To much relief and excitement all round, this morning my daughter passed her driving test. We are now starting to look for a small car (and I don't mean my Viento) for her to build experience and a no claims discount.

Which insurance companies offer the most appropriate and cheapest cover, and are things like black box driving monitors the way to go? She will need to use the car on a regular basis after dark, so a night time curfew policy would not be appropriate. She will be 18 in two months time.

Are there any other tips for legally bringing the cost of insurance down? For example, I have heard that putting a parent on the policy (not as the main driver) for some reason brings a discount.

Also, what would be a recommendation for a decent run around with low insurance premiums for about £3-4k?

My son uses Ingenie. Has a black box fitted qnd was the best deal for him.

N

The only thing I can advise is don't necessarily go for a small car. The insurance risk of young driver + small car is astronomical. Put her in a Mondeo or similar is likely to be much cheaper.

Adding another driver does work, I have my wife on my policy for the same reason. I doubt she'll ever drive the car, but at least she can if she has to!

For 3-4k I'd look at a 2k car and a 2k insurance premium.

Oh, and congrats to the little one, I'm almost dreading mine doing her test. She's got another 5 years to go, but it's still scary!

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/insurance/car-insurance-groups/?ig=1

We just did the comparison sites for insurance. Takes an hour or so to find out the best value (not always the same as cheapest)
Think about excesses too, a high voluntary excess can make a dent in premiums. Some also bundle breakdown cover too.

Got insurance for my son through Collingwood Insurance for young drivers, £1800 with Blackbox fitted . His car is a 1.4 sx mk5 astra 2 door
No curfew, no mileage restrictions, All they monitor is speed, harsh braking and cornering

[Edited on 30/10/15 by dunk3]

Car wise, we have just gone for a Daihatsu Sirion 1.0. 3 cylinder, 50mpg+, £30 year road tax and will sit all day at 70 mph and quote for my daughter, 18 in Feb, who passed last week was £1250 with black box, no curfew with wifey and I a named drivers. Car is like a blinking Tardis as can fit 2.4m lengths of wood inside yet has a small foot print. 2008 car, 45,000 miles cost £3,000 14 months ago

Used the meerkat site to get pricing.

hope it helps

my son is 18 he as been on the road 3 months ,we got him a golf 1.9 tdi mk 5 the 105 bhp engine ,great on fuel , direct line £2000 with black box fitted , the box came in the post about 2 weeks later ,you just plug it in to the diagnostic port under the dash , so glad he has a black box fitted when all his mates turn up in there full cars and fly off down the road with him behind i know it restricts him for now , but you can learn a lot in 12 months, i hope ,, john

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Originally posted by Slimy38
The only thing I can advise is don't necessarily go for a small car. The insurance risk of young driver + small car is astronomical. Put her in a Mondeo or similar is likely to be much cheaper.

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Can't help tbh Steve, just thank god they didn't have 'black boxes' when I was 17!! I'd probably still be un-insureable now!! But you may be able to relate to that having been on track with me?
Our compny 4x4's used to have driver diagnosic 'black boxes' and 'good driving' was rewarded with bonus points for cash rewards, I never got any for years. Then suddenly started getting cheques through the post I think I may have dislodged the ball-bearing in the 'tipometer'

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Originally posted by sdh2903

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Originally posted by Slimy38
The only thing I can advise is don't necessarily go for a small car. The insurance risk of young driver + small car is astronomical. Put her in a Mondeo or similar is likely to be much cheaper.

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Having sorted insurance for my 19 yo step son for the past 2 years I can categorically state that's not true. The size of the car seems to directly correlate to the premium. Small cars, corsa 1.4, fiesta 1.25, polo 1.4 all within 20 quid of each other. He looked at a golf 1.4 premium went through the roof focus and mondeo the same.

He actually changed the car this weekend and bought a twingo. 1.2 turbo 100 bhp. The most powerful car of all he's quoted for and its cheaper to insure than the 1.2 corsa. The mind boggles.

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Git a black box system from smartdrive for my son. It was cheaper but it also gave him an "excuse" when out with his mates to drive sensibly (big brother, actually dad is watching). The other incentive was to give him any mid term savings that came back (reviewed every 6 months based on level of driving).

He is now coming up for 19 and nit had an incident which is unusual amongst his peers.

Check out this thread
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=201049
A 17 year old + modified Alfa Romeo guilia .....no problem!

[Edited on 30/10/15 by Fatgadget]

My daughter got hit last year when she did well over the mileage she expected, and was quoted for, so be realistic about the expected mileage in the first place. Black box she had fitted had real time tracking so if you wanted you could see exactly where your little darling was.

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Originally posted by sdh2903

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Originally posted by Slimy38
The only thing I can advise is don't necessarily go for a small car. The insurance risk of young driver + small car is astronomical. Put her in a Mondeo or similar is likely to be much cheaper.

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Having sorted insurance for my 19 yo step son for the past 2 years I can categorically state that's not true. The size of the car seems to directly correlate to the premium. Small cars, corsa 1.4, fiesta 1.25, polo 1.4 all within 20 quid of each other. He looked at a golf 1.4 premium went through the roof focus and mondeo the same.

He actually changed the car this weekend and bought a twingo. 1.2 turbo 100 bhp. The most powerful car of all he's quoted for and its cheaper to insure than the 1.2 corsa. The mind boggles.

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Hi,
Please feel free to give us a try for insurance. If you wanted to PM me some contact details I'd be happy to arrange for one of my quotes team to give you a call back.
Regards,
Dan.

Just ended up with Marmalade insurance. £1217.56 for 8,000 miles for daughter and total of 7,000 miles between wifey and me. Total 15,000. Black box, no curfew, group 12 insurance, car valued at £3,000. Thought was quite a good deal but them wifey and me are old farts

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Originally posted by ste

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Originally posted by sdh2903

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Originally posted by Slimy38
The only thing I can advise is don't necessarily go for a small car. The insurance risk of young driver + small car is astronomical. Put her in a Mondeo or similar is likely to be much cheaper.

---

Having sorted insurance for my 19 yo step son for the past 2 years I can categorically state that's not true. The size of the car seems to directly correlate to the premium. Small cars, corsa 1.4, fiesta 1.25, polo 1.4 all within 20 quid of each other. He looked at a golf 1.4 premium went through the roof focus and mondeo the same.

He actually changed the car this weekend and bought a twingo. 1.2 turbo 100 bhp. The most powerful car of all he's quoted for and its cheaper to insure than the 1.2 corsa. The mind boggles.

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That's because more people crash 1.2 corsas so the premium for them is higher. Same thing when I started driving, a fiesta was loads more than a 306 as so many people get a fiesta as their first car and crash them, so they cost more as they are deemed higher risk.

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When my daughter was 18 we got her a VW polo classic (saloon shape) 1.9 SDI (non turbo diesel). It's only 64 bhp, cost £995 and was deeply un-trendy, but will sit all day at normal motorway speeds and did 60mpg and low maintenance and good reliability. It cost £900 in the end for her first year fully comp with 12000 miles declared (4 years ago not though). I put my missus and me on the policy to get to that price, (we are both 'professionals' and both have > 20 years no accidents) it took about 30% off the price - no idea why.
Regards
Hugh

Ka is cheap to run & insure, no cambelt on all of the older ones, not sure about the newer stuff, also Dacia Sandero & Logan might be uncool, but are basically a Renault built in Romania (I own a Logan - free road tax & almost 60mpg in ALL driving!), but are very cheap to run & low insurance groups.

My son had a black box fitted, none of the quotes for either of my daughters ever mentioned it - adding an older driver with clean record almost always helps, strangely my son added his girlfriend on a provisional licence & that brought policy down by more than adding me (no points, 20 years+ no claims!) so work that one out!

Both the girls found Admiral good for first year though they are both with different firms now. Use the comparison sites, but br prepared for the slog & use at least 3 as they all use different insurers & for some that they share quotes may be different

Good luck & congratulations to the new driver - tell her to keep the radio/music off or down for at least the first few weeks & try to avoid giving loads of mates lifts in the early weeks - too many distractions!

OK, report back time:

We did as suggested and trawled the comparison sites. Inputting a few different scenarios revealed that

I) Strangely, for the same small car, fully comprehensive is cheaper than third party fire and theft.
ii) Putting a parent on the insurance as a second driver does indeed reduce the premium (by about £100 in this case)
iii) You seem to have to have a black box fitted, we didn't even see any offers without one.

We ended up going for Ingenie as it was the best price and the lowest excess for the 2010 KA that we ended up buying. It cost a little over £1000 with a range of up to £200 back for careful driving as measured by the black box and a maximum of £100 extra for bad driving (which is less than the difference to the next nearest quote). No night time curfew.

Interestingly, their website says that they would like to charge lower premiums for girls as they are lower risk than teenage boys, but that EU regulations and case law prevent them doing it on equality grounds.

Only problem seems to be trying to arrange a time to get the black box fitted. It has to be done within 10 days or the insurance becomes void, and the website only offered one slot and we couldn't do it, so I need to phone them on Monday. Hopefully they won't be difficult about it

Now I'm being anxious parent as she has started to drive on her own for the first time, and in awful weather

[Edited on 15/11/15 by SteveWallace]

Glad you got the insurance sorted at a decent price as for your last comment you never stop worrying just have to learn to expect it

[Edited on 15/11/15 by ian locostzx9rc2]