Car insurance for teens now completely unaffordable?

For the exception of a few teens. The majority of 17 year olds do not need cars or to learn to drive.

Having someone as a named driver too, if your teen has an accident in your car then it goes against your own policy and will lose any no claims discounts they have built up over the years.
So yes it might be cheaper but a big risk too...

No ubers here and taxis are never available at peak times. A taxi to my sons work would be £25 one way

Just insured newly passed DD on a Fiat 500 for £1400.

In addition I wanted him to develop road awareness rather than be able to change gears efficiently. I feel that road awareness is far more important at that age. Being in the correct gear is also essential for safe driving, it’s a lot less likely to misjudge a bend in the wrong gear in an automatic.
DS’s friends took the piss out of him but all acknowledge that he is the best driver amongst them.
I want to put him on our family car insurance at some point so he can share some of the longer journeys we are likely to do. Since it’s a much bigger automatic it should be an easier transition.

I drive my son to work 20 miles away every day whilst he learns to drive as no public transport from our village till 9.30am. It is certainly not a luxury in this neck of the woods. My last 3 jobs have been in the middle of nowhere. If you want to work you need to drive.

That said we have 2 learning at the moment and the insurance costs are terrifying. We can't even go on their insurance as I am auto only and dh is registered blind. Luckily they have some inheritance to cover the first year insurance plus both work full time, otherwise it would be very difficult to fund.

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.

DS 19 learnt to drive in a VW Polo automatic and has now been driving for 18months. He will take his manual test at some point but with electric cars taking over he may never have to. And to anyone advising that he won’t be able to hire a car, he probably wouldn’t be able to until he’s 21. Also Enterprise, one of the biggest fleets are replacing all their cars with automatics.
I was amazed how cheap insurance was for him, less than 1k. It’s due to the fact that very few teenagers drive automatics and so very few have accidents. Premiums are based on the number of teenagers that have accidents in specific cars. Manual Ford Fiestas are the most expensive cars to insure for teenagers.
My advice is to buy him an obscure automatic.
Newer cars are cheaper because they have more safety features. Particularly collision control that stops rear enders in traffic queues.

Plenty of 17-18 yrar olds do need a car. I work in a factory and we have apprentices from age 17 starting work at 6am. Buses don't run that early, although the young people are at least earning a wage - most of which goes on car running costs.

Not all teens go to university.

Exactly. A car is a luxury. Not a given right which many people seem to think.

Cars are expensive to maintain, MOT, tax. The running costs in general.

17 year old 'kids' imo don't need a car. Wait a few more years.

DH works from home most of the week so we are planning for DS who has just turned 17 to be added to the insurance on our smaller car which is a Nissan juke. DH will still be main the driver as it is his car but DS can use it to drive him and siblings to school for instance. I only work a 5 min walk so DH can also use my (bigger) car if needed.
No point in buying DS his own car as he doesn’t really go anywhere enough to warrant his own car.so hoping insurance cost won’t be too much

@Shadowsindarkplaces this is such a valid point - parents almost see learning to drive at 17 as an inalienable right, when actually for many teens (including mine) it’s an expensive and unaffordable luxury.

As an insurer I would feel the need to note that for new drivers under 21 the accident statistics are absolutely scary. This in turn drives the costs of premium higher. There are also supply issues with parts and capacity which drive up costs. The industry is pushing for some sensible restrictions. For example limiting the number of people who can be in a car with a newly qualified driver and banning driving crash courses- which correlate to higher accident rates. These were debated in The Lords last week.

Exactly my thoughts. The majority of 17 year old 'kids' do not need cars or to learn to drive.
Cars are expensive and a luxury.

We paid £1800ish for year 1 with 17 year old DS. That was a micra, diesel engine. He now has a Kia Rio, paying £1100 on year 2. I renewed it earlier this month with admiral. I am a named driver, but he is the main driver.

A 17 year old doesn't need a car. Wait a few more years until they can fund it themselves.

My DS18 passed his test the week
before christmas, he’s doing an apprenticeship at VW so we were initially looking at a Polo, thinking it was a sensible little car but the insurance was crazy! He’s now got an 06 plate 1.2 Skoda Fabia with a black box and his DF as a named driver. The insurance was £2,600.

Insurance has leapt up this year ds(19) with 2 years NCD insurance renewal went up from £700 last year to £880 this year (1L fiesta). Dread to think what it would cost as a new driver now.

Black box insurance maybe?

The marmalade insurance works out at about 60p per mile as I remember for newly-qualified driver of a VW Up where my friend lives. I’m thinking we’ll consider it when the time comes

£3950 with a black box and only 3000 miles.

At £1.30 per mile driven, I think it would be cheaper to get an Uber!

And that’s with me & his dad on the insurance!

DS17 passed last week. He had already bought a 1.2 fiesta as good family friend is a head ford mechanic so cheaper repairs but turned out expensive to insure! £3950 with a black box and only 3000 miles.

My 19 year old owns the car and is the only driver. Car is a Fiesta

First quote was In the region of £4k.
He did the Pass Plus lessons and got a black box, put a friend of mine on as additional driver and got it down to £2,300
As he was going to uni, we put his uni address on and going through a student site managed to get it down again to £1600.
It took me about a week to research and try all possible permutations

After a couple of months he got refunded £100 because he was in the black box limits