The cheapest cars for a teenager to insure

A Renault Clio and Fiat 500 are among the cheapest cars for teens to get cover on, says Louise McBride

TEENAGERS are being charged as much as fourfifths of the value of their cars in insurance, an examination by the Sunday Independent has found. Many 18-year-olds are facing car insurance bills of as much as €6,000 a year as a result. Furthermore, an 18-year-old who has just got his driving licence will struggle to get a quote from one of the main insurers for a policy in his own name. Many teenagers have to get insured on their parent’s car — as opposed to their own car — to secure insurance. However, a parent could see the cost of their car insurance more than double after adding an 18-year-old child onto their policy.

These are all findings of an analysis by the Sunday Independent into the extraordinary car insurance costs being faced by teenage drivers. Costs such as this make it imperative for young drivers to do what they can to bring down the price of their insurance — if they want to have any chance of getting on the road. One way for them to do so is to choose a car that is cheaper to insure than others.

This paper teamed up with the insurance brokers coverinaclick.ie and the Automobile Association (AA) to find out which cars are cheapest for an 18-year-old to insure on his own. We also contacted the main insurers directly and asked them to provide quotes for an 18-year-old who wished to get comprehensive car insurance in his own name. Only one insurer — AXA — provided direct quotes for comprehensive insurance for all of the car models included in our study.

Cost of getting insured solo

In our analysis, we sought quotes for comprehensive car insurance for an 18-yearold male driver from Ballina, Co Mayo. He is a full-time college student who has had his full licence for less than a year.

Like many teenagers who have just started driving, he has never been insured on a car before — either as the main policyholder or a named driver. The only car he has driven was that of the driving school when learning to drive. He has no penalty points and has never made any claims. The car is alarmed and will be kept in a garage at night. The registration year of the car is 2009, its current mileage is 80,000km and the car has a valid NCT. The car is being insured for social and domestic use and the annual mileage will be 9,000km.

Most of the cars included in our analysis are popular, mainstream cars — as opposed to expensive, high-performance models which could be difficult for even an older driver to insure. We sought quotes for a second-hand Volkswagen Passat, Volkswagen Golf, Nissan Micra, Renault Clio, Fiat 500, Peugeot 107 and Ford Fiesta. We also requested quotes for a couple of models that are often considered high-speed cars — the Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Lancer.

We first sought quotes for comprehensive insurance for the 18-year-old as the sole driver of the car.

Most expensive: Mitsubishi Lancer/Subaru Impreza

The most expensive car for the teenager to insure was a 1.5-litre Mitsubishi Lancer valued at €9,000. It would cost the 18-year-old €6,271 to get comprehensive insurance for this car in his own name with Liberty Insurance — and this was the only car which Liberty was prepared to quote comprehensive insurance for, citing “high risk factors such as age, very limited driving experience and no previous insurance”.

The Liberty quote for the Lancer was almost twice as expensive as the price for the same cover with AXA (which quoted €3,151) and more than twice as expensive as coverinaclick. ie (which quoted €2,486). A spokesman for Liberty said the reason the Lancer quote was so high was due to the “risk profile” of the driver.

The second most expensive quote for the teenager was for a 2-litre diesel Subaru Impreza valued at €7,000. AXA quoted €5,619 for insurance for this car — which is 80pc of the value of the car itself.

Cheapest: Renault Clio (€1,689)

The cheapest car for the teenager to insure was a 1.2-litre Renault Clio valued at €7,000. Coverinaclick.ie quoted €1,689 for comprehensive insurance for this car — through Asgard Insurance.

This quote is still high when compared to the price paid by older drivers for cover for the same car — but it is a fraction of what the 18-year-old could expect to pay for car insurance on certain other models.

A Fiat 500 valued at €6,000 was also one of the cheapest to insure, at €1,694 through coverinaclick.ie. The lowest quote we could get for a 1-litre Peugeot 107 valued at €3,000 was €1,724 — and although this was one of the cheapest quotes in our survey, it was still more than half the value of the car.

Teaming up with the folks

An 18-year-old driver will find that more insurers are willing to quote him if he gets insured as a named driver on a parent’s car.

Let’s say that an 18-year-old male gets insured on his father’s car. His father is a 50-year-old accountant from Clontarf, Dublin 3, who has a full licence for more than 30 years, no penalty points — and no history of claims so he has his full no claims bonus. The 18-year-old son has a full licence for less than a year, has never been insured on a car and has no record of claims. The father will be the main user of the car; the 18-year-old will be an occasional driver.

We sought quotes for comprehensive insurance for the father and son.

In this case, a Renault Clio, Nissan Micra and Peugeot 107 are some of cheapest cars to arrange comprehensive cover for the father and son on — while a Subaru Impreza and Volkswagen Passat were the most expensive cars to insure, according to our analysis. AA quoted €1,352 for cover for the father and son on the Clio, for example. It cost more than €2,000 to insure the father and son on either a Subaru Impreza or Volkswagen Passat.

The cost of cover for the duo on each of these cars was cheaper than what an 18-yearold would have paid to get insured alone.

However, a parent can still expect to see his car insurance premium surge when adding a teenage child to a policy.

For example, the AA quoted €1,369 to insure the father and son on a Peugeot 107. It would only cost the father in this case €528 to insure a Peugeot 107 if arranging cover for himself only, according to the AA. So adding an 18-year-old son to his policy costs the father an extra €840.

These additional costs are still being faced by parents adding children in their 20s to their policy — if the children have yet to get their full licence.

For example, the car insurance premium of one father we spoke to (who did not wish to be named) is currently four times more expensive than it would be if he didn’t have his 24-year-old daughter on his car insurance policy. It is costing almost €1,200 more to have his daughter on this man’s policy — though his daughter is footing her part of the bill herself.

Another father we spoke to saw the cost of his comprehensive car insurance increase from €300 to €1,000 after adding his 21-yearold son (who was also learning to drive) to his policy.

Some insurers offer free or discounted cover for young drivers who are getting insured as named drivers on a parent’s car — but there is usually a limit to such offers. With Aviva for example, a learner driver can get six months’ free cover as a named driver on their parent’s car while they’re learning to drive — as long as they buy 13 driving lessons with Aviva’s driving school, have completed at least one of these lessons and do not drive unaccompanied in the car.

Catch 22

It is incredibly difficult for young drivers who are just beginning to learn to drive, or who have only recently got their licence, to get car insurance in their own name.

Apart from AXA, all of the insurers we contacted directly for quotes declined to quote the 18-year-old for such cover because as a driver with limited driving experience, they considered him too high a risk. Most insurers will only cover a driver if he has been insured on a car before — either as a named driver or the main policyholder. Allianz, for example, will only quote an 18-year-old driver for insurance in his own name if he has “a minimum of one year’s no claims bonus” and meets other criteria set down by the insurer. “Therefore, he must have had previous insurance [to get a quote],” says a spokeswoman for Allianz.

For Zurich to quote the 18-year-old for a policy in his own name, he needs at least six months’ driving experience — either as a main driver or named driver.

So the best chance an 18-year-old has of securing cover is a broker or insurer who specialises in cover for young drivers.

Inexperienced drivers are usually more likely than experienced ones to make mistakes when driving. Men, in particular young men, are more likely to die in road traffic accidents. These are some of the main reasons that insurers refuse to quote young drivers. However, this is small comfort to the teenagers and 20-somethings who are old enough to drive — but simply cannot get on the road because insurance costs are so prohibitive or because they can’t get a quote.

The parents who see their insurance premium as much as quadruple after adding their child to their policy are also being unfairly penalised here.

Yes, young drivers can be a high risk — but not every young driver is. Quoting excessive premiums — or refusing to quote at all — is not the answer.

Earlier this year, Finance Minister Michael Noonan ordered a review of the insurance sector, with a particular emphasis on motor insurance. It will be the end of the year by the time Noonan gets the results of that review.

In the meantime, young drivers will continue to be priced off the roads.