Teenage driving - any advice on making it more affordable

[wonderstuff]

DD has her heart set on driving as soon as possible when she hits 17, apparently all her friends parents are buying them a car when they are 17 - this may or may not be true - but I do understand her wanting this freedom and want to support her if I can, but my goodness it looks expensive.

I was 17 in the 90s, and I think things may have changed a bit since then!

Driving lessons, when I was young I took some lessons, and my dad added me to his insurance and took me out lots to practice - is this still something that is usually done or is the insurance ridiculous?

I understand that one now needs to book the test ahead of a set of lessons as test dates are so hard to come by? I read that 44 lessons was average, this seems an awful lot - is this about right?

I've told her she must have a job to pay for running the car. She's got 10 months until her 17th, so I've got a little time to save! She will survive without a car if need be, but she's very upset at the idea it may not just land in her lap on her birthday!

I think it depends what car you already drive - it was exorbitant to insure DS on our big family car as a learner and would be impossible once he passed his test - it worked out better to buy a cheap group 1 car for him to learn in. He did his theory test as soon as he turned 17 and booked a practical test ASAP (6 months away) He has a weekly lesson at £35/ he and we take him out a couple of times a week to practise. His instructor said he’s about 10 hours ahead of what he’d expect after 10 lessons so the practise does make a huge difference. We will try one of the apps to bring test forward if he is ready before test date. He has a job (lifeguard) and contributes to cost. It’s expensive for sure! Marmalade learner insurance is not bad but a 17yr old boy as a newly qualified driver is eye watering even in a group 1 car.

Bet her friends' parents are NOT all buying them a car when they are 17. Do you live in a rural area or are there other pressing reasons why she must drive right away? If not, there's nothing wrong with her working for a while and saving up in order to cover at least some of the costs. Don't be emotionally blackmailed into anything you can't afford.

Learner insurance ie an add on policy which you buy separately to your car insurance isn’t too expensive. Around £35 - £40 a month to add our son onto our car.. it’d be a different story once he passed though to add him to our policy if we even could as some companies don’t insure under 21s

lessons are £40 an hr and he has 2 a week

test in the next few weeks and I so hope he passes! Although I reckon a car and the first year’s insurance won’t leave us with much change from £5 or £6k!

@Patchworksack that's really helpful thank you.

@user1477391263 we are semi-rural and her group of friends seem very affluent, so they may be on a promise of a car, who knows, dd is the oldest in her group. We have access to public transport that will mostly get her where she needs to be, but her 6th form college is only served by a couple of buses a day, she has chosen a college that isn't the most local which makes transport a bit tricky, but she was aware of this when she applied. She also has some friends who live in places not accessible by public transport. I am feeling torn, we can afford to help her out with some of the cost, but obviously that will mean some sacrifice - we are comfortable, but not as wealthy as many of her friends.

It’s fairly cheap to insure them because you use an add on insurance policy for learner drivers ( we used RAC and it was about £25 per month ) . You cannot book a practical test until you’ve passed your theory and your theory test only lasts 2 yrs so that needs taking into account . IME you need an instructor that is willing to help you get tests . My daughter started lessons last January , passed her theory in March and then passed in Oct ( not her first go ) . She did practice in our car but only about 30 minutes twice a week .

I can get my head around the cost of lessons, tests & a beginner car, what I can’t cope with is perhaps a £2.5k insurance cost and does anyone have experience of why this may reduce to after a years no claims?

DS is going through this now. I am not buying him a car, although we live in the town so he doesn't want one. I only know of one teen who is getting a car, and they live in the posh town up the road.
AA lessons are £82 for two hours round here. I've got to sort out insuring him on my sensible car this week.
We don't have a theory test centre around here either. Off to S'oton next month for that. Theory test waiting times seem to be two months. Until that's done he can't book his practical.

I agree with a pp that the cost of insurance once they pass can be prohibitive.

Ds2 started in Feb 2023, took & passed his theory in July 2023 and his practical in Nov 2023.
The minimum insurance we can find is £1k pa now, and it would be similar to add him to my insurance as a named driver.
He has a bus pass for college, that he can use at other times, and driving to college would involve significant parking costs and/or almost as long a journey (including walking from cheaper/free parking) as the bus.
Driving would obviously give him more freedom (we live in a village and the last bus is at 7pm, and no Sunday service).
I think he is going to wait and see what he does after his A'levels and then make a decision - he won't need a car if he goes to uni or gets a professional services apprenticeship in London which are his 2 preferred options atm. If he stays at home and gets an apprenticeship locally then he will need a car, but will have earnings to fund it.

My only advice in learning is to get the theory done ASAP as you can't apply for a practical until you have the theory, and there is a long waiting list for practicals.
I'd then book a practical as soon as the theory is passed (new slots 5 or 6m ahead are released at 6am on Monday mornings). Once you have a slot it can be changed or cancelled upto 6 times.

Ds was paying £60 for a 2 hour lesson, but that was mater rates as he knew the instructor. I think his standard rate was £70 for 2 hour lesson, but nay have gone up now.

I also insured him on my car via Collingswood (additional insurance I'm his name to drive my car as a learner) which was cheaper than adding him to my policy as a learner.

My 17 year old son just passed his test. Marmalade wanted 1300 pounds for a bolt on insurance on his sister's 1 litre Yaris - which would have required all drivers to have a black box app to ensure he did less than 50% of the miles. She asked Direct Line how much to add him to her existing policy which had 6 weeks left to run expecting it to be exhorbitant - 98 pence!😂😂😂

We paid it and thought it was a computer glitch. But no, the renewal has come through and is still less than Marmalade wanted and with no restrictions/black box etc. Was amazed!

Mytholmroyd 98p!!!! Fantastic

I know! Has relieved a lot of the stress around how to get him driving. Direct Line aren't known for being the cheapest either. Couldn't believe it - pays to shop around I guess.

I can help you there. DS' insurance cost £1800 for the first year on a VW Polo with a black box. When he came to renew it was £1350 with no black box

We live in a high insurance area

I can only go on our experience. We live very rurally and the way we see it is it was our choice to live here not our children’s. The children have been driving farm machinery from they were around 14/15, a car was no different really. We paid for the provisional and all lessons from their 17th birthdays then a car, tax and insurance until they were 21. Insurance was approx £1800 yearly for each of them as we wanted them to build up their own no claims bonuses. We have the view that driving is important in life. We initially said until 21 but we have paid for the tax and insurance for a few years after 21 as they all went to Uni and had no means to pay for it themselves. The degrees they chose weren’t compatible with working so we footed the bills for the cars. They certainly didn’t need 44 driving lessons though, the max one needed was 25. Buying a car, paying insurance and road tax is normal imo.

I just tried a Direct Line quote on my car with ds2 as a named driver - they won't quote.

It is a 2L passat estate, and a number of insurers won't quote, but some will and I've never tried Direct Line so just thought I'd see given your post.

Oh well!

Ah shame! 2 litre car though - that's probably why?

DD17 just passed .... cheapest insurance £1600 for 1.0 litre aygo! It's crazy! You can get separate learner insurance if your own company won't insure them.

Oh yes 2L will be the reason, and hence £1k from other insurers to add him. Just thought I'd try. Have also run a quote for just me & the bloke I'm seeing on it and it's £870! I know insurance has gone up but I paid around £300 in Apr 23, so I guess Direct Line just doesn't want my business for whatever reason.

We live rurally - out of DD's 5 closest friends - 3 were bought a car, and DD and one other shared a parent's car. The shared cars were newer/nicer in DD's view. First year insurance once passed was 1200, renewal shot up to 1800. Currently just adding her to the older bigger car as and when she is home from Uni.

The minimum insurance we can find is £1k pa now, and it would be similar to add him to my insurance as a named driver.

That does not seem too bad. I’ve just had my renewal, LV are asking for £835 ( increased from £385 this year) for me - only driver, age 66, full no claims.

Obviously I will be shopping around but that seems a reticula’s amount if a new, young driver can get insurance for not much more, assuming that you sons is also fully comp.

I agree that it isn't out of line with the marketplace (these were quotes in Nov & Dec 2023), but it is A LOT of money given the use he would get of the car. Hence waiting till after Alevels to see what he does.

Edit - have just done a market comparison quote for myself & DP (no DS) and they are mostly around the £280 level, so comparable with my current insurance from Apr 2023.

On number of lessons, for oldest DS we did conventional route mostly with driving instructor. I think probably about 30 lessons.

2nd DC started with an instructor got but they never got on. Did about 5 lessons. Was impossible to get another instructor without a huge wait so we took them out, read on line what you needed to do on a test, reviewed the marking scheme. Watched videos and did it ourselves.

44 lessons is way too many IMO.

The RAC say that the average is 44/45 hours of lessons to pass . So if you have 2hr lessons that is only about 22 lessons . My daughter only did 1 hour lessons as she has CFS and 2 is too much .

Thank you - it’s big bucks isn’t it - almost not worth starting the process unless you can commit to thousands for insurance too

We had a similar experience, got a little VW Up which DD is already insured on, passed her test 2 years ago, went to add DS on when there was only a couple of months left and they gave me £9 back! No idea how that happened, all I can think is the total policy had come down in price during the course of the year?? Nice surprise when I was bracing myself for having to fork out yet more money!