17 year old boys - tell me about driving lessons and insurance please

[Sherbert37]

DS1 will be 17 soon and has his heart set on driving lessons. He can pay for the lessons but it is going to take ages if he cannot practise in my car. I have a Corsa and know that it will be £££ to insure him. Any thoughts, best insurers, is it worth it etc?

Thanks

Insurance will be mahoosive if he's just taking lessons - and probably after he's passed too. DH is a driving instructor and he's had quite a lot of his 'newly passed' pupils phoning him to ask for a Pass Plus course as it knocks a big chunk off their insurance quotes.
It might be cheaper for him to book a couple of lessons a week rather than practise in your car. Driving tests have changed a lot over the past couple of years and you may (inadvertently) show him things that have now changed (DH can tell if a pupil has been out practising with a parent as they do stuff differently or say 'but my dad said when he paseed his test...)

It's actually cheaper to insure them while on a provisional license as they aren't going to cause as much harm while being supervised and without other young lads in the car. For young lads, the price goes up massively when they pass as they tend to cause damage to people rather than just the car.

Shop around lots to get the best price - and remeber to check the excess as they can be very high for young drivers. Quinn specialise in young drivers, and although their service can be poor (and watch their policy wording v v carefully), their prices are cheap(er)

Thanks everyone. I do feel sorry for DS1 - another thing we took for granted but is going to be out of my price range now. I am a nervous driver and don't think I will have the confidence to teach him anyway.

it was much cheaper to insure my daughter (on aged defender) as a learner than as additional qualified driver

couldn't find a company who would insure her for the car until she was 21 tho, before and after passing test

can you find somewhere for him to bomb around off-road? we had enormous fun doing that, apart from the time we got stuck in the mud

We managed to add DS to our existing insurance with a major firm of insurers last year - although the call centre initially told us that it was not possible. After tweeking its system a bit, the company was able to offer us insurance covering DS. This doubled the cost of insurance on my battered old Clio, but was not nearly as expensive as some of the quotes I have seen. When he passed the practical driving test we informed the company and there was no increase in rate.
However, we had used this firm for many years to insure two cars and this service was only available to long standing customers (who kept asking)!

Our eldest DS did some off road driving during their summer holidays (so no mud!) from the age of 15. They went with DH or a family friend and learnt the basics of gear changes, steering etc. I'm sure both also cut the outfield of the local cricket club before they passed their driving test. So they had driven a tractor as well. Easier if you live in a rural area. We never took them out on the public roads. We left that to qualified instuctors. Both DS past their tests at 17. DD had never been behind the wheel before her first proper lesson and took much longer to pass.

After they had passed their tests we insured my little car for any driver. We found that was the cheapest way for us. DS3 is 16 so will have it all to go through again.

I was really worried about how I could take my kids out in the car while they were learning so I took the advanced driving test. You join the advanced driving association and the lessons are free. I passed first time and felt so much more confident about taking the kids out to practice in the car. I encouraged them to think about the advanced driving test as well when they eventually passed.

You can pay for kids to have off-road driving lessons on racetracks including Brooklands in Surrey and Silverstone. Not cheap though. Care4families, very interesting post, thanks, I might do that then.

my daughter has her car and is on provisional license it costs her about £70 a month her insurance is in her name with me as an additional driver but it is an 2003 car.I take her out just sit next to her she can drive OK her instructor says she should of passed by now but as soon as a test comes up she panics.