Which Volvo is best for a 17 year old

[DAN AT ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi.
If he needs any help for insurance for any vehicle he's looking at then please feel free to give us a try.
Regards,
Dan.

[Triple-S]

Agree on middle paragraph Laird: years ago my son had a Reliant Scimitar which I shared, then a Mazda MX ditto. However, when he got a Polo the premium went up a lot. Ironic it was that car which was written off when an old idiot came out of a sideroad around town straight in front of him..... Perhaps insurer logic is the way people usually drive their cars, the latter being more a young hooligans car!

P

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Triple-S

Agree on middle paragraph Laird: years ago my son had a Reliant Scimitar which I shared, then a Mazda MX ditto. However, when he got a Polo the premium went up a lot. Ironic it was that car which was written off when an old idiot came out of a sideroad around town straight in front of him..... Perhaps insurer logic is the way people usually drive their cars, the latter being more a young hooligans car!

P

That's just reminded me of something else - things like Polos, Saxos, Corsas et al are popular for modifying and/or racing so the racing fraternity are always on the lookout for "straight" shells and parts for a race car hence they tend to be stolen more often.
This "invites" a loading on the premium.

Many moons ago i bought a Clio 1.2 as a "runabout" as i needed to take my Rover 827 Sterling off the road for a short while to overhaul the front suspension.
The insurance for the Clio was 3 times what i was paying on the Rover yet it only weighed about half what the Rover did, had 1/3 of the power and could have been paid out in full for tuppence ha'penny and a brass farthing if i had wrapped it round a tree.

When i queried my broker about this, he pointed out it was a "boy racer motor" so loaded accordingly on the premium - more likely to cause an accident and/or be stolen.
Bear in mind i had been driving 25 years at the time and my broker had given me some sort of discount on the Clio equivalent to what my NCB was at the time, it shows it is more on the car than the driver although youngsters are heavily penalised for something they have little control over - their age!

[GreenBrick]

Originally Posted by aardvarkash10

These two. Seriously.

In 20 years time, carbon-fueled vehicles and possibly thre private motor vehicle are going to be rapidly fading dinosaurs.

Regardless of the type of car, a private vehicle is a $5k/yr hole in the road. Do you really want to lead your kid down that path?

Bus and bike, great, got knocked off one by the other.

I doubt there is any Volvo with a small enough engine for a 17yr old to insure. My 1.4 Mazda is too much for my son.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by GreenBrick

Bus and bike, great, got knocked off one by the other.

I doubt there is any Volvo with a small enough engine for a 17yr old to insure. My 1.4 Mazda is too much for my son.

Seriously - get a quote for your son for something like a 1988-90 740GLE (B230E) and compare it to the quote you've obviously had for the Mazda. Granted it might still be too much but i wouldn't mind betting the Volvo is cheaper.

If you're still curious, get a quote for something like a 340GL with the 1.4 lump in it but don't be surprised if it comes out more than the 740!

[volvo always]

Or try a YARIS

Volvo 340 1.4GL was used as my first car after passing my test. Bargain as named driver and even built up a no claims discount with direct line from 1998.

My first official own bought car and insured by me 4 years later was a 1986 740 GLE estate with B230K engine.

James

[Steve940estate]

Originally Posted by DAN AT ADRIAN FLUX

Hi.
If he needs any help for insurance for any vehicle he's looking at then please feel free to give us a try.
Regards,
Dan.

I'm not sure how much of this is correct, perhaps you could explain. In my experience cost of insurance has more to do with the statistical risk rather than type of car and engine size. It used to be that you could go looking for a low group car and get cheap insurance but that isn't the case so much now.
Is there an up to date database you can look up to see how much particular cars cost to insure now based on risk ?

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Steve940estate

I'm not sure how much of this is correct, perhaps you could explain. In my experience cost of insurance has more to do with the statistical risk rather than type of car and engine size. It used to be that you could go looking for a low group car and get cheap insurance but that isn't the case so much now.
Is there an up to date database you can look up to see how much particular cars cost to insure now based on risk ?

Spot-on Steve and if such a database exists, i expect it's a closely guarded secret known only to insurance underwriters.
The insurers post code comes into it as well. About 15 years ago i lived just inside the M25 and owned a Nissan 300C for which i was paying £400 a year to insure. I moved to rural Cambridgeshire and suddenly found a cheque on my doormat one evening when i got home from work.

Turned out the premium had gone down to £300 for the year and because of when i changed my address during the policy, i was entitled not only to a refund but didn't have to pay any more monthly instalments until renewal!

Again i suspect the post code database is another closely guarded secret!

[Casheye]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Again i suspect the post code database is another closely guarded secret!

But crime statistics are freely available. Also the past few times I've insured a vehicle, the person on the end of the phone was looking at my address on google earth to see if I did indeed have a private drive. Didn't do them much good with it being a fairly new development but it's interesting to see what is being used to verify information.

[volvoid]

340

sensible, slow, unlikely to get nicked, much safer than the equivalent ford escort, classic insurance, manageable costs (fuel, parts, purchase, etc). Some rust-free ones still around.

Im not sure if an early 440 would get classic insurance > a big deal when he may otherwise be paying £3000 a year.
Classic cover works for lots of youngsters, no formal no-claims (assuming its deserved), but next year many insurers will allow a discount based on it.