Tag Archives: Driving

I officially only own a car now, one were sold recently. It still seems bizarre, since I passed my theory test, I’m now looking at a car for me to drive. I am juggling between a few ideas…

Update: I now own 2 cars again, Just bought another Car.

Short Term Plan

Buy an older car, perhaps a 2004-2007 plate, keep it for a year rack up the no claim bonus and experience. This will be a smaller car, and not as useful to lump my gym weights, kegs, logs and other stuff around. Once the year is up, I’ll have a year under my belt which reduces my insurance by approx 8%, the no claims discount will take approx 20% off, nearly cutting a third off my insurance.

I can then buy a more suitable car with the reduced insurance.

Medium Term Plan

Buy an decentish car, perhaps a 2008-2011 plate, keep it for 2-3 yr, rack up multiple no claims and years of experience.  This will be a larger more practical car, able to move all that I need to move but not quite my ideal car.

By the my current estimates 3 yrs experience knocks approx 12% off the insurance and 3 yrs no claims knocks 35% off. These aren’t applied concurrently, so its not like £1000-47%=£530, its more like £1000-12%-35%=£572.

I at this point, would be able to buy a lower trim/spec ideal car, with affordable insurance.

Long Term Plan

Buy the type of car I want, with a lower trim and slightly older registration to reign in the insurance.

I would need to bite the bullet on the insurance, VED and initial costs, but solves all my problems with the other plans. The numbers make it clear, this is a really really bad idea.

Its likely I will need to do Short Term, Medium and Long, or at best Medium and Long plans and progress.

Costing Projections

Current costings on an average run of the mill “dream region” vehicle, not allowing for price increases, inflation and blah, based on “fake” information entered into various comparison sites. So I basically set the years of experience, and pass date back 1 yr and increased NCB by 1 yr each step. The figures are levelled off between 2-3 comparison sites, but don’t allow for cashback or other incentives or my age increasing, which in retrospect I should have increased my age by 1 year as well.

Costing Chart

Year 1: £3,700, 0 NCB, 0 yrs XP.
Year 2: £2,900, 1 NCB, 1 yrs XP.
Year 3: £2,200, 2 NCB, 2 yrs XP.
Year 4: £1,900, 3 NCB, 3 yrs XP. (I have no idea why the drop seems small).
Year 5: £1,2o0, 4 NCB, 4 yrs XP.
Year 6: £1,000, 5 NCB, 5 yrs XP. (again not sure why the drop is small, but seems to be a pattern)
Year 7: £800, 6 NCB, 6 yrs XP.
Year 8: £750, 7 NCB, 7 yrs XP.
Total: £14, 450 over 8 yrs.

From Year 7, the drops are small, about £50 per year and it floats around that same price. Not much difference really, I anticipate, about 10% rise each year on top as well. The medium term price cuts the long term prices down about 40% off the top leaving £8,670, the short term plan, into the medium term plan, into the long term plan gives me about 60% off the long term plan leaving £5,780 over 8yrs. Hefty savings to be had with some shopping around and compromises.

Realistic Plan

I think I’m going to have to find a sub group 6-8 vehicle, which fits my absolute basic needs, which is a little like short term plan 2.0, perhaps a Honda Jazz, Toyota Yaris and at an absolute push Toyota Corolla or an older Gen 8 Civic perhaps, maybe even a Vauxhall Astra. I could make do with a VW Fox, but oddly not a Polo, shoulders are just too wide.

So I think I will have to bite the bullet on an older car for the year, and possible move on again.

What is amusing is, I can get insurance on a 1999 plate, 4 litre, Convertible Chevrolet Camero with a custom reg plate, for LESS than I can on a 1.6 litre Ford Focus, the minimum excess is £3,000 but still, how does that happen. A 4 Litre Red Convertible Sports car costs less than a bloody baby engined Focus ? Its actually cheaper to insure the Camero on a provisional than the Focus too.

Final Thoughts

Unless your 6 n a half feet tall, with huge shoulders and a bit of a gut, the trick is go for an old around 15-16 yrs old, group 3-4 car, like an V/W/X-Reg polo/fiesta, you can get that insured for about £500 on provisional, and about £1,400 first year insurance.

Failing that a 2009 plate Kia Picanto, 2009 Toyota Aygo/C1/107, VW Fox, 2012 Skoda Citigo, will all come in around 600-800 on provisional and 1300-1600 on fill license.

A 2006 Honda Jazz, 2007 Toyota Yaris, 2009 Toyota Corolla, 2010 Vauxhall Astra will all hit 1,000-1,100 on Provision and £2,000-2,200 on full license for the first year.

Its also worth waiting about 3 months after you pass before you get a car. I took a quote on a 2010 Vauxhall Astra Active 1.4L, and assumed I had a provisional, passed that very day, and passed 62 days previous, and passed 125 days ago, and all assumed no named driver experience, and 0 NCB, here’s how it worked out…

Provisional: £1,220
Passed Today: £2,470
Passed 62 Days Ago: £2,200
Passed 125 Days Ago: £2,097

All on the same car, the same is also true on various cars I tried. Once you go above insurance group 15 or below group 4, the differences are way smaller but still apply. But waiting a few months, could save you 8-17% off the top depending which car I tried.

Ford F450 Image Courtesy of Ford Motorcars.

Red Crash Images Courtesy of Duchesssa.