid January.  That's for a Subaru Forester 2L so probably more expensive than some.

ThorpyFX

Why dont you ask @Emp_Fab for some help, I'm pretty sure he can give the most succinct and poignant advice fo anyone here with regards to car purchasing.  Also a fringe benefit, your daughter will be 22 by the time a decision is made and her insurance costs will be lower.