Car insurance 17year olds.

[Paranoidmarvin]

So my son is 17 in December. We live in the middle of nowhere so it is vital he learns how to drive.

Any one recently done this. Insurance wise etc. He will have his own car as my husband and I both need ours for work. And eventually he will be getting himself to college ( parking at a friends house nearby )

What insurance did u use. What made a difference. Black box ? What company.

He will be having my car as his own which is a Ford Fiesta 2011.

Tax and insurance will be covered. He just has to pay for petrol.

Ideas what worked. What didn’t.

Did anyone make their child take an advanced course as they were younger.

We originally used Marmalade, who advertise as being for young drivers. DS had a black box which was fine until he passed his test. We rang them to check that we didn't need to do anything else regarding insurance before he drove. Nope- good to go. Very shortly after that I blew my stack at him when he got an 'Amber warning' for irratic driving. Then I drove his car, very carefully and also got a warning ( warnings put you in probation and further offences give you fines, then it leads to cancellation) . It was almost as though, after passing, they had upped the sensitivity dial on the black box. We cancelled the insurance and went with Admiral, without a black box, who were cheaper and IMO better. Unfortunately it's a very expensive preoccupation insuring 17yr olds!

The biggest influences are the driver's age, the length of time the main driver has held a license, and your postcode.
It is an expensive time (once they've passed - a learner's insurance isn't so bad).
It helps if you have a couple of experienced drivers you can put on as named drivers. The black boxes get mixed reviews - neither of my dc used them due to a combination of the mixed reports, and also the fact they needed to drive outside of the 'safe' hours due to their work.
It really is a case of spending hours at the computer trying different companies. The young person doing that, not you.

Direct line. No black box. £1200. New FIAT 500. Miles cheaper than all the 'specialist' insurers for young drivers.

My advice is to get quotes from everywhere, remember to check out the ones like DL who don't appear on comparison sites.

My son passed his test last week and his grandparents have bought him a car. I used Compare The Market to get insurance quotes and was surprised to get fully comprehensive for only £800. I thought it would be double that amount so was very pleased.

Agree with adding experienced, named drivers on. Just make sure it's clear your son is the main user.
Like PP has said, you just need to spend some time getting quotes. Not all insurers are on the comparison sites (e.g. AVIVA) so make sure you check with them directly.
Black boxes could be a benefit if your son is a safe driver & can stick to the restrictions. If not, I'd avoid as the penalties can be costly or even result in your insurance being cancelled.
You may also want to consider looking at Third party, fire & theft or third party only cover. A 2011 Fiat Punto isn't likely to have much value, so weigh up the insurance savings against the value + recovery costs in the event of an accident.

It will still be expensive, at least for the first couple of years.

Third party fire and theft doesn't come out cheaper like it did back in the day.
I presume insurance companies wised up to the fact it was only used by the young and expensive drivers, or people who really didn't care about their cars.

We use Admiral multicar insurance.
Whilst learning we had DH as the owner, registered keeper and main driver (we made sure DH drove it more than DD) with DD as named driver.
Then after passing, DD had apparently already earned 1 year's no claims.
(no black box or dash cam)