Insurance

[demag]

Well I had a bit of a shock this week. The insurance on the C5 cost nearly £400 which is incredible. 8000 mile limit, social only no commuting, no rush hour driving and 20+ years ncb. Add to this £280 ved and I'm pushing £700 a year without actually turning a wheel. This calls for some serious thinking, coincidentally our travel insurance has doubled as well.

I think all the good guys who play it by the book are paying for all the chavs who have no licences tax or insurance. They smash their car up or hit someone else, jump out and do a runner before anyone can catch them then simply buy another car which has gone "missing" from the system or simply steal one and off they go again leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces. So annoying.

I'm not sure what to do now but I can't sustain those outgoings on my pension so I think the C5 will have to go and stupidly I'll probably get about the same as the insurance cost for it. I'm wary of buying another diesel because I think the ved will probably increase for older cars as well and the ved for petrols appears to be higher anyway. I've seen 1.4's costing £100+ so I can't see where all this is going, yes I know the push is for electric but I'm not ready mentally or financially for that.

I see my options as a newer small diesel with low/zero ved but see my statement above. Or a hybrid, most likely a Toyota Prius as the Honda Civic is reportedly under powered. I worry about buying a low ved diesel e.g. £20pa and then next year the screw tightening a bit more and it jumps to £100+ and the year after even more. Decisions decisions.

[CitroJim]

Just watch the insurance costs of some small cars Dave as they can be a shock... Any car popular with the youngsters will be loaded...

Both my Ka and Saxo are loaded because of that... Robyn's C1 and my erstwhile 207 were cheap in comparison because they are never popular with the most risky drivers...

You're right though, recently it seems insurance costs have escalated quite remarkably... And very likely for the reasons you state...

[GiveMeABreak]

Dave, I have to ask whether you have used an insurance comparison site as that does seem steep, one really does have to do this every year to stay ahead and also get the renewal quotes in at the earliest you can, I.e. about 30 days before renewal is due. Leaving it to the week before or worse days before will whack the quotes up as happened to me last year. Leaving the quote to 3 days before renewal shoved the price up £80 + quid across the board. My solution was to leave renewal for 2 weeks to get the quote back down and not use the car for 2 weeks.

Next, my mother has a C3 1.6 HDi Exclusive, and that costs her £30 a year tax. It is also very nippy and does not hang about either. Her Insurance is about £270 fully comp protected NCB and she has commuting on that as she is a volunteer for stroke community work, and in her 70s. Not a C5, but just to give you some idea of a comparison.

[Peter.N.]

I use a comparison site every year and although the cost has been steadily increasing it is still only around £200 and I'm 78. I do though live in a low crime rural area but I'm covered for 10k miles per year, I actually do more than this but some is my wife's car.

We also are tight for money which I why I run 406's, we have two almost identical estates, same colour even, I paid £400 for the wife's which we have done around 25k in and £350 for mine. they are relatively easy to maintain and rarely go wrong, probably the last really good car Peugeot made.

At that price if something expensive does go wrong or even if you are involved in an accident, you just go and buy another one and if you scrap it the excess doesn't apply. My wife wrote an XM off about 10 years ago and it cost us nothing, we do have protected no claims though.

Last year I found that Direct Line was actually cheaper than anything on the comparison sites, we have both cars with them - at the moment.

Peter

[Gibbo2286]

Your 'two identical cars' quote Peter reminded me of couple I knew 'travellers' who had two identical cars bearing the same registration number, one road tax, one insurance with both drivers named and both cars in use at the same time.

The only time they got challenged was that they couldn't display the tax disc in both cars but they talked their way out of that "It must have fallen off officer."

[Paul-R]

+1 for using comparison sites. Be prepared to spend an afternoon doing this. I posted about this (somewhere!) when I reinsured and it turned out my very first comparison turned out to be the cheapest.

EDIT Found them.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=57848&p=535879
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=59061&p=558869

[demag]

Yes I did the comparison thing, the cheapest quote was £414 without any extras like courtesy car. I stayed with my present insurer (Chris Knott) for the third year as they were the cheapest and best cover. Marc yes I was late re-insuring, on the day actually. Coming just after Christmas and New Year I forgot about it but the price was the same as the quote I received early December. I never knew it made a difference.

Does anyone have any info on future tax hikes? I can see ved rising for older cars soon.

OK what am I looking at? Maybe, Prius, Fiat 500L, Nissan Note, Kia Rio, C3 Picasso, Renault Grand Modus. All diesel low ved bracket i.e. £20-£30 pa apart from the Prius obviously. I am still wary of the 1.6 hdi engine after being caught out with the Berlingo but I see the C3 Picasso has the 8v engine but not sure of the difference. I sat in a C3 Picasso and was disappointed in the storage space, the glovebox being pretty well useless. Whereas the Fiat and Nissan have loads of storage space. I think Citroen missed a big trick there. I have owned a Modus before, nice car with phenomenal economy with the Grand Modus being a bit longer.

[GiveMeABreak]

Marc yes I was late re-insuring, on the day actually. Coming just after Christmas and New Year I forgot about it but the price was the same as the quote I received early December. I never knew it made a difference.

I actually got my timing wrong last year and MOT, Tax & Insurance got out of synch! I Had an insurance quote from the comparison site saved - got it done earlier - but when I came to double check - the qoute expired by a week! When I re-ran it every single insurer raise raised the premium up by about £80! So now I always get it quoted in plenty of time to get the best price - but not too early that the quote expired. I think they do mention how long the quote is valid for at the time, I just forgot about it!

[Michel]

Last year I found that Direct Line was actually cheaper than anything on the comparison sites, we have both cars with them - at the moment.

Peter

I've been with Direct line for years now, they're always cheaper (and don't charge me to change cars!) than the others. Occasionally they try to take the p1ss with their renewal quotes, but I just call up and whinge at them. They always miraculously find a way to get the price back down to what it was or very near the previous year.

[Michel]

You're right though, recently it seems insurance costs have escalated quite remarkably... And very likely for the reasons you state...

It's not quite as simple as that..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/insurance/ca ... time-high/

[CitroJim]

You're right though, recently it seems insurance costs have escalated quite remarkably... And very likely for the reasons you state...

It's not quite as simple as that..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/insurance/ca ... time-high/

Hmm... Interesting....

[demag]

Yes roll on the "downward spiral".
Obviously the insurance reps have to pay for their Porsches as well.

[Peter.N.]

The tax on the 406 2.0 Hdi is £150 at the moment which I didn't think was to bad, not compared with my sons 2.5 Ranger anyway. I was paying £12.50 for tax and £25 for insurance when I started driving in '56 so that actually makes it cheaper now. Plus the 'C' license if you had a van, anyone remember those?

Peter

[van ordinaire]

The insurance for the C15 is £400+, presumably because it lives in London (albeit in a garage) - about the same as the Jeep AND the Caddy combined (both of which are registered in Devon) - in fact the Jeep's insurance went down about £20 when it came up for renewal a couple of weeks ago.

If I'd known how difficult, never mind expensive, it'd be to insure the C15 I doubt I'd have spent a year looking for one. Still there are compensations & I'm always on the lookout for another but, I'm fortunate that while I'm still working I can indulge in (support?) my expensive hobbies, albeit it on a shoestring, or 3.