Ranty post incoming - please forgo the usual spiel about "insurance is relevant to X and Y and every situation is different for different cars peoples postcodes days of the week favourite type of jam, your IP address and cookies, your surname, your mums last trip to Tesco and if she was on CCTV taste testing apples", heard it all before and it's not justification. I understand why car insurance is expensive, I do not understand (nor do I think anyone, even in the industry) how they actually come up with the figures they come up with. It's all 'in the computer'.
Car insurance for me has always been one of my most hated things to buy. I have never, ever claimed it for myself, nor have I ever been in a situation where it's been claimed by someone else. I buy the absolute cheapest bare minimum crap I can find because to me, insurance is purely for legal compliance. If I wrote off my car, that's on me, nobody else. If I crash into someone, I'll do my best to make it right - I'll avoid speaking to these hateful organisations as much as I can.
There's always an excuse for insurance companies behaviour and the prices they come up with but quite frankly, the lack-of-human data driven algorithmic method of coming up with a price is a joke, it always has been, and it always will be. Like everything in life, it never goes down in price, always up, but its the logic behind the number they give you that absolutely boils my blood.
I recently learned that "insurance groups", a number that we're probably all familiar with, actually means nothing and insurers aren't required to use it in any capacity. I.e. a vehicle with group 1 isn't defacto going to be cheaper than group 50, purely on the merits of the vehicle. (So what the F is the point the groups then?)
I follow all the online guidance, all the tricks, all the methods going to get the cheapest insurance I can due to the above, but today might've been the best example of this I've ever seen.
For me: 30+ years of age, driving 13+ years, no claims, no restrictions, advanced driving certificate. I paid £390 this year to insure my 2016 Leon SC FR Tech, 184hp, 2.0 Diesel DSG, fully comp with a moderate excess.
I was recently given a Hyundai i10 from a family member who no longer needed it. I thought this would be the perfect little rural runaround (I live in the middle of nowhere) that I can nip to the shops in. Obviously doing this in a diesel isn't ideal, so a little 1.1 petrol granny wagon fits the bill with its £20 road tax.
I cannot, for the life of me, find insurance for this car any cheaper than £500 a year. Five hundred quid. 20% more expensive than my Leon, to insure a car with 85hp, could barely pull the skin off a rice pudding, airbags and safety for days, nearly no miles a year, parked in the same place the Leon is, driven by the same person, far less. Nope sorry that's a higher risk to us than your near 200 horsepower car you do 10x the miles in.
The car hasn't been written off, it's not fast, it's not unsafe, it's not expensive to fix, its not parked in a dangerous area, it's not being used to deliver Just-Eat, it's not been remapped to 500hp, it's not been adorned with a spoiler and spinners. It's a bog standard, normal, little car that a 17 year old first time driver would buy.
This is, of course, absolutely insane. But the part that truly, truly gets my goat? Nobody can explain to me why or do anything about it because that's just 'how it is'. If it was a performance car, classic car, something unique and special you can speak to a human being, a broker, a specialist, who'll talk to you and offer you a price that makes sense because they themselves come up with it. I paid £300 a year to insure a previous Subaru Legacy Spec B going this route.
But a normal car? No sorry mate, you get normal insurance, which means you get bent over a barrel cos the computer says so. But your OTHER normal car? That's cheaper than this one despite being far more dangerous and expensive.
The i10 is now up for sale.
(Please, any of the forum sponsors who are insurers, don't even bother replying to this thread.)
Car insurance for me has always been one of my most hated things to buy. I have never, ever claimed it for myself, nor have I ever been in a situation where it's been claimed by someone else. I buy the absolute cheapest bare minimum crap I can find because to me, insurance is purely for legal compliance. If I wrote off my car, that's on me, nobody else. If I crash into someone, I'll do my best to make it right - I'll avoid speaking to these hateful organisations as much as I can.
There's always an excuse for insurance companies behaviour and the prices they come up with but quite frankly, the lack-of-human data driven algorithmic method of coming up with a price is a joke, it always has been, and it always will be. Like everything in life, it never goes down in price, always up, but its the logic behind the number they give you that absolutely boils my blood.
I recently learned that "insurance groups", a number that we're probably all familiar with, actually means nothing and insurers aren't required to use it in any capacity. I.e. a vehicle with group 1 isn't defacto going to be cheaper than group 50, purely on the merits of the vehicle. (So what the F is the point the groups then?)
I follow all the online guidance, all the tricks, all the methods going to get the cheapest insurance I can due to the above, but today might've been the best example of this I've ever seen.
For me: 30+ years of age, driving 13+ years, no claims, no restrictions, advanced driving certificate. I paid £390 this year to insure my 2016 Leon SC FR Tech, 184hp, 2.0 Diesel DSG, fully comp with a moderate excess.
I was recently given a Hyundai i10 from a family member who no longer needed it. I thought this would be the perfect little rural runaround (I live in the middle of nowhere) that I can nip to the shops in. Obviously doing this in a diesel isn't ideal, so a little 1.1 petrol granny wagon fits the bill with its £20 road tax.
I cannot, for the life of me, find insurance for this car any cheaper than £500 a year. Five hundred quid. 20% more expensive than my Leon, to insure a car with 85hp, could barely pull the skin off a rice pudding, airbags and safety for days, nearly no miles a year, parked in the same place the Leon is, driven by the same person, far less. Nope sorry that's a higher risk to us than your near 200 horsepower car you do 10x the miles in.
The car hasn't been written off, it's not fast, it's not unsafe, it's not expensive to fix, its not parked in a dangerous area, it's not being used to deliver Just-Eat, it's not been remapped to 500hp, it's not been adorned with a spoiler and spinners. It's a bog standard, normal, little car that a 17 year old first time driver would buy.
This is, of course, absolutely insane. But the part that truly, truly gets my goat? Nobody can explain to me why or do anything about it because that's just 'how it is'. If it was a performance car, classic car, something unique and special you can speak to a human being, a broker, a specialist, who'll talk to you and offer you a price that makes sense because they themselves come up with it. I paid £300 a year to insure a previous Subaru Legacy Spec B going this route.
But a normal car? No sorry mate, you get normal insurance, which means you get bent over a barrel cos the computer says so. But your OTHER normal car? That's cheaper than this one despite being far more dangerous and expensive.
The i10 is now up for sale.
(Please, any of the forum sponsors who are insurers, don't even bother replying to this thread.)
