Barmy Cars
Cars that should never have seen the light of day
Cars that should never have seen the light of day
Are you looking for the cheapest possible car insurance? You could start by comparing cheap prices at a car insurance comparison site such as prudentplus.com but it is worth remembering that there are many different factors that insurers take into consideration when calculating a premium. Some you can change and some you cannot!
You cannot obviously change your age, your address or your occupation. Your health can be an important factor too; certain disabilities have to be reported to the DVLA who may decide that they are so severe that the patient's licence should be suspended. Even if this is not the case it is obligatory to inform the insurer of these problems and it may well mean that premiums increase.
You can however change your car! Every car on the market has to belong to an insurance group, listed from 1 to 50, with cars in Group 1 the cheapest to insure. The gradings are overseen by the Association of British Insurers and members of Lloyds.
The grading system takes into account not only the size of the engine but also the following:
Clearly the insurers are not only interested in the likelihood of particular cars being involved in accidents, but also how much it is likely to cost to repair them. If for instance a vehicle is imported it may be necessary for spare parts to be ordered from abroad causing delays in getting it repaired. This leads to increased garage bills and also car hire costs.
Some cars have a worse safety record than others purely because they tend to appeal to drivers who may be a little less careful than others! Conversely certain models appeal more to those who merely want to use them for shopping or low speed trips across town.
It may seem a little extreme to buy another car just because it falls into a low insurance category but for many young drivers in particular, having a modern car might not only save a four figure sum in insurance every year, but could cost far less to run as well.
Another possibility to consider is having a black box, otherwise known as a Telematic, system fitted to the car. This monitors the way in which the vehicle is driven and if speed limits are exceeded, corners are taken too sharply or braking is excessively harsh these facts are made known to the insurer, who may then decide to charge extra premiums or maybe even refuse to continue with the policy at all. On the other hand however people who drive within reasonable limits can benefit from far lower policies in the future. It has been shown that, when people are driving a car which is monitored in this way they are much less likely to have an accident and so we are probably going to see a lot more telematic policies issued in the future.