I think aspiration is a good thing but when things like insuring a car you really like start costing you what must be at least 30% of a 17-19 yr olds income before tax (thats assuming they are in work) then something isnt right.

Depends what the rest of that income has to pay for - most young people I know with expensive cars live at home so don't have to pay for things like rent/mortgages, rates, utilities, etc. And generally whenever any do claim to be "paying their way", it's not even close to what it would be if living independently.

So...if you didn't have to pay any household bills, would you find yourself with a big chunk of disposable income to cover the cost of a better car?

Rob.

Completely agree Rob - I contribute towards the cost of the house but it is nowhere near (not even half) of what I'd be paying if I was repaying a mortgage or renting, and paying all of the household bills.

Excellent and well laid out post there Andy.

I've also wondered how many of these youngsters can afford the horrendously expensive insurance figures that are being bandered around.

I can only assume that they've either got well paid jobs, or parents that are in a position to help their offspring out on this.

Off course, and has been pointed out excellently in the previous couple of posts, living at home with mum and dad and only contributing a fraction of the usual normal living costs is a big factor in their ability to able to fund and run a car.

I've laid down the rules here anyway, and he fully understands that after the initial purchase of the car from me (an early 18th b.d pressie) he's on his own in terms of insurance, tax, tyres, repairs and genneral maintainance.

Very fortunately, he's been saving like mad for the past 4 years doing many paper rounds, and now has a part time sesonal and weekend job at Chester Zoo that is payingb reasonable money. His first years premium money is sitting in the bank, but obviously we want to get that figure down as low as possible.

He's had to learn that having the things you want have to be earned by yourself, and not constantly handed out like confetti.

The car will be registered in my name, so I'll have full control on its disposal if things go wrong.

This will also give me the right to 'purchase it off him', cash in hand, when he's 19, and pass it straight over to his sister who'll then be 17 herself. He'll hopefully by then be in a position to buy something a bit quicker having had 2 years experience under his belt, and with the bit of money I'll have given him for my car that he's been using for 2 years.

Not a bad deal that ey...paying someone else for a car that belongs to me!! :eek:

Edited 17 April, 200917 yr by Mr Ree

Again, not having a dig at anyone, but just pondering the current situation, the economy is in ruins, ultimately because people can no longer manage to live within their means, taking loans for this that and the other. I think aspiration is a good thing but when things like insuring a car you really like start costing you what must be at least 30% of a 17-19 yr olds income before tax (thats assuming they are in work) then something isnt right. I'm not pointing fingers, just genuinely curious about how this young people are affording these premiums.

I think you are forgetting that most young people live with their parents, therefore don't have bills to pay. Sure they may pay keep to their parents, but this is probably around £75 - £200 a month. What else are they gonna spend their money on, if they are earning national minimum wage, they will be bringing home from a full month's work around £700. say £500 left to do what they want with. If i had my time again i would have spent most of my money when i was at home on an amazing car and insurance.

It is good that you and your son are sensible enough to know him having a vRS isn't wise . . . One of my friends when we were just passed our tests owned a 1 litre Fiat, after a year was put on his fathers insurance for his Vectra SRi. He was an extremely good driver, didn't race always obeyed the speed limits in his Fiat, but then on the third day of driving his Dads Vectra, lost control overtaking and ploughed through a stone wall onto his roof in a field, He is now in a wheelchair for life. He was the last person you would think would be stupid in a car,

Bit off topic, but i feel very strongly about his kind of thing, get him in a slow car to get some experience before he is allowed near anything quick!

Mr Ree, I think you're onto a good thing and have a great arrangement in place and it sounds like he is the kind of person that will take a good attitude towards driving. Its horrible to hear of these stories with young drivers in accidents, I remember when I was in school there were so many accidents with people who had just passed their test. Even for the most experianced of people driving presents huge risks on a daily basis, learning to drive is like any new skill thats why its good to hear of someone like your son who is approaching the subject with a decent mindset.

With regards to my earlier post and that query of young peoples outgoings, I'm glad that Graigus, Yegnold and robmawer picked up on the living with parents topic as that is what I was getting towards. This thread just got me thinking about a newsarticle I read the otherday claiming figures as high as 1 in 5 UK adult males still living at home with parents. Couple this with the economic situation and it makes you start to think about spending habits and attitudes etc. Again, I'm not criticising * anyone, I was just astonished at the amounts that some people are actually paying for their car insurance.

To derive the humour from the whole economic situation, the last thing I'm going to do is lecture people into spending money on their cars as opposed to establishing a firm base in life in the form of buying a house, as the phrase 'safe as houses' doesnt really have the same meaning any more with the amount of people now in negative equity .

Anyway, so from taking the thread completely off on a tangent...

.

Anyway, so from taking the thread completely off on a tangent...

I wouldn't worry about that Andy. This thread went'sort of' off topic pages ago!!

Been a very interesting read all the same.

It's my thread anyway, so there!

Mr.Ree, your saying the car will be registered in your name but your son will be be having his own insurance policy, the problem is the insurance cos. will only give a policy to your son if the car is registered in his name not yours. If the car is registered in your name then you will have to be on the policy and he will have to be a named driver, the good news is it will be cheaper. Some insurance cos. will count his future no claim driving record towards his NCB for when he does eventually have his own policy and register a car in his own name. In our case I insured our little Arosa for the whole family whilst the daughter is learning to drive for £463 with Tesco.

I know this as I have been through this process with my young daughter.

Have you both made up your mind which car you are buying yet?

Does passing your test increase your premiums then? :confused:

If thats an issue try Direct Line. Have been awful customer service, but the prices have been good in my experience. The price doesn't change when you pass either.

Mr.Ree, your saying the car will be registered in your name but your son will be be having his own insurance policy, the problem is the insurance cos. will only give a policy to your son if the car is registered in his name not yours. If the car is registered in your name then you will have to be on the policy and he will have to be a named driver, the good news is it will be cheaper. Some insurance cos. will count his future no claim driving record towards his NCB for when he does eventually have his own policy and register a car in his own name. In our case I insured our little Arosa for the whole family whilst the daughter is learning to drive for £463 with Tesco.

I know this as I have been through this process with my young daughter.

Have you both made up your mind which car you are buying yet?

Once again, ignorance is bliss ey?

Not having been in a position of having to insure someone else before, I wasn't aware that the car would have to be registered in his name if he's the named main driver.

As our friend Tigger Fish mentioned after your post, I contacted Direct Line, and it seems he can earn NCB as a named additional driver, BUT, that can only be used against a D.L policy apparently.

Any'ow, the premium comes out a quite satisfying £1005 fully comp, or a 'mere' £750 TPF&T, and that's after he's passed his test (hopefully) too.

Oh yes, the car?

I've found a very nice 1.1 Hyundai Getz through a garage/main dealer friend of mine, 53 plated, black metallic, 3 door, 2 owners, taxed/mot'd, 34k, bit grubby and in need of a good bath, scrub, and polish, but not knocked about. Just needs the radio replacing as it was broken into recently via the front /n/s glass (replaced)....who nicks these now????

Also needs some very minor paintwork on the bottom of the n/s wing, a new wheeltrim, and 3 of the original tyres are getting near the limit.

Trade value £1850, mine for £1500.

I'm happy with that, and will be collecting it tomorrow. It can then sit on the path on my trade policy, being lovingly washed and polished for the next 2 and half months by his lordship .

As our friend Tigger Fish mentioned after your post, I contacted Direct Line, and it seems he can earn NCB as a named additional driver, BUT, that can only be used against a D.L policy apparently.

Don't quote me on this, but I think that if you can get it in writing from Direct Line then the Co-operative Insurance will honour it as well. This is what they said in March but that could well change. Check first as I am not 100%.

Thats right, usually the ins. cos will only honour their own NCB earned by a named driver, but some will accept NCB from from other ins. cos. as triggerfish explained. There is also no written law saying every ins. co. has to honour NCB's earned by the policy holders either. With so many households having 1,2 or more cars with their kids driving, I would think the named drivers with thier NCB will be become ever more transferable, if one ins. co. does it then others tend to compete for the same business.

A Getz eh, strange choice for a teenager but I'm glad you found a car that the boy is happy with and will be cheap to run, you will probably end up using it as the family runaround as we do, and it will never break down being a Hyandai.

As our friend Tigger Fish mentioned after your post, I contacted Direct Line, and it seems he can earn NCB as a named additional driver, BUT, that can only be used against a D.L policy apparently.

Not true, other companies will honour this too.

I was a named driver with Direct Line for a year on a 1.4 207. When I bought the vRS Elephant honoured my year's no claims even though it was only as a named driver.

Put your name as the policyholder. Get him a couple of year's no clams then when he takes out a policy in his own name it should be considerably cheaper.

Im no expert but i do work for a insurance company, and most insurance companys will not insure a under 25 on a vRS on the basis it comes out as a group 9* e.g higher risk etc. The few places that do quote will be asking for as much as a vrs is worth almost - as stated in one of the previous quotes by someone with 5,00 pound quote.

Id say he is better with something like a 1.9sdi golf mk or a 1.4 golf/ focus (and before everyone says they didnt' do a 1.4 focus they did- see parkers)

They are cheap to insure and they are safe and they are quite stylish and in the cas eof the golf they are built like tanks (+ they are still in the V.A.G Group)

I am not a chav either but i started with a corsa (a post y plate known as a corsa-c so your aware) and they are decent little cars and contry to the other post about them they are pretty sturdy for what they are.

Just my 2 cents but its his choice

if you want to show him this is my old corsa-c and it was (barring the wheels) all vauxhall parts no chav plastic crude

i'm 21 and i got insured on an Octy vRS. it's about £990 for a year.

when i was 18 i had a fiesta zetec s which is a 1.6 group 9 and i was paying £1400 when i first got it.

Have you tried Swift Cover. You may have seen their adverts on TV. They're pretty good for younger drivers. I'm paying £430 fully comp, with no No Claims discount, commuting and social use, declared parked on drive, for my first car - a Fabia Estate 1.2 64bhp.

Just to chip in with another hey me too!

I am 19 with a 2001 Skoda Fabia 1.9SDi and I pay £1322 (under my name), I was quite suprised to get a quote arround this price, Ford Fiestas and other more traditional first car cars were coming up arround 1500-1700 (So very pleased I went with the Fabia over a Fiesta)

Mr. Ree, It sounds like you have it pretty much covered there. That is a very fair and quite awesome deal you are giving you son and also the guarenteed 'trade-in' is something i would love the option of

Just to chip in with another hey me too!

I am 19 with a 2001 Skoda Fabia 1.9SDi and I pay £1322 (under my name), I was quite suprised to get a quote arround this price, Ford Fiestas and other more traditional first car cars were coming up arround 1500-1700 (So very pleased I went with the Fabia over a Fiesta)

Mr. Ree, It sounds like you have it pretty much covered there. That is a very fair and quite awesome deal you are giving you son and also the guarenteed 'trade-in' is something i would love the option of

Good to be different I'd imagine ey Case?

I'm not particulary knocking the usual suspects ie Corsas etc., as I'm sure they're ok, but they do seem to attract a rather large contingent of wannabe sheepie nuggets, well 'round here they do anyway.

That in turn can then lead to becoming a very attractive 'pull' for plod, which in turn leads to some bitterness and resentment being created between yoof and fuzz, which in essence can lead to a rapidly degrading slippy slope, with a then bad attitude being shown towards those in authority, the general public and fellow motorists.

That's my angle on it anyway.

First post I notice btw, so welcome. You appear to have quite a mature attitude for a 19 yr old, which is most welcome....so do many of the youngsters in here btw. Good on you all, and that's from a usually grumpy teenager critisising old fart.

Edited 19 April, 200917 yr by Mr Ree

well then i was 19 i bought my fab vrs and insured it for a year with one years no claims for £600 and with my mods its still only £660 with elephant insurance

I'm 19 with 2 years no claims - £660 fully comp with more than

=P

I had a 1.4 Fabia at 18/19, and it was about £1500...

Suggest a Seat Ibiza FR... (I have one. They are awesome)

Costs less to purchase (3k less in my experiance!), insurance group 8, not 9, and does 0-60 in 0.1 less (according to the books). Exact same car under the bonnet.

Only advantage of the Fabia is the slightly better feel and quality.

My first car was a 99 Corsa 1.2 16v in a hideous shade of orange - that cost me about £1200 to insure with Direct Line in my first year of driving - I passed my test at 21 and crashed after about 3 months of driving - technically it wasn't my fault but it went against me on the balance of probability and pushed my insurance up to about £1500 a year, which was a fortune as I was working as a security guard in Topshop(!) for about £6 an hour at the time. I had a set of alloys on the Corsa which I hadn't declared to the insurance company and they had to come off and a stressful search for a set of steelies from a scrapyard had to commence before the assessor came to inspect the damage otherwise I might have found my policy to be null and void and would have been in a world of poop. The crash taught me to be a safer driver and I now, several cars and no accidents later I have about 6 years NCD and the insurance on my current car (vRS SE) is about £600 a year with Halifax.

Intresting post.

I was EXTREMELY lucky to be covered under my dads company car insurance at 17 and I was given access to that car whenever I wanted more or less. The car in question being his new Octavia vRS at the time. I remember running quotes out of pure intrest - most would simply refuse cover with some quoting almost 5 figure sums... Passed my driving test in it too

There is no golden rules to this (indeed, I managed to survice and so did the car). To me it can be determined by the persons personality and attitude to driving as to how things will turn out. Some people will just rag a car regardless of its power output, therefore they will probably crash anyways but the faster the car the greater the consequence... I could pretty much guarantee that some of my mates would have killed themselves or others if they had anything greater than the usual corsa, peugeot etc as they drove 'maximum attack' everywhere. It needs to be put across that there is a time and a place for a 'spirited drive', especially in a warm hatchback or similar and that driving a car such as an Octavia vRS (in my case) will put you well into licence loosing speeds by 3rd gear!

im 19 at the minute, and iv been driving for two years, in this time iv had a rather bad accident within about 3 months of passing my test. i now own a fabia vRS and im paying £879 with admiral, i would definately give them a try.

i'm 21 and i got insured on an Octy vRS. it's about £990 for a year.

when i was 18 i had a fiesta zetec s which is a 1.6 group 9 and i was paying £1400 when i first got it.

Fair cop- But bear in mind my post code is OL2- Which is classed strangly as a huge risk- Mainly cause Rochdale shares the same post code and has a high motor crime rate.

Your self down in Hampshire will only have half the rating we down i would getimate.

The corsa was only £600 fully comp and fully declared

P.S Pleasw note i did say Most- Not all. There are some companies out there who will insure you on such cars

im 19, no ncb, fully comp with a claim against me and im paying £1375 a year

Remember the Postcode lottery can affect the premium significantly too i.e Orkney Isles vs Gaza Strip,

http://briskoda.net/ice-security-insurance/insurance-postcode-risk-catagories/136441/