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!

Regarding insurance once they have passed, we are all insured on the VW Up, around 4 years ago with just my husband and myself it was around £200. This went up to £950 when DD passed her test. This year’s renewal was £650, DD driving 2 years + including DS learning to drive. Haven’t looked yet what it will be when DS passes, but expecting it to go up over £1k unless we go for a black box. We bought the Up knowing it was a low insurance group, we need a run around, we all share it.

We did the learner policy added to mine. Dd learnt in my 1.6ltr estate and had lessons. 4 years ago now with a big covid interruption for lessons. The learner policy could be taken out for a few weeks at a time.

We’re planning to wait till they are out of Uni and then paying for lessons and a first car. Statistics on death and serious accidents from 17-23, especially for males, are the reason. That’s also the reason the insurance is so steep. We are happy to give them lifts, there are buses and they have bikes.

My DS has to save at least half of the money for a car. I am matching his savings (up to a set maximum) and helping him buy the car, but I want him to value it and look after it, so he needs to contribute.

As a single parent and he and DS2 playing lots of sports I really WANT him to get his licence! There are strict rules about how many friends etc can be in the car and he's quite cautious so I'm not panicking about him driving tbh.

And as I work for an insurance company I'll get half price insurance for him so that will help.

We live rurally so it was important both dc learned to drive. Ds about to start and lessons are £35 an hour and they are for 2 hours. Elder dc passed 6 years ago and insurance has definitely increased in price and i was shocked looking for ds 17 now. Both dc had Saturday jobs from 15 and saved for their own cars. We paid for insurance and still do for eldest ds as he is still in education. For is having them driving will save us money and time so it is worth it.

It’s ten years since my sons learnt to drive but at the time we took the advice on the Martin Lewis website. I can’t remember the name of the best company then, but a Black Box was part of the deal once they had passed.
The insurance was considerably more once they had passed though than when they were learning.
They had driving lessons as their 17th birthday present from all the family and both did jobs at the weekend to contribute.

Don”t feel pressurised into buying a car. It’s not as common as teens make out, or least, not in where I live.

Always add a parent to insurance to bring the costs down (bit don’t front).

They need to pass their theory test before taking their practical so be aware of this. In our area, it’s common to do two hour lessons rather than one hour.

Theres also a .’community driving school’ near us which I think offers cheaper lessons, if you’re on benefits etc. May be worth looking into if this applies to you.

I was always fascinated by cars and my dad talked to me about what he was doing when driving from a young age. I worked from 15 and saved up. When I turned 17 my parents paid for 3 lessons and I bought a block of 10. Couldn’t drive either of my parents’ cars so it was just the lessons. I passed my test 8 weeks after turning 17 and bought my first car and insurance with my savings.

DD is 13 and has been driving on a track for a year. She knows how to drive so will just need to learn how to drive on the roads when she turns 17. She already knows a lot from talking when we are driving. We’ve been saving for her since she was born, and she adds birthday money etc so she will buy her own car when she gets to 17.

It’s an incredibly important life skill in our view. Sooner the better.

The insurance when they are learning is much lower than when they pass, we paid a couple hundred when learning.

You can make it much cheaper by doing lots of practice. DC only had a few lessons. Lots of info on line about test routes and you tube videos of the routes and tricky parts of the test ie some roundabouts etc.

I would also recommend, if you live rurally, driving them or getting them to drive to their lesson. The main purpose of the lessons, imo, is to do routes and drive in the town you are taking the test. This way they maximise the time learning in town.

DC has a black box, this has lowered insurance cost massively. They have retained the box since passing. For me, it also gives a a bit of peace of mind because if they speed they will lose their insurance (as I won't pay for it). You just have to remember not to speed if you use their car!

We made it clear to dd that we could not afford to fund a car and driving lessons for her. We gifted some on her birthday and added her to my car insurance for a few months ( until renewal). Turns out I am a rubbish instructor and we would have been better putting * the money towards lessons.

Dd had a job and funded the rest of the lessons herself. We have bought her 1st car but on a loan basis, she is very slowly paying us back ( needs to get to her apprenticeship).

It may feel 'mean' to some but we have always said whatever we pay for with dd1 we have to be able to pay for dd2 and 3.

A lot of my friends’ kids did get cars but I wasn’t buying three more! One of DC’s peers at school got a brand new Range Rover Evoque 😳

So much useful information, thank you so much everyone. I will look at money and work out what we can afford to fund. Looks like practice in my car is possible and useful, so thats good to know. YouTube for route videos and driving her to lessons is interesting, hadn't thought of either of those. Lots to think about and save for.

@adriftinadenofvipers that is mad! She defintely won't be getting anything fancier than a Aygo..

@Greentime101
Check out the insurance costs on moneysupermarket etc for every car you look at.
There's no way a sensible car will cost that much to insure.
1.3 litre fiesta was about £900.
A 1 litre C1 / Aygo etc would have been around £750
Both for 17 yr old boy just passed his test with mother as named driver (reduced the cost).

It’s £35 a lesson here. I had 12 lessons 33 years ago. Most 17 yr olds I know are taking about 4 month to pass so not much difference. I’ve just bought my nearly 17 yr old a car but I got an inheritance or she’d be on her own. I’ll pay for insurance tax and mot for the first year. She’s asked for lessons for her Xmas and birthday from everyone so thats covered cost wise. Learner insurance in her own name is £280. But once passed it’s about £2500 for the year. She got a 1.4 corsa. She gets money when 18 so that’ll cover next years insurance etc. We live rural so a car very much needed.

My son bought a corsa when he was 18. We had been paying into an account which matured. I took him out in that but only once he was competent following a number of lessons. Even so it was a nerve wracking experience for me! Before his test we went out most days which helped with his overall awareness and road sense. Some kids seem to pick it up more easily than others. He had quite a few lessons.
.

My DD passed today! Probably about 30 ish hours (I’ve lost count, tbh) and we’ve taken her out a bit, but not loads. We only have 1 car, so have bought her a cheap Fiat 500, insurance is £1400 for the 1st year.

Insurance is very expensive. Before you can book your test you need to have passed your theory test, theory tests only last 2 years so it's good to get a few months of lessons under your belt before sitting that. Currently the wait for tests is 6 months. 44 lessons would be the absolute minimum you'd need to take.
My 20 year old 1l engine car would cost my DSS £8000 to insure and he's 20 with 2 years no claims after passing on his 18th birthday.

@LunaLovegoodsLeftEyebrow - but those statistics are due to the fact that there is a much higher proportion of new drivers in this age group. Being a slightly older but still new driver won’t necessarily mitigate against these risks or mean that the insurance will be much lower.

I’ve noticed when dropping my DC at school there are quite a few 6th formers parked up in their own cars chatting to each other with windows down. Kind of showing off. Some of them have better cars than me. My ex H couldn’t even afford a car the past few years. We live in a new town, very mixed area. All kids pretty much go to the same high school. It’s massive. It’s very accessible by bus and buses run from most parts of the town (weirdly not from our house but it’s only a 20 minute walk max but I checked buses for days when it’s heavy rain and the kids would have to get off as walk half the way). But the kids at the further end of town can all get buses.

I did wonder whether this was going to be some expectation when mine are older. Im a single parent on tax credits. Not sure if I’ll afford this in the future. Depends if I take on more work or change jobs. My eldest has no desire to learn (she’s autistic but very able and no learning disability but is easily stressed). My youngest is likely to want to learn.

@NancyJoan congrats to your DD!

Had discussion today, I've said I will pay insurance on my car and take her out when she's learning and I'll cover insurance when she passes, but she needs a job and she needs to save for a car, depending other financial pressures would probably help with this a bit too. She seems happy with this. It's an odd one in that there are buses to college, but only twice a day and it's a long route, an annual bus pass is £800, so travel quite expensive whatever we do.

We live a few miles from a town on the same trainline for the town college is in, so she could drive a few miles to the station and then train would get her to college from there in 10 minutes, which if timed right would be quicker than driving in. The college are quite clear there's no parking for students unless they have disabilities. Driving would make her life much easier and probably make it easier to work and socialise. She's a good sensible kid and we are lucky to be able to consider it doable, I'm largely in the position to due to inheritance from my dad, and he was of the opinion that driving was an important life skill, he was fantastic at taking me out when I was a teen.

My DD just got hers, it’s minimum 120 hours here in Australia - 100 daylight and 20 nighttime hours. So 45 seems so little!

You do your theory test at 16 and then you do the driving test when you turn 17 so you have a year of learning.

DH and my dad taught her and she had about 8 professional lessons spread out in between where the instructor assessed how she’s going, if she’s picked up any bad habits and took her on the test routes so she’d be familiar.

She bought her own car and learnt in that but went in the instructors car for his lessons and the test.

They don’t need to be added to your insurance while they’re learning here but once they need their own it’s astronomical 😖

44 lessons would be the absolute minimum you'd need to take.

that seems utterly ridiculous.

We taught DDs to drive and they had a few "how to pass the test" lessons when they were ready.