Car insurance for teens now completely unaffordable?

Many moons ago when I started driving I had a cheap car and 3rd party insurance and my parents as named drivers. Made it much more affordable and an incentive to drive carefully as if I crashed my car those repairs were on me.
Id try 3rd party and see how much less that is

Oh to add, no black box

*But the majority of 17 year olds do not need cars.

With teens starting work at 6am, an Uber or local taxi would probably be cheaper in the long run than car insurance and maintaining/running a car.

Cars are an expensive luxury and people seem to forget this.*

By this argument, most adults don’t need cars. Walk a bit more, use buses where you can and a taxi where you can’t. Send your kids to a local school, get your food shop delivered, commute by bike.

Admiral multi policy including the house, four named drivers (each addition reduced the total by around £30 each, including my DC on provisional as the policy holder on their part of the policy to earn no claims - first year on a 1litre corsa now, with 1 year no claims, a 1.9l Peugeot 306 - both policies around the £500 mark as still learning. No clue on what it will be when passing but it'll be his cost to cover HTH

I do feel this issue is really indicative of the decline in the standards of living in the U.K.

Many parents nowadays are massively squeezed by rocketing mortgage or rent costs, food costs and energy costs and can’t afford to help their teens the way our own parents helped us?

As I said, some will need to, majority do not.
We have lived rural/ small market town.
I and they, learned better planning, no hopping in a car.
They rode bikes. DS2, (only uni kid) the year before uni cycled 8 miles each way to his summer job. Did wonders for his fitness.
DS1 worked in hospitality, shifts rural, walked, cycled and lift shared. Still does, sees no reason to drive.
MN is a funny place, say your DC pay their way aged 18..pearls are clutched in horror as they are children but DC are suddenly adults when it comes to driving.

@Bridgertonned yes we have also found that. I think they see a lower value car as a risk as the owner won't mind writing it off.

I get why they don't want teens having powerful cars but a tiny car in rural roads is a big risk. I wouldn't want to drive a small car in the roads near me.

@Ducksurprise it's actually more expensive to insure a car that would be considered an 'old banger' due to the higher likelihood that it wouldn't be looked after/higher likelihood of faults that could result in an accident. That's why some companies offer deals with insurers for newer cars - I think Kia used to do it for some of their small, basic vehicles and were aimed at younger drivers. Not sure if any still do but it was a thing when I last bought a car.

Foster son is 15 and we have asked a friend with a garage to start looking out for a little run around that wouldn't have extreme insurance.

Our foster son 15 was talking about learning to to drive. He was joking that he'd get my car, told him theres no way he'd be able to afford insurance on my 'boy racer corsa' . Def not powerful but def linked to 'daft lads'.

I've also got a real issue that the only cars that are insurable are crap tin box cars.

There should be a power to weight ratio or limiters put on safer cars.

Judging by the number of my 6th formers who drive, I'd say no- I don't teach in an affluent area.

So you expect parents to do all the running around until they are 30?

Lots go to college/apprenticeships/want to have some freedom.

How exactly do you expect teens that don't live in a city/town to do anything?

My DD17 broached the idea of learning to drive but it would have swallowed up her life savings with nothing left for uni so we said no.

We also live in London so DD gets subsidised travel and there's a regular bus service so at the moment there's no need to get a car yet. Compared with the cost of a car, insurance, road tax, CC, maybe ULEZ and the cost of petrol it's not really worth it unless we move out of the city.

If she went out and got a job and saved up herself I wouldn't have a problem.

Car insurance is expensive for teenage drivers. They are higher risk so the costs are eye watering. They do need to build up their own no claims though so it’s just a cost that has to be accepted if your teen wants/needs to be on the road. I’d advise paying annually rather than monthly as that brings the overall cost down. Adding experienced drivers with no accidents/
claims also helps. Do a lot of shopping around, basically get quotes from every comparison website / insurance company you can think of.

yep...there will be some kids who it's beneficial and necessary for, and if they were the ones only driving their costs would come down as a kid driving to his FT job is far more likely to be a sensible, serious driver. Rupert driving because daddy bought him a car for his 17th but is not going to have any job or responsibility until he is 22 and just wants to impress girls does not.

My nearly 17yo DD needs to learn. We live rurally and she has to get two buses to college, touch and go as to whether they actually turn up and she's perpetually late for college, stranded in the dark in the middle of nowhere and spending 1k+ a year on a pass with around 60% reliability. She also has a painful lifelong condition and walking to the bus stop a couple miles away at 7am is awful for her.

We don't have Uber here and the only taxi firm in a 10 mile radius couldn't help with this.

Her friends all live similarly rurally and are slowly passing their tests through necessity.

Also just to add I know it's not the same, but relative who was a construction apprentice got his licence - then opted to get a moped to get to sites. Not the same kudos but way cheaper (appreciate only viable if working locally, his bosses were understanding as presumably he wasn't the first person they'd had in that situation)

When my boys passed their tests I spent HOURS going through the best options to bring up the best price eg

only them on the insurance
adding me
adding my dad
adding me and my dad

it was tedious but we found out that adding my dad onto it was cheaper for my eldest son (22) and adding just me onto my youngest son (17) was cheaper for him. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ adding my dad to my youngest sons insurance for some reason almost doubled it! But massively reduced it for my eldest son

someone make it make sense 🤣

Can he wait until he has a car, or is there a specific reason to get him on the road now?

It's usually a lot cheaper to insure someone a few years after they've passed their test, even if they've not actually been a named driver or built up no claims. Not sure why. It isn't just an age thing either - when I passed (in my twenties) my insurance was shockingly high as I lived in a city centre. Boyfriend - younger, same address, passed age 17 and had never driven since (he went away to uni, never needed a car) tried a quote in his name and it was less than half of what I was being quoted!

I had to bite the bullet as I needed it for a job so couldn't be someone else's named driver. 3k in the first year for a crappy Corsa that cost £800.

If you can, wait until he genuinely needs a car before he gets one, even if he needs a few refresher lessons it'll be cheaper.

Like a pp we are in Greater London ulez zone.

I had originally thought I would keep my old car and get a new one so she could take it on - but:

Prices have gone up so much is a big amount to lose on trade in.
No point driving to school - very minimal parking locally and it's a 2 minutes walk one end from the bus, 10 minutes the other
No point driving to work as would be extortionate to park all day. Anything near town has controlled zones. Again just as quick to get the bus by the time you factor in the walk from a free parking area.
She doesn't turn 17 until the very end of the school year so minimal time anyway before off to uni
We only have parking for one car on our drive and on street parking can be a nightmare - at bad times 7/8 minutes walk from the house!

We have a tracker and she's a named driver on my car. It's so disheartening as they are trying to get on in life and it's so difficult.
I'm paying my daughters and will no doubt pay my second daughters just to help them on their way

Can I ask who with. I have same car and couldn’t get anything below £2300.

Mine passed last month and cheapest insurance with her on my car - older fiat 500 was £2300.
The few friends that have own small cars are paying £4000 & £4500 a year.
Lessons were £70 for 2 hour slot. Tests are like gold dust.
I’m glad she passed and it’s out of before A levels and Uni. I got a trainee job after uni and needed to drive I wouldn’t have got job if I couldn’t drive and there was no time to learn before starting.

Thank you for being the voice of reason. Many people on Mumsnet are determined that 17 year olds are kids. My 16 year old is nearing 17 so starting to look into cars. He is an apprentice and works shifts. Yes he doesnt NEED a car but not many adults would like to do the bus journey he has to do

Also as he is earning good money and has no bills to pay he may as well pay for driving lessons, car, insurance now and get his foot on the car ladder at 17 so that by the time he is older and moved out with other things to pay for he will hopefully have a good few years of no claims.