Coming up 17 year old looking at first car/insurance

[ttaskmaster]

Unless he is on his way to/from work in which case they needed Class 2 business use

To/from work comes under Commuting, surely?

Social, Domestic & Pleasure - Obvious
Commuting - To/from permanent place of work, including giving someone else a lift to theirs.
Class 1 Business - As above, plus other sites, excluding commercial use/door-to-door sales. Usually extends to spouse.
Class 2 Business - As above, but covers named drivers.
Class 3 Business - High mileage version of above.
Commercial - Taxi, goods delivery, driving instruction, etc.

Also, you can get cheaper insurance from time spent as a named driver on someone else's policy - I'm doing it right now and my car insurance has halved after one year. This is on the one car, though, rather than "My car" insured with someone else as the main driver.
Also applies to a company vehicle apparently, but I can't tick a box for each of them.

 

[helpimcrap]

Get your own insurance - it will be expensive but it will be yours. Get a sensible car - max 1.4l and one that isn't on the hit list for new drivers e.g. fiesta, corsa etc.

Go for something more sensible and don't touch it. Forget modding it and chavving it up so you can go to McDonalds in it.
You're an engineer, get an MOT failure and do it up. I got an Escort diesel for £50 inc full tank of diesel because it was MOT failure. Cost me £200 to do it up and it lasted years...

 

[ttaskmaster]

As an engineering apprentice, you should look at getting a non runner

You're an engineer, get an MOT failure and do it up.

You lot seem to be confusing 'Engineer' with 'Mechanic', or even 'Technician'... Knowing how something should be fixed and being able to fix it are different things.
Most of the engineers here can probably tell you all the design formulae around how it should work... a few can even explain what needs to happen to fix it... but give them a spanner and they'll just contract the work out... give them a dirty torque wrench and they'll wet their pants!!

The good ones will find a mechanic. The bad ones will get a fitter. The worst ones will go to Kwik Fit!!

 

[SexyGreyFox]

You lot seem to be confusing 'Engineer' with 'Mechanic', or even 'Technician'... Knowing how something should be fixed and being able to fix it are different things.
Most of the engineers here can probably tell you all the design formulae around how it should work... a few can even explain what needs to happen to fix it... but give them a spanner and they'll just contract the work out... give them a dirty torque wrench and they'll wet their pants!!

The good ones will find a mechanic. The bad ones will get a fitter. The worst ones will go to Kwik Fit!!

100% agree however being a Michelin Engineering Apprentice for a year before I could drive did set me up with skillz I could transpose. It also helped that my older Cousin was an AA man back in 1975 and he still is. He would just say do this, do that and then he would check it. In fact 40 years on he still gives the same advice if I need it.

 

[sigma]

And the mechanic will just keep changing parts until the right one fixes it

 

[adolf hamster]

As an engineering apprentice, you should look at getting a non runner / MOT fail in otherwise good condition for a couple of hundred quid. Spend the year until you pass your test learning about it, stripping it down, tidying it up etc. and saving for your insurance at 18 (assumes you have a space to put it).

Not that i want to put a downer on this suggestion but....

A good freind of mine (same age, but quite cash strapped) was looking into getting a car, his dad being an experienced car mechanic figured he'd try this strategy.

4 lemons later.....

And as someone said, dont confuse mechanic and engineer, its amazing how many engineering grads dont nessecarily know one end of a spanner from the other (although by no means suggesting the op falls into this camp).

I'm all for people having a crack at diy on a car, but i dont fancy learning how to do important work on a motor i intended on relying on as a daily.

 

[sigma]

Why would you expect engineering grads to be able to use a spanner? It's like expecting biology grads to be surgeons. You wouldn't expect a mechanic to be able to redesign an ecu, would you?

Being able to use a spanner and logic just depends on whether the person has learned or is willing to learn how to use one...

 

[Iamzod]

To/from work comes under Commuting, surely?

Yeah, but it was only for the policy holder & their spouse, so if he sticks the insurance in his dads name & gets pulled driving to work & the plod ring his (dad's) insurer which I used to be on the receiving end all the time.

First question to get asked by Mr Insurer when they see a 17 year old driving his dads car is where is he on his way to at 8:40am? what's that? he is commuting? sorry he isn't covered.

And if he prangs it on his way to work and causes a 3rd party injury it gets even more interesting.

 

[Jez]

I'm sorry but this sounds like utter nonsense, the 17yo is covered as far as the road traffic act is concerned as the insurer has liability for that, so why would the police care?

Also, how could they possibly prove beyond all doubt that he was driving to work?

I don't claim to know much about insurance, and I appreciate you work for an insurance company manning their phones and dealing with this, but the guy clearly IS insured in that scenario, as far as the road traffic act (police) are concerned, surely

 

[Iamzod]

I don't claim to know much about insurance, and I appreciate you work for an insurance company manning their phones and dealing with this, but the guy clearly IS insured in that scenario, as far as the road traffic act (police) are concerned, surely

Used to, haven't worked there for a good few years, all I know is we would tell them they weren't covered so how they would be allowed to drive away afterwards I have no idea. As for how we would find out, most of the time the driver simply said they were on their way to work.

We also used to void the policy but we had to issue notice of what I think was 14 days.

 

[adolf hamster]

Why would you expect engineering grads to be able to use a spanner? It's like expecting biology grads to be surgeons. You wouldn't expect a mechanic to be able to redesign an ecu, would you?

Being able to use a spanner and logic just depends on whether the person has learned or is willing to learn how to use one...

whilst technically true, personally i hold the view that a practical background sets you up for being a better engineer, gives perspective to the practicalities of the people who need to deal with servicing the product you're designing

 

[ttaskmaster]

And the mechanic will just keep changing parts until the right one fixes it

No, that's what a Fitter does... the difference is that a (good) mechanic will figure out what is wrong and find/make the best solution.

Yeah, but it was only for the policy holder & their spouse

Says nothing about that under Commuting. I know for a fact I'm covered on my wife's car for SD&P +Commuting, but while she has the same on my bike, the Business Use aspect does not cover her because she doesn't work for my company.

whilst technically true, personally i hold the view that a practical background sets you up for being a better engineer, gives perspective to the practicalities of the people who need to deal with servicing the product you're designing

It does and that's usually something you get post-grad. We're forever getting grads come by our place, on their Guided Tour things and job shadowing.
But with all due respect to the OP, he's 17 - How likely is it that he has the knowledge and skills to rebuild and restore a complete car?
Heck, I'm considerably older, work in engineering, have decades of motorcycle maintenance under my belt, frequently assist a highly qualified mechanic with his own such work and still I don't think it's something I could pull off!!
Plus, if he did have all that, I assume he'd already be doing it!

 

[cully4299]

had a 1.3 2002 ka for mine not glamorous but did me for a year and a bit £2200 first year own name no box then £425 the 2nd year. changed to a 206 1.4 which has served me well for about £500 it was and insurance is stable around the £400 mark as im 21

 

[adam cool dude]

Think I must have got lucky had a 306 1.6 XS as my first car back in 2007 and was only 1000 for the first year

 

[DereksDontRun]

your postcode has such an effect on insurance prices that it's not possible to compare different cars from different people. e.g. my 1st car was a 206 and was only £350/yr with 0 no claims when I was living in the middle of nowhere at my parents. Moved to Manchester and it was near £2k - same person, same profession, same car, same company, same ncb just a postcode change.

So, it's only possible for the OP to churn through different cars on a comparison site to get a fair idea of how each car model/displacement will affect his premium, given his situation/postcode. And, as suggested already, anything typically interesting to a young driver will statistically be a greater risk and thus have higher insurance. e.g. a Corsa, Mini, Fiesta, Polo will probably be higher than a similar spec Pug 107, Hyundai i10, Seat Ibiza or Dacia Sandero.

 

[theaterix]

As an engineering apprentice, you should look at getting a non runner / MOT fail in otherwise good condition for a couple of hundred quid. Spend the year until you pass your test learning about it, stripping it down, tidying it up etc. and saving for your insurance at 18 (assumes you have a space to put it).

Absolutely howling at this hahaha my maintenance teacher would love that!

 

[theaterix]

Sorry for the little replies from me, been busy being an engineer I am doing a Level 3 Btec in Mechanical Engineering, aswell as a PEO which allows me to do a lesson such as maintenance which teaches me how to correctly strip things and rebuild them, perfect for cars

Anyways, a car is kind of a necessity, I have been counting the seconds for about 3 years and given the chance I am going to jump, irrelevant of costs.

I guess its all going to come down to at the end of the day, going through 100000 cars and seeing how they all price up.

Im just sick because I want to build my new computer and redo my room, and going to spend a lot on something with a big back seat

I couldn't deal with the curfew so that couldn't be a thing, and my friend has a box and gets a rating and he drives quick, albeit he is a confident driver, and must say a good one, and gets rubbish scores (out of 10 I once saw him get -10 for speed) but his hasn't went up, he just drives really inline with the law for a couple of days and goes back to 10 and apparently this is fine.

Getting a corsa to take my girlfriend to McDonalds is too 17 year old boy-pedo-ish for me, I would rather be a 17 year old lad taking his lass to McDonalds in a Ferrari but hey ho thats life.

I was thinking about a Seat Ibiza (the new ones look gorgeous) but I can imagine them being expensive.