Car insurance- why so high in the UK!

AWPC

AWPC

AWPC

Soldato
Joined
8 Dec 2005
Posts
10,732
Looking at quotes right now. Spending between £2-2.5K on a used 15 years or slightly older family car (Ford Mondeo or BMW 3 series most likely).

The quotes I am getting from insurance companies are for almost the same amount as the actual vehicle costs! in the £1.6-2.4K range!!

What am I doing wrong or are insurance companies just taking the absolute Michael here!

52 years old
Clean full manual licence held since 2002
No criminal or motoring convictions ever
Live In Central London
No garage so car would be parked on the street in a private estate
No NCB as only been driving on & off since I got the licence almost 19 years ago (is this the big problem?!)

Whatever make of car & model seems to make no difference to the quotes if its a BMW 3 series Model 2.5 or 2.0. or a Mondeo 2.0 which only costs £1.2K they still want obscene amounts of money to insure TPF&T only as do not need comprehensive at all on a car costing this little!

Please can someone point me in the right direction here I only want basic insurance for a very modest costing family car!
 
"Live in Central London"

Yep that'll do it for ya. Try a comparison outisde of the CC and ULEZ zone or outside the M25, I think you would see a decent reduction.
 
Central London - expensive
On street - can vary but in a busy built up postcode, probably expensive
No NCB - without a 'reason' this implies either no driving or had accidents - expensive
TPFT Only - sometimes this is more expensive, I can only guess as they view the risk higher on a car you don't care about enough to insure Comp

As for cost in relation to value of vehicle - this is a fairly small factor I think, my 1 year old Octavia vRS was the same price to insure near enough as my 10 year old one. The implication here is that they're more worried about the cost of the damage you might do to third parties than damage you're likely to do to your own car. Newer cars also often have more safety features like lane assist, front assist, emergency auto brake etc. that in theory reduce the likelihood of you managing to have a crash.
 
Looking at Direct Line now their prices are way cheaper well under a grand think I will go with them & fully comp as well!
 
AWPC said:
I only want basic insurance for a very modest costing family car!
Click to expand...

You're trying to insure a 15 year old 2.5 litre BMW not a 'modest' family car. The claim rates for something like that must be through the roof.

Unfortunately there is a risk profile associated with every car on the road - some are more likely to be involved in accidents than others. Where do you think end of life 200bhp BMW 3 Series sit in that profile?
 
[TW]Fox said:
You're trying to insure a 15 year old 2.5 litre BMW not a 'modest' family car. The claim rates for something like that must be through the roof.

Unfortunately there is a risk profile associated with every car on the road - some are more likely to be involved in accidents than others. Where do you think end of life 200bhp BMW 3 Series sit in that profile?
Click to expand...
According to the go compare website I was on the Mondeo 2.0 is the same risk as the BMW 2.5 or 2.0! Direct Line seem more sensible every quote I am getting is lower with a lower BHP engine so I think its just a case of some insurance companies are crooks!!
 
TPFT is also more expensive usually that comprehensive. People who buy TPFT insurance generally care little about the car they are insuring - 'it isnt worth much' and this is then reflected in the statistics for accidents..
 
UK insurance is considerably cheaper than elsewhere over the channel..
I pay over a grand to insure a 10-year-old 120,000-mile 2.0 TDI A6. My 68-year-old mother pays well over a grand to insure a Mk6 Golf GTI. Stop whining.
 
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