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?

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

Out of interest whereabouts do you live? There aren’t free bus passes where we are for under 25’s.

@Spacecowboys sorry I should have said we’re in Scotland, they get free travel with a Scot’s card under 22, not 25

There are national rail cards for certain age groups which give discounted travel.

Yes I had heard of the railcards but not free bus passes. I’m not in Scotland though so that will be why. Our rail services are awful, trains get cancelled all the time.

I’d not heard of free travel for teens until Glasgow uni tour mentioned it as a selling point.
It costs me £20 a week for teen to get public bus a few miles to sixth form so it’s a big saving in Scotland.
Mine has a 16/17 railcard but still needs a lift to station or can now drive there.
Lots are definitely driving to Uni and living at home, I pass a big line of teens in small cars waiting to turn right into uni on my office day in our closest city. If they are only on min loan a few thousand on insurance is still costing parents less than the £5000 a year top up they need to pay if teen lives away so it’s still a saving even if insurance is expensive.

My area gives discounted travel around the county as well to teens. Could see if there's anything like that in your area.

DDs is a bit cheaper with me as the owner of the car, even though she is listed as the main driver. I was going to give her the car, which was originally mine, but due to the insurance price difference I've kept ownership.

As others have said, DH and I are named drivers, which brings it down a bit.

@Mademetoxic sometimes a 17 year old does need a car these days. My dc left school at 16 & went straight to college. Also managed to find part time jobs. Living as rurally as we do, with not many buses, taxis expensive they'd passed before their 18th birthdays. This was 10 years ago though & they still needed help with paying for insurance.

Dd is 17 in March and we're starting to shop around for cars and insurance.
We're currently looking at damage/ repair 16 yr old minis for her and her dad to do up. These are still 2-3 grand to Insure.
She can't go on dhs insurance as he drives a 1.4 turbo'd corsa which would be a red rag to an insurer. Strangely enough it's cheaper to Insure her as a student than what she actually is, an apprentice mechanic.
As an apprentice mechanic she'll need her licence as soon as she can.

Just seen a top 10 stolen cars last year article and ford fiesta and corsa featured so maybe look for cars not on that list.

I would suggest learning to drive and passing a test whilst he is young. Learning to drive in your 30s is harder, and will be more expensive. Just because you can drive doesn't mean you have to!

I’m assuming those of you claiming no 18 year old needs a car, all live in London? Try living with public transport in many parts of the north which are starved of funding 😡

I take it you live in London or another large city?

A polo is an expensive car with a reasonable engine. Mine got Aygos and were insured for £1.2k year 1, £600 year 2, 500 year 3

Various across the country and not one teen has their own car. Even people my own age who live around the country not all have cars.

@Mademetoxic Same. Grew up in Lincolnshire too, think out of my whole year group maybe 1-2 people learned to drive at 17. But admittedly we were all pretty poor so running cars was a luxury.

Insurance has sky rocketed in the last year or two. My renewal quote went up 40% for no reason whatsoever this year and price comparison sites weren’t any better!

Anyway - randomly, DD18 bought a Vauxhall Adam - 7 years old, 1.4l, on paper should be expensive to insure but at £1,800 (with one named parent driver) it was the cheapest quote we got by £200. It comes down a fair bit at 18.

DS17 has his test in a month… if he passes then the cost of insuring a 17 year old boy in an automatic car will no doubt be astronomical…

The car they are driving isn’t really an issue. They could hit a £40k car or something else with massive expense, that’s why the first year is super expensive and lower engine sizes bring down the quiet. Martin Lewis says 23 days is the ‘sweet spot’ for getting the best price. Play around with adding extra named drivers and 23 days in the future.

I think it is laughable how one poster said to me 'frankly you don't have a clue'

Yes I do, I run a car myself and find it expensive as an adult earning a wage.

This is not really true though. You pass at 17, live in London. Never drive. By the time you are 30+ with 2 kids even with no no claims bonus you get 13+ yrs of having a licence and assumed to not be reckless. If a homeowner another discount. Actual driving experience only gets you ncb.

We bought dss a Volkswagen UP.

Lowest insurance group and he passed in September '23.

It was about £900 for the year with DH as tha named driver in the policy

No black box and it was through a broker with A Plan (I think) as the insurer.

It was far cheaper than anything we found online.

Polo was more expensive to buy and more expensive to insure.

DS18 passed his test last week and we've bought him a 7 year old VW Up 1.0-litre. He is paying us back monthly for the car. The cheapest insurance that we have been able to find is £3,500 with Quote me happy. Eldest DS has the same car, which was 7 year old when he passed 18 months ago and his insurance cost £1,500.

He needs a car for work, as there is no direct transport to where he works and although he can walk in the summer, it is across the fields and through the woods, so isn't really practical in the winter. Plus he goes on block release to college every month and it is 50 miles away.

Lots of teen lad apprentices earn well but live at home though and even if insurance/car is taking most of wage they don’t have overheads an adult does with housing costs etc. The car is often the social life too. The only lad at sixth form my dc knows with his own car just works extra shifts he’s always up for it if dc need’s to get rid of her McDonald’s shift.
Some teens earn well - my neighbour’s grandson is at college and is on £20 an hour as a lifeguard and has his own car. McDonald’s pays £10.60 days, £13.60 nights to teens.
As an adult with £800 a month wage you can’t splurge £500 on a car but a teen lad paying no or minimum board can.

@Mademetoxic I agree.
As much as I think its an important life skill and completely necessary in many places, the reality is its very expensive.
I'm note sure why there are so many threads about the cost of living crisis and posters not having the heating on or buying own label but on this thread everyone can afford a car themselves and at least a couple of grand on one for the kids.

I should also add this is with a black box and DP on as a named driver. DS is the policy holder and registered keeper.