Car Insurance Bands

Big and cheap usually means a French salon or estate. They depreciate massively in the first 3 years.  Lots of ex-company cars as well, usually huge miles but perfect maintenance records. Watch out for diesels, new MOT regs mean loads of them are going to fail due to showing visible smoke. If you go for a diesel it needs at least 11 months MOT, if not a fresh one. If the seller won’t do  a fresh one, ask why.

Octavia or a Superb would be my choice, don’t go for as much as they should and great cars, Mondeo is always an option as there are billions of them.

Insurance isn’t just down to age/experience/ insurance group. It’s far more complex these days. Try getting some quotes with an older relative with a good driving history included. Under 70 though. The difference for me with my mother on was £150 less on my original 2012 Swift, £220 less on my current 2017 Swift. My 2017 Swift has a high insurance group compared to something like a Fiesta because it’s allegedly quite expensive to fix, thing is it’s also difficult to break. They bounce well.

You’ll just have to see what works for you and don’t forget to try the cashback sites , can be a nice lump on offer.

Doesn’t Parkers show the insurance band? It certainly used to but I’ve not checked for years.

Just to add to the talk on Insurance, where you live and what you do are also hugely important. For example anyone with an Aldershot address is hugely disadvantaged versus the almost contiguous Farnham. Similar disparities apply to jobs. IIRC Reporters are weighted out of sight compared with Teachers.

I cannot argue with any of the above, though I wonder why you are going for the car before you have a full licence? I would expect that to change the insurance landscape.  Years back I bought a Jazz as eldest daughter was learning to drive and neither of the other ‘then’ cars would be insurable. Then she had a medical condition and that was that for ten years or so, during which she collected in no special order a partner/husband, a house, two children and two dogs. Two child car seats do go in the Jazz along with two fair sized dogs, one is a husky. The Jazz is now in its 13th year and just about run in with 98,000 plus miles; The photo from 2013 shows the dogs in the car, car and dogs both still with us. The Jazz has generally been good for spare parts only an electrical problem and worn brake pads/disks. Sometimes, I repeat, sometimes a good broker can help to focus your search.

It’s always hard to sell an older car and not have to spend 3 or more times the price just to get a similar car is slightly better condition. It’s why I have in the past always kept cars past their best.

Back to the van, once you go over the 2 seater size, the insurance evens itself out, so if you need more than two seats, it won’t be for you. In my day (lol) the police had no issue prople Sat in the back. I think the law may off but I never got any issues for it. And had a few road side stops with both mates and my kids sliding round the back. Looking back now hardly safe, and wouldn’t dream of it today.

Also, be ready for whatever you buys insurance to jump through the roof once you pass! This was a new one on me I found out this year my girl passed. Her insurance more than doubled on passing.

So while you’re checking for insurers, play with the provisional costs, and a brand new full licence cost..

Insurance is classed in groups, and tax in bands. Btw. Also just cos the insurance group is lower, doesn’t always directly correlate with its premium price. Newer cars are always cheaper than older cars of the same greoup, there is now to many variables, personal, and both car spec.

A car is grouped by model, but the entry level of said model will usally be more expensive than a higher spec model. As the higher spec will have sometimes updated saftery features.

This is even more true with N-cap ratings. Don’t just dismiss a 3 star car, over a 4 or 5 syst one, on face value.also a 5 star car thst is 6 years old, is likely to be less safe than a 4 star car today. To get a 5 start rating each year they add features they must have. I know today a car loses a star for not having padestrian saftey detection on  It. Or additional “soft” impact zones between the engine and bonet for pedestrians to bounce off. All good things, but hardly top of a list when in a budget.

I also have a fealing now daylight running lights are mandatory, older cars withoit DRLs, may now of had a premium bump. But that one just speculation on my part.

If you have a pram or buggy, the likes of the jazz won’t fit a young family, as the boot is no bigger than a ka. You may fit the phase 3 buggy in, (the £15 one every one buys when they realise how stupid they have been with there original £400 pram come buggy choice), but that would be a squeeze, and then the shipping would have to be piled on The kids.

I always ford saloons was cheap to insure. My rover 420 sli was only about 150 dearer than my escort van. And that had some go in it. But by then I’d had about 4 years experiance. But it was cheaper than a hatch of the same era and price. Probably down to safety kit. Plus saloons (non German) come with most of the luxuries as standard.

For the love of god avoid German. The quality is marginally better, for a larger premium and larger maintance costs.

Continuing after I had to rush off, my reason for mentioning the Jazz is that it has five doors, the great flexibility it has delivered to us and the height of the rear sill, which suited our increasingly elderly Labrador, either on his own or when he joined my daughter’s two dogs in the rear. There are many possible cars that could suit your needs but in the end it is a matter of lets and balances. Nothing is perfect.

A greater issue than insurance and to a lesser degree tax is the issue of maintenance and your ally here is a good trustworthy garage. Someone who does what is needed and at a cost that you can find reasonable.

I refused to have anything to do with the string and knitting needle buggies, the prams we used came with proper supporting hard back structures though they were able to fold when needed. It took a degree of care to insert them behind the seats but avoided the need for a major size bus just for the pram – as grandparents not parents that was something we were happy to avoid. Certainly the ability to fold down the rear seats has been a boon when taking construction waste to the tip, the sort of role an older vehicle is more suited to handling than something with more current pretensions. However, this does illustrate each writer’s experiences and tastes. I guess each is seeking to show why their choice suited them. While my choice back in 2006 was based on factors relevant at that time, good fuel consumption, high reliability, not too expensive to run and hopefully easy to learn to drive on. The latter was met, but health issues killed that need. The other factors were met and over time other benefits emerged. As I said earlier, it would not be a first choice vehicle now as the dealership is too far away.

Daughter and son in lay have a SEAT, which is currently serving them, though with some unexpected running costs such as the unreliable rear seat belts that have had to be replaced as not covered by the warrantee. Many years ago we had a cheap FIAT estate, it was less flexible, could carry less but had the disadvantages of an older car, except the simplicity of its mechanical parts, reliability was not great.

I have grown chary of recommending specific solutions, rather I seek to encourage a wider exploration of options against needs and testing the validity of assumptions. Lugging a large vehicle about every time when the maximum need rarely arises may not be the best choice. Would a recently qualified driver or their partner be more at home in something else? Having had two children and now two grandchildren, yes I am one behind in the body count. But having dealt with children while living in several different countries and continents I have grown to value flexibility. In my book one size, colour, style, etc does not match all needs. The choice is personal and must allow all factors to be weighted by the chooser when they make their selection – try before you buy is certainly worth a punt. As is remembering that today is one snap shot of life, tomorrow, next week, month, or year may see different needs arise.

A deep rear load space sill will likely become an issue of changing importance as the dogs age.

When it comes to what you actually pay, you may get a fair-sized reduction if you agree to have a black-box spy installed to monitor your driving. I believe Drezha initially had one of these so he may be able to give his experiences. It probably (not certain) may be advisable to fit a traffic camera as well to ‘prove your innocence’ in 50:50 cases.

Yes Steve, My daughter and SiL thought the same way. I think we all point more or less the same way, whatever you do there is always something else to second guess and fleece you.