We all know that getting insured when you're 17-years-old is going to be expensive; however, just how expensive can it be?
To find out, we've trawled through the price comparison websites and gone straight to some big-name insurers to find the cheapest way for a 17-year-old to insure their first set of wheels. Be warned, the results are not pretty.
The cost of insurance
For the purposes of consistency, all of the quotes we received were for a 17-year-old male, born on 1st January 1995 who has had a full UK licence for a month with no points, no convictions and no recent accidents. The proposer was single in all cases and was a student living at home with parents. The car was to be kept on a driveway overnight with an annual mileage of 3,000 miles and an excess of £500.
To see how new and used cars stacked up, we got quotes for three ideal first cars -- a new car, a used car and a banger -- to see which was the cheapest to insure.
| New Car | Used Car | Banger | ||
| Model | Chevrolet Spark 1.0 5dr |
2004 Toyota Yaris 1.0 VVT-i T2 3dr |
1994 Ford Fiesta 1.1i 3dr |
|
| Cost of Car | £7,375 | £2,300 | £600 | |
|
Cheapest Quote |
£5,700.35 | £6,512.49 | £7,532.82 | |
As you can see, even covering an 18-year-old banger is pricey for a 17-year-old and, interestingly, the cheaper the car, the more expensive the quote. This is because insurance companies assume that a more valuable car will be looked after more and will therefore be less likely to get into an accident.
Bear in mind that we've only shown the cheapest quotes -- the highest quote we got for the Fiesta was 18 grand!
Are there any ways to lower the premiums?
What about third party insurance? You wouldn't want to insure the Chevy or the Toyota third party but surely it makes sense to in the Fiesta's case. Not so. The cheapest third party quote we could manage for the Ford was a staggering £9,006.81!
One of the oldest tricks in the book is sticking a named driver with loads of experience on the policy to bring the cost down. We tried this with a fifty-year-old married male driver with over 20 years of driving experience, a clean licence and no claims in the last five years. This is what we managed:
| Car | Chevrolet Spark 1.0 5dr |
2004 Toyota Yaris 1.0 VVT-i T2 3dr |
1994 Ford Fiesta 1.1i 3dr |
|
|
Cheapest Quote |
£5,189.59 | £6,006.61 | £6,898.44 | |
As you can see, adding the named driver lowered the quotes by an average of £550 so if you've got an experienced driver in your household, it's well worth adding them onto your policy.
You've probably heard of black box insurance. It uses in-built telematics in your car to judge your driving and, if it judges you to be a good driver, your insurance premium will be lowered. None of the quotes we received allowed the fitment of on-board telematics, but even if they did and we drove safely, we would only see around a 20% decrease in our premium. A 20% reduction is not to be sniffed at but remember, you have to pay the full cost of the premium up front and the insurers then refund you if you drive well. Plus, there is no guarantee that the box will judge you to be a safe driver.
Top Tips
If you've just turned seventeen and you're itching to get on the road, there's no way around the fact that insurance is going to be expensive. However, the pricier your car is, the lower your premium will be, so buy the best car you feel you can afford. Add a named driver to your policy to lower the cost of your premium and, whatever you do, drive safely -- you want to start building up a No Claims' Bonus as quickly as possible.
Sadly, however, the fact of the matter is that the extortionate cost of car insurance is pricing more and more young people off the road.
