To ask for your tried and tested advice-So frustrated and worried about the cost of driving for young men

[imsotiredohsotired]

Morning! So our son recently passed his driving test. After forking out £84 for every 2 hour lesson and for his learner insurance, it's time to get him insured properly.

We would like to give him use of our car. It's worth about £4k and has a 1.6l engine.

To insure me and my husband, it's less than £300pa. To add him as a named driver, it's minimum £3k with a black box (for us all). £6k without a black box.

Now, we paid for our eldest's first year of insurance as a named driver. It cost us about £1.2k more than just insuring ourselves. This time, that's doubled.

I've looked at a cheap runaround £1k (ish) for a 1l polo or similar, with his own insurance and me as a named driver (clean licence) but the insurance prices are the same.

Any hints and tips that make this more affordable for our kids? We have other sons coming up through the ranks and I feel sick at the cost- but determined to give them all the same opportunities.

What are the cheapest cars to insure?

Thank you in advance.

My son recently passed his test. He bought himself a cheap little runaround - 53 plate Citroën Saxo for £800.

His insurance is also £800, with a black box and his dad as a named driver.

He managed to vastly reduce the cost by setting his insurance to start a month in the future. I'm not exactly sure why, but it works, and his friends are now doing the same.

@JockTamsonsBairns Usually its because you're deemed more organised, and therefore responsible, if you're getting quotes that far in advance.

I guess its deciding if he really needs use of a car or not.

I'm sure if he waits a few years it will be a lot cheaper.

And if he needs it for work- then I would.expect for him to pay it himself out of his wages.

@imsotiredohsotired Purely from anecdotes, a Honda Jazz appears to be slightly cheaper for a young person to insure. Probably because most wouldn't be caught dead in one.

You won't go wrong with a Toyota Aygo/Citroen C1/Peugeot 107 (they are the same car and engine just different styling). You pay a bit more for the badge on an Aygo.

Very cheap to fix and maintain, enough power to have fun but not get in trouble and completely bulletproof. The one on my drive is sixteen years old with nearly 140k on the clock. In the family since new and has so far needed one clutch and a water pump outside of regular service items.

Speak to any mechanic and they will tell you how good they are. Famously cheap to insure.

I agree with the aygo/c1/107 mentioned above. Hastings direct with black box for insurance 1.5k for the first year.

The price is so high because young male drivers are so likely to have accidents. The best advice is to put off getting him a car for a few more years.

‘Other sons coming up through the ranks’ 😂😂😂😂 - seriously how many?

Millions.

Thanks all. Yep, I know boys get a raw deal. I know statistically they're a higher risk and generally they don't want the cute little cars but it doesn't change the fact it's tough deal just because you're a teenage boy (or a parent of them!).

Appreciate your advice and insights.

The issue with yours is it’s a 1.6L. Something 1L is what you want. Black box, if you can get one that excludes driving after 10pm or midnight it usually takes the price down. But the major thing as someone suggested is getting the policy to start in a months time.

My son drives motorbikes for this reason. A car would take up so much of his apprentice salary. Scooters (proper ones) and motorbikes are far more practical for commuting, they're usually quicker and cheaper, plus they don't tend to get congestion charges, etc.

I personally don’t see what the rush to learn at 17 is anyway. My DN turns 17 soon and his parents won’t pay for lessons until he’s 21. His mum is a senior paediatric consultant so is not entirely ignorant of teen brain development. It’s not like he needs to drive, he lives in the middle of a city and cycles to school (mostly along cycle paths and trails). He’s not that bothered.

When our DS passed his test we played around with the comparison sites. The newer the car and the smaller the engine the better. We ended up buying brand new on 0% finance. The overall cost of repayments, tax and insurance came to about a fiver a month more than if we’d kept our old car and insured him on that.

I thought insurance companies could no longer price based on sex, don't young women pay the same? Might be wrong here we're not at that stage yet.

Boys aren't paying more. They are more of a risk, but the insurance costs of young drivers is the same regardless of sex. It changed a long time back, to comply with a EU ruling on equality (that had the unfortunate side effect of increasing all women's insurance costs!)

If you want to reduce costs, don't insure him until he's over 18. He can manage without a car for a few months, surely? It drops quick sharply at 18, and again at 25.

Waited til he turned 18. It was thousands of pounds difference.

This. The law changed on 21st December 2012. It is teen girls that get a raw deal - their accident hump is much smaller but they still pay the same as the boys.

My son has a Skoda citigo, £800 for his first years insurance with a black box, me and his dad were also on the policy as 2nd / 3rd drivers which I think also reduces the cost.

The engine size and the fact that you’re looking for it to start immediately will be hiking up the quotes. Your postcode may or not be a factor too.

What car is it and how old is it? Some are harder to get parts for so they’re more expensive to insure too.

We ‘ve been through this once and will be doing it fir a second time very soon. I’m not sure that passing their tests and not driving for years until they ‘really’ need to is a great idea, but delaying the insurance starting for a few weeks wouldn’t be a bad plan.

My DS passed his test 4 months after he turned 17, and we got him a 1l Skoda Citigo with a black box - the insurance was £800. (He needed a car to get to work as we're quite rural).

A year later the insurance went down by £100, and he's now 19 and has just renewed it, and I'm shocked by how much difference having 2 years driving experience under his belt has made to the premium - it's now £400 with no black box!

I suggest you look more closely at cars with smaller engines (and different insurance companies) as you can definitely get it a lot cheaper.

They’re also more dangerous. I’d pay a lot of money to keep my son in a car.

It doesn’t matter what car you buy as they aren’t bothered about that they are more bothered that a new driver could hit something really expensive, you car could be worth 1k but he could hits car worth 50k. It’s rubbish really,

its nothing to do with being young men or getting a raw deal for being a boy, that hasn’t been the case for over a decade.

insurance is high because he’s young, it would be the same if she had a teen dd.

Pay annually rather than monthly. Out a date for insurance to start 3 or more weeks in future. It will make a massive difference.