I think I may actually have found it....


I've been driving for the past 7 months or so and I am insured on my mother's car (2003 1.6 Seat Leon S) and the insurance isn't particularly cheap... About £1800 for the combination of the two of us with me as a second driver.

Given that I finish college this summer, I will need to get more shifts at work (cycling the route isn't particularly nice. Perfectly doable, though a bit dangerous) so I was looking at getting my own car.... For now, I have considered the Smart ForFour, probably the 1.1 version.


So I checked with Aviva, and it's about £5600. I added my mother to the insurance as the second driver (perfectly legal) and it went down to £5100. Still shocked by the cost I went around all the major insurance companies until I stumbled across one where I was being offered £2200 for fully comp insurance. I fiddled around with a few of the details (removed my mother from the insurance this time) and went down to £1800.



So yeah, this is a thread about both advise, and with questions... What can I do to get it even cheaper? And now all you brits know to have a very good look at LV. My mother's insurance would be under £300 alone!


Cheers for looking!

Not too long ago I contacted our local council to see what could be done to reduce insurance for people my age. Namely, run driving courses which the insurance companies will actually give you reasonable discounts for (PassPlus isn't accepted everywhere, and it might save you £100 or so, I'm hoping for a course to save £1000 or more!). As well as that, encourage insurance companies to treat younger drivers with more trust. If they crash their car, charge them plenty, but keep it cheap until then. It's a matter of 'innocent until proven guilty' of the driving world.



I'm quite thankful to be on track for my first year NCB, (though I need to check that it's transferable). I'm just looking to find a car which looks nice and is affordable to run. I suggested LV to a friend of mine who drives an 11 year old fiesta or something, and the premium was about 3 times as much as it was for me and the Smart... And I believe the Smart is a nicer looking car, and more modern too!

A G Wiz would have the lowest insurance premium, but I don't hate my life quite that much to buy one 

I don't think I could live with the shame of that, even if they gave me free insurance and a mask to wear 

I've had a bit of success just going on Auto Trader and going through all the cheapish cars to find the best insurance deal. Unfortunately, the cars with the cheapest insurance tend to be the more expensive cars... However, they are newer, lower mileage, better equipped, etc. Therefore I can only imagine it be more worthwhile to get a 'better' car and hopefully save money on servicing.


I had considered 'playing' insurance companies (going between the two with low quotes) but only LV is giving me a low quote to begin with.

I do live in a secured parking area, which is probably a cheap to insure location anyway. Though with LV adding more people to the insurance will raise the premium unfortunately.

Heres a couple of things I have learned,
Dont stay with the same company each year,
The more the car is worth the cheaper the insurance for young drivers,
Classic & American are the cheapest, I pay less than £400 full comp, on a 96 Mustang GT 4.6 V8 than I did on a 1600 Golf 5 years ago
Try Adrian Flux or Performance direct.
The Co-op was the cheapest for my son 21yrs old, no NCD, 1200 Clio £1873 with a starting bonus of 25%.