Car insurance for teens now completely unaffordable?

I see it a different way, in that buying my dc their cars isn’t about giving them an education In maintenance. We bought their phones, they pay the monthly charge and eg if it gets a cracked screen. Same principal with their cars - we buy, they maintain.

My eldest takes an Uber if she’s going to drink when she goes out, so she budgets for that from her p/t job. You post reminded me that her MOT is due soon, so I messaged to remind her, and she replied with a thumbs up. So I’m pretty sure she’s not expecting us to pay.

Teens living in London or other cities - yeah they don't need to drive.

But you don't have to be excessively rural to find public transport or taxis thin on the ground especially at unsociable hours.

I live about a 20 minute drive from a town. Our village has no bus service before 8am or after 5pm Mon-Fri and nothing at the weekend. There is no Uber, even in my closest small town and taxis are reluctant to come out to the villages and charge a lot.

The roads between my village and the town are unlit, no pavement and are mostly 60mph speed limits. They aren't suitable for walking or cycling, especially in the dark.

I wouldn't choose to live here if I had my time again and I do plan to move, but it isn't feasible in the next couple of years. It isn't great for teens, but there are many teen apprentices locally who live in villages similar to mine. They mostly spend their wages on running a car, out of necessity.

Haven't renewed this year yet, but we put DD new car on our multicar, with both of us as named drivers, and it even reduced our own cars insurance! It also reduced when she took it to uni.

She was 19, on a Fiat 500 1.2, fully comp, no box, at £1,500 odd.

@Mademetoxic I think that's fairly typical actually. Most of my friends are average to affluent and all of us bought our kids driving lessons when they turned 17. Some lost interest when the tests became so difficult to book, kids went off to uni and will probably start lessons
again at some point in the future.

I work with families in rural social housing and for many young people especially single parent households, lessons let alone a car are out of the question. Of the families that don't drive, its the parents not the kids who are most often learning as they need it more.

To be fair if it wasn't for credit any people wouldn't be able to get on the road at all/

Will they go running to you if they need new tyres? Or any other expensive repairs?

4 tyres on my small little car cost me £500 to replace.

I have a sense of pride that my car that I own I funded myself.

Cars are a luxury.

You're not doing your children (as 17 is a child as they're not fully mature) any favours by paying for their cars.
They will not realise how expensive cars are to keep, how to fund it themselves. They will be in for a shock when they have to pay for it themselves (if it all)...

My 18 year old DD needs a car for work. The location leaves her with no option and she was recently quoted over £15k for insurance on a corsa.

I didn't learn to drive until I was 23. I couldn't afford it beforehand. I passed my test but didn't have a car for a few years after that due to costs.

Mixture of savings from birthdays etc and us. We’ll pay for first year insurance, tax and MOT, but expect dc to pay for their own petrol.

The majority of teens do not need to drive, or cannot afford to do it.

I grew up middle of no where . What jobs? Pubs and babysitting unless you have parents that can give you lifts.
Some teens have no choice about driving because its unaffordable. "Need" doesn't come into it rural or not.

Bank of mum and dad funding all this?
Or have the teens paid it all for themselves and funded the insurance, car maintenance, MOT etc.

@Marchintospring the teens I'm talking about are earning a wage and fund it themselves. I'm just responding to the idea that not all teens need a car. Lots are working unsociable hours at that age.

As for getting a moped, riding one of those in the dark in bad weather on rural roads with no speed restrictions is terrifying. Ditto for cycling. I wouldn't walk miles in the dark on roads without pavement myself, so I don't expect teens to either. When it's dark in the countryside it's properly dark.

Some teens do need to drive.

My dd started driving in July last year when she passed her test - a year after getting a car for her 18th. My middle daughter will be 17 in July and will have lessons and test as soon as driving ready and tests available.

Don’t live rurally, walked to school or rode their bikes, which takes 7 mins. Car is very much a want rather than a need, and don’t feel need to justify our decision to enable dc to drive early.

My son waited till he was 21 to get a car. It is auto Fiesta. We are in the outskirts of London. It was 1.5k to get him insured with no black box. He learnt to drive a manual.

@Almostwelsh which is all well and good if you have £3K for a car and insurance. Many families in rural parts don't. If the parents don't drive/have access to a car/money the kids have no hope of learning. Rural kids get used to bikes and walking like city kids do buses.

@Mademetoxic Uber doesn't exist in my area. I was amazed how easily my daughter gets around in Manchester by Uber, but that's a city. It's not the same here.

A regular taxi every morning at 6am would probably cost about 100 pounds a week. And that's if you can get one. They aren't always available. Even expensive car insurance works out favourably, as you can also then use the car for other journeys.

😂

@Marchintospring I totally agree and think bragging rights have far more to do with all these 17 yr olds racing to pass their test than necessity 🙄

@Mademetoxic given only 1/5 of our population is rural they do seem to be rather over represented on Mumsnet 😂

Plenty of kids live rurally and can't drive purely because its so expensive and there isn't anything that pays them or their parents enough.

There's still the kudos of passing your test at 17 in certain circles too. I always remember how smug DS cousins were when he failed his first test ( as the eldest) and the next cousin passed first time a week later. She however had been bought her own car to practise in after passing her theory whilst poor DS had a lesson every fortnight as that was all I could afford.
( he rebooked and passed on a cancellation after 10 days at a totally unknown test centre miles away so I still think he's the better driver😁)

We are in a village near a market town so not particularly rural but no buses early or late. You couldn’t get to most places teens work without a car, certainly not for the hours scheduled.
Nearest city is only 16 miles but needs a lift to station, 2 unreliable trains and is 90 mins each way (I did it last week as car was in garage)
I’d imagine lots of areas are similar.

Yes it certainly has jumped up. Our son is 23 and has been driving for five years, he’s made no claims in that time and there were no changes since his previous insurance renewal apart from him being one year older.

His renewal price was £1580 after paying £840 previously. We shopped around and got it down to £960 with a different insurer.
He called his insurers to cancel the automatic renewal and they offered to price match. Too late, and if they’d priced it at that in the first place they’d have kept him as a customer.

my kids both passed in sixth form. We only had an automatic so they could not practise with us but they managed to pass just from their manual driving lessons. We are in London and none of them need to drive. It is just easier to pass whilst living at home and having the luxury of school holidays. It can of course be done later in life and at university too.

We did marmalade Insurance which paid for them to have a few hundred miles a year for around £400 I think. You can top it up. As they only drove when they came back from university holidays and even then not long distances, that was more than enough for us.

I expect they won’t really need a car for a decade or more, but I am pleased that they have their licence to use whenever they need comes. We have brilliant public transport so do not need a car here. I worry about them being on the roads with the other idiot drivers around. I am much happier if they are on the tube or on buses!

I grew up in Essex. My parents supported me with the car and first years insurance. That was in the days when you had to ring round the insurers for quotes…

Everyone on this site seems to 'live rurally' as well. 🤷‍♀️