Car insurance for teens now completely unaffordable?

[ginforall]

Teen is nearing 17 so started looking at potential cars and insurance. I can't believe the prices of car insurance, I knew mine had gone up loads this year, but the price for DS to have his own policy is crazy. For DS it's approx on average £4000 a year depending on the car (this is for older cars, small engines eg VW polo). Do you have the car in your name and add the child to your insurance? Does that make it a lot cheaper? Just interested in how other people mange this?

ALL the people saying 17 year olds don't need to drive have made the distinction between town and country. We all know roads are unsafe, unlit and there's no public transport, ubers or taxis'

However the reality is lots of kids even rural ones WON'T be able to learn to drive because the cost is prohibitive. I have no idea why so many posters seem to be disagreeing with that. Even the idea that you can teach them yourself relies on the parent being able to afford to run a car (mine passed his in my car because I didn't have £120 for a triple lesson plus £62 test).

Its one of the things that makes the impact of rural poverty so much worse. There are no alternatives.

I really don’t know what you’re issue is, but you clearly have a problem with my choices about my dc driving.

If 25 is the age that the brain is fully developed, it is not a marker of intellect. I take it you’re over 25?

My DD does appreciate the cost of cars actually, as she’s saving for one. When she’s saved enough, sell her current car to us, which will go to middle DD to practice in and/or drive when she passes her test. I imagine this will be at some point in the summer. Older DD will add her own savings to buy the car she wants.

As for the lessons, DD had to pay a fair whack herself as she was inconsistent with her availability for lessons and ended up taking way more lessons than she would have if she organised herself properly. Lessons were 35 a lesson, so not cheap as lessons ended up spread over 18 months. Middle DD will have block lessons or potentially intensive course + nighttime and motorway lessons separately, so should be far shorter time from lessons to passing the test.

Driving DD is nearly 20. She attends uni 3 days and works 8.30-4.30 2 days. She negotiated the combination into an apprenticeship and she earns £10k. She used to work in a local pub at the weekends, but gave that up so she had time for socialising, rest etc. So she could clearly afford to quit. Last week DD received results from her uni assessments and achieved 3 x firsts and 1 x 2:1, so her grades aren’t suffering due to working 2 days.

Just before Christmas one of the tyres had a puncture. I recall DH calling round garages, but I’ve just asked him who paid and he said he thought I’d given DD the money for it. I didn’t, so she must’ve paid herself.

Id understand your gripe if you had environmental concerns, or there’s a crisis of vehicles abandoned by teens who can’t afford them, or increase in car prices due to teens with cars who don’t need them… but it’s none of those is it? So just what IS your issue?

ALL the people saying 17 year olds don't need to drive have made the distinction between town and country. We all know roads are unsafe, unlit and there's no public transport, ubers or taxis'

However the reality is lots of kids even rural ones WON'T be able to learn to drive because the cost is prohibitive.

No they aren't, they are saying 17 year olds are too young to drive and that it is a luxury and that teens should make their own way to jobs.

One poster seems to think because only 1/5 of the 67 million population live rurally that we must all be lying (transport and opportunities in small towns is also rubbish)

Driving when living rurally is a necessity- and I completely agree with you that this factor makes rural poverty worse.

It is awful that in this day and age people do not have the necessities, hidden homelessness is also a real issue in rural areas.

Definitely agree with this. Some posts on this thread have made me think about the necessity of rural driving and how it’s linked to poverty and hidden homelessness.

This merits a greater focus, especially within levelling up narratives and expanding opportunities for rural communities. Living in my urbancentric bubble, as I do, with transport and jobs readily available, I’m ashamed that it hasn’t ever occurred to me. My dd lives at home and has no housing costs. I live within a few minutes walk of three bus routes than run several times an hour seven days a week, and where Ubers are available at will. As I’ve already said, my decisions about DDs’ cars are motivated by convenience and them not having to wait in the rain for buses, not travel in Ubers alone, and just because they can.

Thank you for the posts highlighting the need to drive when living rurally, as that is knowledge that teens who drive ‘just cos they want to and can’ should appreciate and would benefit from knowing. I think that is more valuable than the points made about my dds not having to scrimp and save in order to pay for their cars themselves.

Thank you to all the posters with ideas for things to try to help with the insurance costs. Not going to get into the debate of whether DS should learn to drive at 17 (we have reasons why it would be beneficial for both him and us). It was the financial costs involved which were more than I had expected which prompted my initial question. I wonder if as a result we will see less and less people learning to drive, you would hope that if that is the case public transport will improve and be more affordable (but that may be wishful thinking).

When you live in a town or a city, with a bus stop at the end of your road, or shops within walking distance life is totally different.

This is what people need to realise. In our village (a big village of 5000 people), you'd have more chance of seeing aliens on our Main Street than a bus. The last service bus ran up our main street nearly 20 years ago!

And no, our nearest city doesn't have Ubers, and the two main private hire taxi firms are constantly advertising for more drivers as they can't keep up with demand, so you can easily have to wait an hour or two for a taxi to turn up when you ring for one. And it's virtually impossible to pre-book one for "out of hours" such as getting to work first thing in the morning or getting one to take you home after a late night.

School kids are OK as both the main secondary schools in the next towns put on school buses (at a price, of course!).

So, in our village, which is only 5 miles from a city, driving is basically essential.

As the earlier poster says, people who live in big towns or cities and live near bus routes can't understand the reality of not living on a frequent bus route!

True, but won’t ever come down getting Ubers. Getting 10/10 for his driving so far so hoping his renewal or if we need to buy more miles it will have come down.

My ds17 is working full time and had funded the whole thing himself, car, lessons (beyond the 10 he got for his birthday) and his insurance.

We got my son an old Corsa, with me and husband as named drivers and a black box - around £1100 first year.

Though as someone said, if insurance is costing £1.30 per mile driven, uber is a cost effective alternative.

It will to some extent, because insurance comes down with age.

That’s assuming there is uber though. I wouldn’t think we are rural but there would be no chance of a taxi/uber at 5am daily.
A few years ago I was in hospital and needed a taxi to school for my dc with a relative who couldn’t drive - I eventually persuaded owner of a firm in a nearby town to do it herself (and obviously paid accordingly)

I'm afraid this has been the case for about 10 years. I had heard people being quoted £6k for a Renault Clio!

By delaying, it'll take longer to accumulate the no claims discount, reductions for numbers of years since passing the test, etc. So you basically start on higher premiums when they finally start driving/buy a car, at an older age, although there will be reductions for age without experience/NCD. It'll always be more expensive for the first time someone buys a car because of no driving history.

My 19 years old DS passed his test last week. He paid for lessons himself, and we added him as a named driver to our insurance which only cost about £100 extra and took him out as much as possible so that he didn't have to pay as much for lessons.

He has the chance to drive a small VW 15 years old. We looked at insurance for him and the quotes are anywhere from £3.5k Upto £10k with a black box. We tried every permutation of adding us on as named drivers, different parking solutions, etc etc.

He's working full time, in a flat share and just cannot afford that kind of money. He's looking into using temporary insurance, where he can insure himself from 1 hour all the way up to 1month at a time on our car. He doesn't need a car all the time so this seems like a reasonable option.

Years ago you used to be able to buy 3rd party fire and theft insurance as a cheaper way of getting insurance and starting to build your no claim discount. I checked this out for DS and it was even more expensive than fully comp. The insurance companies seem to have you by the short and curlies. They should refund you part of the premium if you don't make a claim!

DS will just need to wait a couple of years to get his own car. By then he will be on better money and should be able to afford the insurance.

My son passed his driving test at 17 - he is now 22 and his most recent insurance quote was £750 because he has built a driving history with no claims. We supported him financially in learning to drive and contributed to buying his first car. This is oddly a very angry thread. We live rurally and most young people we know learnt at 17/18 unless they were scuppered by covid. It's a life skill.

Recognising the lack of public transport options in rural areas (and indeed many urban areas outside London), unfortunately those who will be priced out of learning to drive won't be those who should never have a licence if we had reasonable driving standards to begin with. Also that motoring crimes were dealt with properly by the courts (I use the word crimes intentionally) and no letting people off because it might inconvenience them.

They should refund you part of the premium if you don't make a claim! They do in effect. They charge you a higher premium once you have claimed.

It's only on mumsnet that kids seem have their own cars at 17/18. In reality I do not know anyone that age who has their own car.

Wow that's eye watering expensive. 😱

@Mademetoxic You seem to have a massive chip on your shoulder about any parent who supports their child with learning to drive or own a car and your banging on and on and ON about it being a luxury, no 17 year old needs one, 'they are in for a nasty shock' etc is beyond tiresome. Frankly you haven't got a clue. Both my teenagers work, we do not live rurally, there are no reliable bus services any longer, twice in the last fortnight two separate taxis firms let us down and my son was late for work as he then had to cycle; it took him over an hour on busy A roads. Why do YOU get to decide what everyone else needs? The world is a very different place to the one you grew up in and I shall support both of my children in whatever way I can.

I do have a clue. I run a car myself and quite frankly find it expensive to run on a decent wage.

There’s definitely been an increase in companies like marmalade where yp can just be insured for a few weeks at a time or so many miles
We are in a fairly affluent area. Learning to drive at 17 is norm in dc’s sixth form but own car at 17 isn’t a thing. Most are insured on mum’s car, as is my dc. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as it’s a genuine share.
We were in a position to fund lessons but several of her friends have self funded - a McDonald’s shift = a driving lesson.
I definitely see it as a life skill. It’s much easier imo to learn at 17/18 when you have large chunks of time free - mine did it weds afternoon as no school then.
My cousin did a ‘crash course’ which used to be a thing and don’t seem to be anymore as he needed to pass for a job - that’s a whole heap of pressure.
My friend struggled to learn with two young children as she needed a babysitter each week.
The whole can’t book a driving test for months is another big hurdle that people often aren’t aware of.

I wasn't 17 that long ago and I didn't know anyone who actually got a great financial help from their parents either for driving.

I run a car myself. It's expensive. I do know the costs, all the hidden costs I am fully well aware of. God knows how kids can run cars.

I’m in my 30s the only help I got was my parents bought me £400 run about as my first car. All lessons, repairs, upkeep, fuel and insurance was mine to pay which I did by working. I had to learn to drive living rurally and buses only running once an hour from 8 till 6 and only to one or two places and my job at that time was home caring.

Where I live now is still rural but the buses run every half hour and to far more places than where I grew up. I will wait to see what the kids want to do whether that be uni or college or whatever before seeing if they need to learn to drive really with the free bus passes for under 25s