Car insurance for teens now completely unaffordable?

Placemarking!

Exactly. It isn't cheap is it even for adults.

As to being a 'named driver' if the driver has an accident in the main driver's car then the main driver is held accountable for and will affect their insurance/claims etc.

Lots of teens near us live at home and commute by car to Uni as it’s more affordable than living away even factoring in insurance.

I passed my test as an 18 year old in 2006. My mum bought my car and was the registered keeper. She had a policy (3rd party, fire and theft as it was a cheap run around) and I was a named driver. It made it a lot cheaper but not sure if it’s allowed!

Insurance is expensive for teenage boys because they are the most likely to be involved in an accident. I was always glad this was the case as it priced my teenagers out of the market, and I had absolutely no intention of helping them get behind the wheel until considerably older.

It’s pretty common to learn to drive at 17 where we live as well. We are rural with questionable public transport so that’s probably why. I would say more teens learn to drive than don’t. For us personally, it was money well spent. Our youngest dc will also learn when he is 17.

Indeed. MN is hilarious at times, little understanding of how many places don’t just have infrequent public transport, but zero public transport. No bus service to this village, whatsoever. And as for ‘Just get an Uber’, lol, ‘Let them eat cake’.

In my 40s, and didn't get help from my parents. I had to pay for my own theory test, driving lessons and practical test, pay for my own car, fuel, insurance etc etc. Nothing was just handed to me.

I bought mine a cheap, low mileage Matez last year and insurance with BB was £800. With his dads maintance payments I'd saved up. He never drove it. I sold it 6 month later. This year he's got a girlfriend he wants to visit and bought himself an old 1.8lt car with a million miles on the clock. Insurance was £3K which came down to £1.2K when he added me and tweaked the estimated mileage.
I have no cash to pay for a car or insurance . Without his dads money I guess he'd have to have worked before going to uni. Alot. Not a bad thing but really out of the reach of young people that don't live close to somewhere that it pays to work.

It’s definitely still a thing to learn to drive at 17 at dc’s sixth form. Mostly parent funded lessons, some self funded.
Car wise most are just driving their mums as a named driver.
Only a few have own cars and usually have an added reason eg rural and now able to drive siblings to school.
Job wise it’s often teens who need to drive as they usually work anti social hours in hospitality - 6am shifts on a Sunday at McDonald’s no bus, country pubs etc.

Some have to - there was a push for me to learn at 17 because I was going away to college and living there. Very rural location. I needed to be able to drive from halls of residence to work and back (late nights as a waitress), then from halls of residence to my horse and also halls to home
Not everyone drove at first but probably 90% of us did by the age of 18 as it was so rural

@Hellocatshome its not a “voice of reason” 🙄. Not all adults need cars either. I didn’t learn to drive until I was 26 - I functioned as an adult perfectly well. I have friends in their 50s who still don’t drive.

I’m dreading this..and it’s not long till I have to sort it all out.

We live in a rural location, no buses here, a car is essential! Both kids will need a car at 17/18..

Insurance has gone up massively in the last few months. I think people will be unpleasantly surprised when they renew. We haven't had the renewal yet for the car our young adult DC share but we've had our own family car renewal recently and it has leapt. No accidents. We're dreading the DCs one coming through.

Agree. There's this mad obsession for people on this site to get their DC passed their test aged 17! Waiting a few years won't do any harm,🤷🏻

I didn't pass until I was 21, learning aged 20. I got there just the same. Cost of insurance considerably less.

My eldest has a Young Scot card to get around cities and towns by bus up to ages 21/22. I can see him learning to drive around this age.

My parents were teachers, not loaded at all.

I grew up fairly rurally. The bus service is shite. All my friends and I did our driving as soon as we could.

We definitely need less cars on the roads!

@blondieminx not sure where/when you grew up, but in my relatively affluent market town in the 90s, no one in sixth form had cars. Lots supported to get their licence, but not to have an actual car - named on their parents if they were sensible enough but that was it.

Anyone who had their own car would have found themselves incredibly popular.

Thank you.

I am in my 30s and didn't get help. I did not expect help. It isn't a new thing.

@Ducksurprise generally curious why you feel a smaller but modern/reliable car is a worry on rural roads?
Smaller engine = less likely to mistakenly drive too fast on twisting roads. Smaller body = easier to manage when passing other traffic on narrow lanes. I say that as someone who had to drive all over Devon in a picanto!

Theres a risk of holding up other drivers on faster routes sure, but that's not on the small car driver to feel undue pressure on, you just have to learn to cope with tailgaters who think that because they know the road they should be able to drive like it's a race track.

@Dixiechickonhols That’s with Ticker. Involves some kind of black box device, so might not appeal to you, but was so very much cheaper than anywhere else.

I'm late 50s, my family couldn't help me drive, I had to wait until I could (a) afford it and (b) needed to. Early 20s with children in a rural village, 2 buses a week.
Not being able to afford it is not new. The expectation that you learn at 17 is. unless your parents were loaded

My sons aged 17 and 20 are both learning at the.moment and about to do their tests. We were ringing round about insurance last weekend to see what quotes we could get and it was horrendous..They will be sharing a car (little 1.1 Toyota augo) so can't get black box insurance. The best price was £4600 for the year,.with a £550 excess! It's so difficult.to.know what to do for the best, we live in an area with poor public transport.and.i think it's best to learn when they're still at home.and.have the time and.money but it is all worrying and the cost prohibitive.

My experience pricing insurance for my 17 year old son - inner London was that the actual car (looking at all group 1 automatics) made zero difference to the astronomical price. (£2,800 with a black box). It’s his age and our address that massively affects it. As he will be driving in london on highly congested roads with lots of v expensive other cars. This was borne by comparing third party with fully comp. They cost the same.

It’s pointless saying oh my child pays £1500 for a ford fiesta why is yours £2500 because it’s to do with location. Adding that they have a part time job upped ours so he gave it up 🤷🏻‍♀️