young driver insurance specialists?

Jun 28, 2011 143 Replies

Son & heir has been learner-driving for a year now and his premium - as a named driver on my policy - has mercifully come down quite a way[1]; but of course he wants to take his test[2] which (if he passes) will push it stratospheric again. I found our present insurance through one of the comparison websites but someone suggested there are insurers who specialise in younger, newer drivers, who it would be worth trying. I shall try my google-fu on the problem but if anyone has any pointers they'd be most welcome.



For background it's me, 18yo sprog, and a 1.2 Corsa. I do actually drive the car (well actually SWMBO does these days - something else I need to sort out).


[1] helped by me earning a year's NCD - even though I've got full discount on my van insurance stupid f*ckwit insurance industry seems to think that safely throwing a tonne of Transit around the roads every day does nothing to alleviate my risk behind the wheel of a Corsa :-(
[2] again: he failed it earlier this year, to my parental sympathy but profound financial relief!

Someone in The Outbuilding recently recommended this mob

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operate on a "spy in the cab" basis ...

yes try the co-op one as posted above , just had one fitted (2 months ago)& I/we can log into the "dashboard" & see how good or bad his & our driving is, as we are on the policy as well, the more the merrier as it gets the price of the policy lower.

In fact I think these "spy in the cab" should be compulsory say under the age of 21, bloody insurance companies these days is a licence to print money !!!

I can remember the days when your premiums used to actually go down not bloody well go up !!!

I always found NFU Mutual very good when ours first passed but that was a few years ago now.

Jonathan

Apart from speed what can these boxes realistically report about a persons driving?

LOL, how the circle closes, they were my first insurer, aged 18, good quote on a group 5 car (from 7 in those days) but think it was TPO.

Acceleration and deceralation.

There is a reason why the ABS cuts in for some drivers on nearly every single journey they make and others can do 50k+ miles a year and never use the ABS.

I think they have accelerometers so they can report on sharp braking, fast cornering etc.

speed report: acc/braking report: cornering report: time report: safe driving report: road type usage & carbon emissions, all the data is displayed in line graph or bar graph.

its a gps, decelerometer & gyroscope all built into one unit, covertly fitted under the dash, I've not looked where it is as I work with cars all day & cant be arsed to get my head under the dash, it is also hooked up to the orange network to dial the data out.

I wonder if they have a way of telling them "no, the car was in a garage".

I can just imagine the arguments when you take the car in and report it pulls a bit when braking...

A lot of hard braking from the mechanic and your premium goes through the roof!

Darren

I've heard very good things about them as well, several colleagues use them.

I asked for a quote a couple of weeks ago and got quoted nearly 1k - my renewal from Tesco (who I've also been impressed with tbh) was 360 quid...

One thing I've noticed this year is many insurers seem to have whacked up the cost for me (mid 30s, ford Cmax 1.8 nowt special) to around the 1k mark from 400 quid last year. Tesco and Johnlewis were about the only two who haven't (tesco 360 - that's cheaper than last year!) and JL at 480.

Oh, Sainsburys were around that figure as well IIRC. Beyond that it was a couple of oddities that I've never heard of and didn't have glowing reports online, or they were all between 850 and 1k. It's as if some underwriters have suddenly decided I'm a big risk!

Odd. I'm not sure I'll ever understand insurers. At least when my house renewal went up to 3.5k one year it was understandable - we had had an earthquake 3 months earlier (albeit no claim). Again, some insurers wanted silly money, some where fine and largely ignored it in terms of premium.

Darren

Darren

Mechanics are great. I got into a race/argument with a mechanic testing out an A8 Quattro after it had a MOT and a few minor repairs a few years ago. And I mean at speeds that would give Dennis a heart attack.

My passenger at the time was my Dad and it was his A8 Quattro that was in the garage for the MOT/repairs:-)

En el artículo , ARWadsworth escribió:

Having just spent a week in Spain with a Spanish mate and come home with a few more grey hairs than I would have liked, I can attest to this.

I wonder how long it will be before they're incorporated as a standard bit of kit and the fines are automatically deducted from your credit card as you go along ?

Well at least they would be fines for speeding unlike the safety cameras.

There are only two ways to get fined by a safety camera.. to drive through it too fast on purpose or to not see it. One is contempt the other is not paying attention. Either way they get what they deserve.

No, there is a third way. To drive through it under the sincere impression the limit was other than it happened to be on that particular

5 yard stretch of road.

And of course, the ability of limit signs to be obscured by traffic, hedges and just about anything else, is legendary.

When they can automate prosecutions for tailgating and other forms of dangerous driving, *then* I'll consider automatic prosecutions fair. Until then they're just another tax, like VAT.

Pity they can't detect idiots sitting in overtaking lanes for no good reason.

At least if you're in a car, you can use Lane 3. When I'm at work driving a coach I can't, which makes the Elephantrennen (1) even more annoying.

That is two.. careless. It shows the driver is incapable of driving at the speed he was driving at. This is obvious as he was missing things he needed to know. It makes one wonder what other things he misses while driving too fast.

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