Car insurance

[Arconialiving]

AIBU to ask for advice on where to get car insurance for a 17 year old newly qualified driver (in England)? DS passed today & we've been quoted £6500 for a 10 yr old Fiesta!

I knew it would be expensive but imagined £1500-£2000, not over £6k. Going to spend time shopping around tomorrow but thought I'd ask here for recommendations as otherwise he'll not be driving due to not being able to afford insurance.

(I can't be the named driver as I have an outstanding claim where someone drove into me but they're disputing it and insurance have said it's 50/50).

Fiestas are one of the most stolen cars, along with having a ‘boy racer’ stereotype. Insurers take these things into account which makes the price shoot up.

My only advice is to go with a local broker - comparison sites were useless for DD. Quotes there were in and around £8k, the broker was able to get her a far better, more comprehensive policy for £4k. This was a few months ago in a 2 year old 1.6l Mini. DD is 20 and passed her test in December:

Thanks @Malahide - will try that. Just ridiculous prices altogether though!

Specialist New Driver insurers and get a black box fitted. Regular insurance companies no longer want to tough them with a barge pole so quote insane premiums.

It will still be eye-wateringly high. The value of the old car isn’t really the issue with the premium, it’s the amount of damage it (well, he) could do. DD’s insurance was twice the cost of her (old banger) car.

It is a nightmare - you have my sympathy! Who knew that passing their driving test was actually the easy part 🙈

yes
Do not go with a fiesta , try a random
small car like a Suzuki alto or puegeot 107 etc
Fiestas are the most popular boy racer car also most stolen due to key cards in recent models ( can be stolen from drive ways in middle of night )

I found it got quite a bit cheaper when he turned 18, so we just waited til he was 18 to insure him. Still cost about £2.5k though (and this was a couple of years ago)

Could he be a named driver on your own car OP? I sold my ‘big’ car for something smaller as sharing was really the only way that DD could afford to be on the roads

Unfortunately not @Malahide as it's a company car so he can't drive it at all until he's over 21 (or 23). (The 50/50 recent insurance claim didn't really matter although it was annoying as I was definitely in the right and the guy drove into me, but now it's made a massive difference here!)

@Turophilic where / how do you find the specialist insurers?

Waiting until he's 18 isn't a bad idea as that's not too far away, if it really does bring it down significantly. Thanks all.

As is often the case, Martin Lewis is a good starting point. Having a black box fitted brought the cost down significantly for DD, as did getting quotes before she took out insurance. The “on the day” quotes were higher.

As a driver of many years, my insurance renewal quote went from £350 to £1,020 this year.

Use Comparethemarket and try difference cars and models. I was able to get a very reasonable quote on a specific Seat Ibiza model (not even a base one) and have no idea why it was half the price of similar cars.
Doesn't help if you already have a car purchased though.

I've found the Honda Jazz is low on insurance - trouble is, my 17 year old lad won't be seen anywhere near one 😂

I've been recommended Hastings Direct you drive. It's a telematics policy. I've found it to be the cheapest so far.

Thanks all - will take a look at what's been recommended. Already have the Fiesta, so not much we can do there about getting a different one!

I've found the Honda Jazz is low on insurance - trouble is, my 17 year old lad won't be seen anywhere near one

If he's that childish, maybe he shouldn't be driving yet?

Managed to get insurance for £2700. Can't believe how expensive it is but glad it was a lot less than the original quote. Thanks all.