Taking 17 year olds out for driving practice

[Sparklingbrook]

Anyone else doing this? just wanted to compare notes.

I feel slightly awful that I am dreading DS2 driving ssd he's a totally different character to Captain Sensible DS1.

How does the black box gizmo work when there's more than one of you driving the car? I would worry that someone else's driving could affect DS1 IYKWIM.

it works by tracking your driving, the speed, smooth driving, something else I forget!! but it also tracks when you drive and it goes against you to drive short journeys and at peak times or early/late times of the day....also it shows a map of exactly where the car goes, so it would appeal to lots of the MN mums who love tracking their sons every move . TBH having one fitted in the car (it plugs into something in the car, its no fuss at all) was the only way we could afford ds1 coming onto our insurance. It does mean we all have to drive carefully, but we seem to do that anyway. I think if we were mad speeders or such the insurance would go through the roof. A big plus is is that ds1 is a bit tight with his money, I mean he's a saver and doesnt like to waste money, so the thought of paying extra on his insurance, if he sped or drove recklessly, really annoys him, so he is extra careful to drive within the speed limits at all times, which I think is a great habit to get into this early in his life. .. your oldest boy sounds a lot like mine!

YY DS1 is a right tightwad too. DS2 can't spend his money fast enough.

I think I might look into the black box thing but I am still doing school runs so quite a few short journeys and picking the teens up at all hours.

just checked ours, it compares 5 things:-

smooth driving (checks the driving isnt erratic)

road risk (checks the car isnt being driven on busy roads all the time with a higher risk of accidents happening, though how you avoid certain roads I don't know!)

time of day (doesnt like you driving too early or late in the day, again cant be helped if you have to do this)

length of journey(doesnt like little short journeys too much, which we do a lot!)

comparative speed (dont speed or at least dont drive too fast)

TBH dh and I drive relatively ok, we sometimes speed a bit say on 30MPH roads, like say 35 ish, but we dont drive like looneys, I just checked our results and it said we've done 1718 miles since the gps box was fitted and we've scored 74% so far, which must be acceptable as the insurance hasnt gone up. Our insurance for dh and myself was around £250 a year for us, adding ds1 to it made it go up by £500, he's 18, so we paid ours and half of his and its all worked out ok...so far!!!

TBH, it doesnt seem to be too strict, we do mostly short journeys and drive early every morning, we also go over the speed limit a lot, just by a bit, not too much, we use busy roads all the time....basically with one car for the whole family its used a lot...and it seems to be working out ok. I'd say go for it if I was you, phone your normal insurer and ask them about putting ds1 on your insurance with the black box, hopefully you'll get a decent price.

and ds2 spends like mad here too

It does sound all very reasonable.

It's all good experience for when we have to do it second time around.

I refuse to believe ds2 will grow up, I want to keep him my baby wee one for ever!

I would certainly recommend using Admiral and consider using a multi car policy if you have two cars. We have just been quoted £1500 in total for myself, husband and DS1 (19) to drive our Audi A3 (1.9 engine) and all of us plus DS2 (17) newly passed to drive Toyota Aygo (1.0 engine). With no blackbox required on either - although would have been happy to have for DS2. Much better value than any other quotes on the comparison websites.