Jump to content

can't get insurance on son's Escort


Picketlinefeelingfine

Recommended Posts

Eldest came to my last week and said he wants a car for his 18th (good old bank of dad).

He's been a named driver on his Mum's Corsa for a year and tbh he deserves it because he'sca good little driver. I've got him a Escort Mk5 as a cheapy I found in the small ads because I know my way around them if it breaks. Cheapest quote was over 3k which shocked me and that was from some micky mouse place first call? Any tips? He's got no claims and everything, I even tried adding me and the Mrs and his Mum but the quotes are still silly. If I can't get it down enough I will keep the scort for myself as a 3rd car for getting some strain off my STs but that wasn't the idea :( fuxake :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Three grand does sound cheap. As said you might find it's cheaper on a more expensive car, although I think the box where you type the value in doesn't really do anything. It's just based on the risk of young drivers who are more likely to drive their own banger badly than they are dad's Merc.

 

If he's built up NCB as a named driver that's often only valid at the same insurer you were with, I think the usual rules are you don't build up any as a named driver.

 

Could do Pass Plus? Get a black box?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You'll be lucky to get an 18 y/o insurance for under £3k on their own policy, especially a policy without a black box.

 

How long your son has had his full license, if he's built up his own NCD on your policy, Postcode, where the car is being kept age and value of the car all make a difference. Might be easier to mothball the Escort for a year or 2 and try him on something newer.

 

Have you tried starting up a second policy for you with him as a named driver, or multicar the escort on your current insurance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, 3K on an escort isn't all that surprising really for an 18YO. At the end of the day everything is stacked against him so the best bet would probably be to pick up something in the lowest insurance group possible (i.e. sub 1000cc engine).

 

When I was 17 I couldn't get insured on a Mazda 323. Ended up with a 1 litre Metro and still paid about £700 - and that was nearly 25 years ago. In those days the only way to insure anything over group 2 was to be a named driver on mum or dad's.

 

Given how much premiums have risen I'd be surprised if you can insure anything for much less than 2 grand these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first car was a black Merc C180 Elegance manual (W202) shape on an N reg. Fully comp I was paying £1580. That was when I was 17. I’ve just turned 29. No black box (they weren’t around in 2007) That was with Admiral.

 

£3000 seems like a lot on an Escort but have heard these sort of prices banded about. I’m a little rusty on insurance prices since I got my trade policy several years ago.... not something I will now ever get rid of.

 

Have you tried any of these specialised companies? Mileage allowance?

 

Just be mindful too that everytime you run a search for insurance on these price comparison websites it is noted on your credit history as a search. I remember again, back when i was younger I would spend days searching and searching different cars to see what cars I could afford to insure. A 1 series BMW at the time was £4000 I remember.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately the less value in the car, the higher the insurance. It’s the way they see it....as a cheap shitter won’t be cared for....whereas pay a few grand for a 1.0 fezpot and you’re more likely to look after it, after spending more cash on it. Swings and roundabouts I’m afraid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like it might be worth chipping in here - I’m 19, but last time my insurance was renewed I was 18. I can’t remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, but I pay about £850 for a 1999 mini and £360 for a 2007 Polo, both fully comp without black boxes (Admiral). Good prices are still out there, it just seems to be down to patience and a whole shitload of good luck.

 

Is your son still at college/sixth form/uni?? If so, putting occupation as ‘student, full time’ with any other jobs he has as part time work might lower the prices. I’ve heard that job titles change things a lot.

 

Shop around. Price comparison sites aren’t nessasarily the cheapest, but they’re a pretty good place to start. Check with as many different places as you can before buying

 

The value of the car also has a pretty big impact too. I think the logic is that you’ll be less careful with a car that you value less. £1500 seems to be the sweet spot, though your results may vary....

 

Add parents and family as additional named drivers - sometimes this helps, especially people with a good driving record, ‘sensible’ jobs and (i think) living at the same address.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're looking for something oddly cheap to insure, Pug 306s were allways significantly cheaper than anything else of the same size or class, for no obvious reason.

 

That said, it's been true for a while that teenager insurance bottoms out at about £2k for the shittest of the shit slow useless tiny vehicles that self-destruct on contact with anything larger than a dried leaf.

 

When I was 17, a fair number of years back now (1993) I payed £600ish for the year to insure a Talbot Horizon Diesel. It was more expensive than the very cheapest car I could find to insure, which was about £450, but I reasoned that I would easily save the £150 over the year on fuel costs. The policy I bought even had third-party extension, something utterly unheard of these days under the age of about 25/30.

 

Given the state of new-driver insurance these days, I would be sat on gocomparethemoneysupermerecat for a few hours using a made-up name and localish address blatting through quotes on anything and everything I can think of. Once you've found a cheap car to insure, then go and buy one.

 

Some things will surprise you though. Just under a decade ago, I taught a 17yo to drive. He was very good. He also knew how to play the statistics at their own game. "No 17 year olds ever drive Jaguars" he thought. And he was right. Managed to get insurance on a Jag XJV12 for a similar price to a Citroen Spaxo.. so he did exactly that. Utterly hillarious to see a spotty 17 year-old oik wafting about in a V12 Jag.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd agree with the C1/07/Go/Anda group one stuff with a decent immobilizer fitted,

anything out of the norm will set alarm bells ringing at Lloyds of London but £20 RFL and 50+mpg will offset the inevitable first couple of years premiums whilst learning that life in the slow lane is not all that bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Both my kids had to go black box for their first cars. Think my lad was on black box for two years and my daughter for her first year. Premiums were £1400 to £1800 until they started building up NCD.

 

Lad was higher to start and it was an MGZR 1.4 on black box. I wasnt aware of the £1k £1.5k banger loading back then.

 

I searched far and wide and came to conclusion that bullets needed to be bitten.

 

At one stage, I was considering a brand new car on PCP with free insurance, like a corsa. On the basis what you save pays for the bloody payments. I never saw that through because on second year you are sort of back to square one.

 

The system doesn't play well for us shitters. Buy a cheap car, fix it up ourselves using second hand bits, cos we can, and get the youngsters on the road at low cost, very hard to do. I think a 10 year old MGZR cost £650 to buy and insurance was about £1800 black box with Dad Mum on as named drivers.

 

As guys say, the Escrote may not be the best in they eyes of the ensshrwarance

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in 2000 at 17 I remember someone the same age being quoted £3000 for 89 Orion 1.4L. But same thing as Talbot mentioned another lad got a similar aged Ford Granada 2.0 Ghia insured for a £1000!

 

That year I got my 1st Car insured a 86 Talbot Samba Style. 954cc Ins group 2 for £850 and my brother got his 89 Fiat Panda 750L Ins group 1 for £750. Both were with Coop insurance at the time.

 

My friend insured his brother on there MK2 Escort 1.1L they restored about 7 years ago with a classic car insurance policy no bother. So it could be possibly worth trying that although you may have to faff with getting a agreed value and limit the mileage etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Insurers don't like insuring anything they deem to be bangers and scrap value, try a quote for something much newer with a tiny engine like a C1.

The difference in insurance costs might be worth changing the car for.

This totally my other halfs lad learnt to drive in a Cinquecento which was cheap whilst learing but went to over 2 grand when he passed it was cheaper to buy and insure a much newer Citroen C2 than the poor old Cinq. The value didn't make much difference just the age as most insurers aren't interested in covering anything over 25 years old

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sounds a lot but when I was 18 I purchased a rotten, knackered Rover P5B. I managed to get insurance direct from an underwriter at 3rd party only (I was offered "Road Traffic Cover" for a bit less). This worked out at 25% of my annual salary (before deductions!).

 

£3k sound like a way higher % of the average 18 year olds wages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Escorts were never great for insurance, or anything else I suppose.

Given how easy they are to "permanently borrow", and the combination of blue oval tax and desireability, I suspect there's a very heavy loading going on here.

 

Definitely look at something far less desireable, far less nickable and far less Ford.

 

Something utterly autoshite like a Wagon-R perhaps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...