Restrictions after passing driving test?

[WatchoutDSisdriving]

DS is due to take his driving test soon and we are starting to think about him driving after his test.

He will be driving our small sensible family car which we don’t use that much so is fairly available for him to use. We are paying insurance etc. He will likely have enough money for a small car of his own in six months.

He wants to drive friends to a party the evening of his test (assuming he passes which he should ordinarily do). And then go on a mates day out two days later with a car full. We are not happy about this but he sees us as being really unreasonable.

i have sent him links explaining the chances of an accident for a new driver are vastly increased with friends in the car. But also saying we’re not doing what I know someone has done and refused all passengers for 8 weeks!

We think he needs to get some practice driving on his own before taking mates out and at night.

Did anyone put restrictions on their teen immediately after the test? What were they? Did it work?

Any ideas or thoughts very welcome, thanks. We are trying to get a sensible balance.

I have no advice but have just read that link posted upthread. I am hoping (selfishly) that those restrictions will not apply to 'mature' new drivers - I am currently learning to drive at the ripe old age of 38 primarily to cart my children about (school etc) which I won't be able to do if they restrict passengers under 25 for a couple of years after passing

If you’re financing a car (in this case your own car) you can put any restrictions on you damn well like, reasonable or otherwise.

I certainly wouldn’t want a legal minor under my care having unrestricted access to a car anyway.

If he wants to drive to a party on the day of his test, there’s an element of showing off there already. Peer pressure from drinking friends could spark something unwise.

Stick to your guns.

Oh and DS’s black box has an app and he presses a button on the app to indicate a journey for which he is driving. I don’t know if all black box policies work the same way.

Brush My Ds is fine at the moment, he is mainly doing journey he has either driven before or has been in the car being driven many times.

As a stop gap, I suggest that you get your DS to drive his work route with someone in the car a couple of times to get used to it and he will expand from there to driving that by himself and then to less familiar places but on roads he has driven before. I don't think it's a bad thing. I had low confidence with my driving as I returned to it after a very long gap. I started just by doing the same route over and over again, then if I had to go somewhere new, i'd look at the route on google maps first and plan where I was going to park etc before I went, it really helped. Jumping into the map and seeing what it looked like also helped as I knew roughly what the buildings looked like etc before going so I could focus better on my driving.

DSs blackbox doesn't get fitted until next week but we've taken the view that we will try not to drive that car if possible so we don't skew the data!

Well he passed!

Dashcam is set up and we are waiting for the black box to arrive. He has driven himself to work and has given a friend a lift home during the day as well as a couple of trips out on his own just to get comfortable. No driving to parties or day trips out though!

We have made clear he is to ask to borrow the car and that all trips are at our discretion.

WaxOnFeckoff we will still drive the car but I wonder how we will all react if the driving score goes up or down!! We have gone with direct line and they send the box in the post apparently and we have 28 days to fit it. I will be fitting it the moment it arrives!

Battleax I think the boxes that you have to press to say you are driving just relate to the add-on policies that are not the main policy for the car? I think the marmalade one is like that. I didn’t want to do that as you are only insured if you actually press the button, what if you forget??

Yes we did go with an add on, mainly because it worked out about £700 cheaper than adding to the main policy. It also lets him earn NCB, (but I suspect DL does too?). Luckily DS isn’t likely to forget to do it (touch wood ). Complicated business isn’t it?

It is complicated indeed! DS can earn no claims with DL but as with all policies it needs to be a full year which he won’t reach as the plan is he will buy his own car nearer Christmas time.

£700 cheaper wow! I was amazed that it only cost me £280 to add DS on for the last six months of my policy. I had been expecting a lot more so jumped at it!

I'm with D L and it was much more expensive than other quotes i had however, I asked for him to be insured as the main driver on my car for the day that his box gets fitted and they've only charged me £2.40! It's a higher excess but then so is his own insurance. That's less than his bus and train fare for school so was impressed.

Oh and congratulations to all those new passers!

I went with admiral, the initial quote without a box was £1500 which was the cheapest we could find (DS is the owner and main policy holder of a little banger with a 1.2 engine and DH and I as named drivers). if I did a multi car policy though with our other cars to be added when the policies run out it came down to £1200 so I did that.
It wasn’t as painful as I was expecting to be honest.

Ours was about 750 with the box. DH as owner and keeper and DS as main driver with me and DH as named drivers. That's in a demonstrator car but it's insurance group 1. I've got almost the same car and we've just done a Costco trip in it up and down the motorway and it was fab. Think we are going to enjoy them.

What car is that WaxOn?

I have enjoyed sending DS our Togo and deliver stuff for me today 😀

Out to go, I have not sent him to Togo 🇹🇬 😂

old cheap cars ar e not death traps by definition. the driver is the biggest risk.

That's for a Skoda Citigo Watchout Like this one but last years pre registered demonstrator with only 2500 on the clock.

usedcars.skoda.co.uk/en/used-cars/skoda/citigo/3-door-colour-edition-10-mpi-60-ps-5g-man-q4bluem

DS is 6'3 so we had a job finding something suitable but he fits in this with room to spare!

Those of you with teens looking for insurance-look into bonus accelator policies. It’s a 10 month policy not 12, but you pay for 10 not 12 and at the end of the 10 months you have a years no claims (if, indeed, you haven’t had an accident, Obvs) it’s a good way to build no claims quicker and so get slightly cheaper cover quicker. It’s all legal and fine and no issues with doing it. I worked in insurance for 6 years and I did bonus accelator policies for mine 😊

Yes, we looked at that custard for us it was only £50 cheaper than a 12 month policy, obvs you hope that they have no claims so you benefit from a discount from month 11 onwards so that could make it better value. However, in our case, DSs are only 13 months apart and DS2 is keen to start learning as soon as he is 17. Potentially we have him needing to be added to the policy as a 50/50 driver (or maybe even main driver) just as DS1 hopefully gets his first no claims discount so we decided it would be of little or no benefit for us.

It is however definitely worth a look for those in different circumstances :)