Car insurance for teens now completely unaffordable?

@Vettrianofan

A 'black box' is a sensor that goes in your car that sends driving behaviour back to the insurer, such as speed being driven in on which road, the time the car is driven, for how long, how well, etc.

It provides data that can reduce (or increase) your premium,

Early days technology used to be a physical black box installed under your car bonnet, hence the name, which has generally stuck as a catch all term. It's actually telematics.

Nowadays, it can be a small sensor on your dash linked to a phone app.

@BrieAndChilli

Do check the cost of the insurance for when your DS is learning vs when he has passed.

It's often pretty cheap to add them as a learner as they are supervised - then it sky rockets once they have passed and will drive solo.

Also check the cost for adding DS to your Juke. The engineers are often turbo which can make young persons insurance prohibitive,

This is horrific to hear. I’m so sorry you went through that awful experience.

It's a luxurious life skill.

Wow, that will have scarred you for life. 🙁

They have their own insurance policy they are responsible for but you go on as a named driver. I'm not saying you put a teen on your policy.

I'm in Scotland. All my children have them. My eldest uses his every week to do a sport outside of school at the weekend. Gives him independence.

That's shocking. I am glad you are okay but it must have given you a real fright. Don't blame you for thinking that way about premiums for that age group.

I was a teen in the late 90s, in a rural and not particularly well off area, had a weekend job paying £3/hr and I would guess 2/3rds of my friends had a car or access to one

My first car cost me £700 to buy and £800 to insure but without it, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything, including get to 6th form
I was lucky to have a September birthday so I had passed my test and got a car in my first term of a-levels, but before I drove in, it was a 1hr40 min bus ride each way

That said, I’m amazed that black box telematics hasn’t done more to being premiums down by sorting the idiot teens speeding and showing off, from the sensible ones who just want to pootle to and from their school, job, hobby etc

What's a black box? Seen it mentioned on a few threads to do with driving?

It's just crazy to think that the people on these threads can afford to run another car for their teenager(s) as well as their own. Or to heavily subsidise them.

None of this happened when I was a teenager (not that long ago)

Teenagers went without or only started to learn later on in life when they could afford to

Cars are expensive and for me running a car as an adult I find it hard. Let alone a teenager with treble the costs.

Fair play to teens who earn their own money, and who may save up for their own lessons etc.

Even then it must be hard. But it seems like all teens on here earn are in a 'well paid job' so maybe I'm missing something.

Do you really not get it?

Car insurance for teen drivers is expensive. I’m not disputing that.

I have no idea about the cost of living crisis, and own label threads. That’s because people are affected by the COLC in different ways, or not at all. I’ve never read or posted on those threads, and certainly not about to posts saying that I’ve never bought own label or had to monitor heating.

Similarly, I’d hazard a guess that it’s pretty unlikely that posters who are struggling are likely to post on threads about expensive car insurance.

Cars are expensive, car insurance for teenagers are expensive, COLC is crap and some people struggling and living hand to mouth from day to day. Doesn’t mean teenagers shouldn’t own cars unless they buy it themselves, maintain it themselves and are a critical necessity. That’s just weird logic.

As someone who was nearly killed by a teen driver (me on zebra, him full speed, head down on phone) I only wish the premium was £40,000.

My DH just passed his test at 40 and his insurance is 2.5k this first year :(

Exactly my son is 16 nearly 17 and probably has a higher amount of disposable income now than he will have in his early 20s (unless of course he doesnt move out). Id rather he spend it on driving lessons a car and insurance than many of the other things young lads with a lot of cash spend their money on.

I should also add this is with a black box and DP on as a named driver. DS is the policy holder and registered keeper.

@Mademetoxic I agree.
As much as I think its an important life skill and completely necessary in many places, the reality is its very expensive.
I'm note sure why there are so many threads about the cost of living crisis and posters not having the heating on or buying own label but on this thread everyone can afford a car themselves and at least a couple of grand on one for the kids.

Lots of teen lad apprentices earn well but live at home though and even if insurance/car is taking most of wage they don’t have overheads an adult does with housing costs etc. The car is often the social life too. The only lad at sixth form my dc knows with his own car just works extra shifts he’s always up for it if dc need’s to get rid of her McDonald’s shift.
Some teens earn well - my neighbour’s grandson is at college and is on £20 an hour as a lifeguard and has his own car. McDonald’s pays £10.60 days, £13.60 nights to teens.
As an adult with £800 a month wage you can’t splurge £500 on a car but a teen lad paying no or minimum board can.

DS18 passed his test last week and we've bought him a 7 year old VW Up 1.0-litre. He is paying us back monthly for the car. The cheapest insurance that we have been able to find is £3,500 with Quote me happy. Eldest DS has the same car, which was 7 year old when he passed 18 months ago and his insurance cost £1,500.

He needs a car for work, as there is no direct transport to where he works and although he can walk in the summer, it is across the fields and through the woods, so isn't really practical in the winter. Plus he goes on block release to college every month and it is 50 miles away.

We bought dss a Volkswagen UP.

Lowest insurance group and he passed in September '23.

It was about £900 for the year with DH as tha named driver in the policy

No black box and it was through a broker with A Plan (I think) as the insurer.

It was far cheaper than anything we found online.

Polo was more expensive to buy and more expensive to insure.

This is not really true though. You pass at 17, live in London. Never drive. By the time you are 30+ with 2 kids even with no no claims bonus you get 13+ yrs of having a licence and assumed to not be reckless. If a homeowner another discount. Actual driving experience only gets you ncb.

I think it is laughable how one poster said to me 'frankly you don't have a clue'

Yes I do, I run a car myself and find it expensive as an adult earning a wage.

The car they are driving isn’t really an issue. They could hit a £40k car or something else with massive expense, that’s why the first year is super expensive and lower engine sizes bring down the quiet. Martin Lewis says 23 days is the ‘sweet spot’ for getting the best price. Play around with adding extra named drivers and 23 days in the future.

Insurance has sky rocketed in the last year or two. My renewal quote went up 40% for no reason whatsoever this year and price comparison sites weren’t any better!

Anyway - randomly, DD18 bought a Vauxhall Adam - 7 years old, 1.4l, on paper should be expensive to insure but at £1,800 (with one named parent driver) it was the cheapest quote we got by £200. It comes down a fair bit at 18.

DS17 has his test in a month… if he passes then the cost of insuring a 17 year old boy in an automatic car will no doubt be astronomical…

@Mademetoxic Same. Grew up in Lincolnshire too, think out of my whole year group maybe 1-2 people learned to drive at 17. But admittedly we were all pretty poor so running cars was a luxury.