Car Insurance - assess the real cost before you buy
 

My insurance is coming up for renewal on two cars and I am also in the process of deciding which car to buy for my two teenagers as the first one has started taking lessons. With the latter, we have shortlisted the cars they like and the likely insurance costs over the first three years after passing driving test will be one factor that determines the car we buy. So I've been spending some time on comparison sites and a spreadsheet to update my understanding of the dynamics of insurance and related costs, which I am happy to share here.

1. Your postcode, age and length of time the driving licence has been held are the most important factors contributing to the premium.

2. The car's insurance group may not be as important as one would expect. My Omega is the most powerful of my cars, with a high insurance group, yet the premium consistently comes out lower than cars such as a CLIO 1.2T and indeed the 75 CDT. This can only be due to the likely driver profile that is associated with different cars.

3. Different companies wish to insure different risk profiles and it is interesting to see how the same insurer moves in the cost tables upon change of inputs such as miles traveled, occupation etc.

4. The better known and established insurers are never the cheapest on headline costs but their policies are usually much more comprehensive. They usually come out cheapest on a like for like comparison i.e. when you start adding optional features to the cheaper policies that are included as standard within those that are initially more expensive.

5. The administration charges associated with in-life changes to a policy, such as change of car, policy cancellation, etc. also can become a significant factor and should be considered when taking out a policy. As an example, the cancellation charge on an initially expensive policy was £40 whereas on a cheaper one it was £75. Given the insurance premium on my Omega was between £113 and £170 PA, in the case of the cheaper policy the cancellation cost was close to 70% of the annual premium!

This exercise has confirmed that my approach of never buying the policy based on headline price is still the correct one. I have always insured with the likes of LV, RAC, SAGA and will continue to do so as in my view they provide the best value for money on a like-for-like basis.

My suggestion to anyone considering insurance is to make an assessment of the above factors before you buy, otherwise there could be surprises in store later with admin charges etc.


Additions:

1. Always check the information on the insurer's website before purchase as this is will form the basis of the policy. I have noticed a few quirks in the mapping between the comparison and insurer sites.

I'd also say try ringing the insurance company don't just pay the price on the web site.

macafee2

Not for the first time, perhaps? :}

vehicular statistics along with the driver profile will also have a bearing. Some years ago, Citroen AXs (and similar) would have had high insurance costs. This was, I was told, due to a lot of young first time owner drivers had them (and similar), and as they were statistically more prone to have accidents, the policies were higher. Because these drivers were driving AXs (and similar) at the time of their accidents, they skewed the stats to make it seem AXs (etc) were more likely to be involved in an accident, etc.

I always believed that if you could consider an older car,15-20 years, would be easiest to insure. There will be fewer on the road over the last 10 years, dropping the stats (less cars = less accidents), yet not old enough to be desired as classics yet (keeping the repair costs down, therefore ins liability). Getting the balance right between model, age of car, ins group, would be the challenge (as in your Omega, would be better than a similar 3 series, yet still provide a RWD 'drifter' as a lot of young guys seem to yearn for lol).

I noticed a lot of young drivers here, were driving pug 306 dturbos. These always had a low group, (5 if i recall). Boras too, were popular for a while for same reason. Not many on the road any longer, but still the same ability as their more desirable automotive siblings. A neighbour told me, whilst cheaper than an equiv golf to buy, they also were nearly half the cost for insurance too.

Try MGF and MX5. They may be surprising lol

Thank you for sharing however the car insurance industry in the UK is long overdue for review as it has over the last 20 years been allowed to print money at the expense of the honest motorist.
It no longer offers good value not fit for purpose and in need of an overhaul premiums need to come down significantly and high risk repeat offenders morons those without the correct documents should not be insured cars confiscated and crashed owners put in prison, premiums then reduced instead of all of us being screwed.

clf - I agree with everything you have said.


SWMBO's twintop is relatively cheap to insure for the same reason, despite having such a complex roof mechanism and a 1.8VVt 140BHP engine.

Annual mileage and if you use your car for commuting. If you can get the mileage as close to what you are actually going to do you will be amazed at what a difference it can make. Also not commuting can save a lot of cash, a friend has recently removed this from his insurance as he now cycles into work and his policy has come down by 30%.

I received the renewal for the MGTF yesterday from Lancaster Insurance. Last year it was £132, renewal quote was £159.99. I went onto Moneysupermarket for a quote. Second cheapest was Lancaster at £110. I rang them and they agreed to match the cheaper quote so I got it for £110, saving £49. Pays to talk to them.:D:D:D:D