How much is UK car insurance / running costs?

[SeK612]

Whilst a car itself looks affordable as things stand I'm unsure about how it stacks up when adding in insurance and stuff like MOT costs.

Does anyone have a rough estimate for someone who has owned their license for a few years and is driving a small car in the 1-3 insurance group bracket? Or from another angle is it possible to get insurance for a few hundred pounds a year?

What other costs are there in terms of running a car and how much would this add to costs (such as taxes)?

Also how much would be spent on fuel if the car was just used for city trips and the odd bit of motorway travel (small car, around 30 - 40 mpg).

[Barbarossa]

It's incredibly varied. Things that are taken into account are:-

Driver age
Class of use
Any points on licence
Previous claims history
postcode
where parked overnight
annual mileage
vehicle age/value

etc, etc.

It is perfectly possible to get insurance for a couple of hundred quid, yes, but not for everybody. There are a brazilion online quotation sites, have a quick go on some of them, such as elephant.co.uk, directline, morethan, esure, etc, plugging in your exact details and see what they come up with. You can also save money by opting to have a higher voluntary excess, and not bothering with legal protection, etc, if you're in to that sort of flightiness...


In terms of mileage, it's really dependent on exactly how far you travel. Petrol is around about 95p a litre at the moment, depending where you are. You need to know your average weekly mileage really, to be able to determine the average cost per week. e.g. I drive about 100 miles a week, and I have to fill the tank every 3 weeks, and it costs me about £40 to fill up. So like, about £13 a week on petrol.

MOTs are usually under £40, and assuming your car passes no trouble at all. It's the annual service that always bites me in the bum somehow

[popopot]

Check out: http://www.moneysupermarket.com/insurance/ thats where I found my current insurance provider. I have had the same car for ages now and the biggest things that changed the price for insurance from ~£600 to ~£300 were becoming 25 and having 4 years no claims bonus. Where you live can have a massive influence on the premium as well. I wouldn't go third party because you won't be able to build up your no claims bonus.

[Mr JP Fugley]

http://www.directline.com/

Get a quote in a couple of minutes.

[threelions00]

ok...my advice...

I have been driving for 10 years and I drive a 1.6i Audi A3.

My insurance is £30 a month. I got this cheaper because i put my fiancee on the insure, so I got 2nd driver discount. I also paid online which gave me a 10% discount.

Whilst taking out the insurance, I opted for a breakdown cover at the cost of £5 a month. This is so worth it.

My petrol costs vary, depends how far I go. As for Tax, if you have a car above 1500cc then it is about £100 every six months so about £17 a month.

The MOT...hard to say...just keep your car checked over, like tyres etc. If you need new ones because they'll fail the MOT then get them sooner to avoid even more costs at MOT time.

And basically what anyone else has said.

www.gocompare.com
www.confused.com
www.moneysupermarket.com

All good for car insurance

3lions

[Barbarossa]

My petrol costs vary, depends how far I go.

Genious

[Biggles]

My petrol costs vary, depends how far I go.

Genious

Fair observation actually - now I think about it, it is the same for me.

[threelions00]

My petrol costs vary, depends how far I go.

Genious

lol...i thought i needed to state the obvious for some...especially people that call someone a genious

type in www.dictionary.com and type in genious...see what you get

[Barbarossa]

Ah, you've over-extended yourself a bit there, but since you joined the board in 2004 I thought you might have been aware of one or two of the board's in-jokes...

[threelions00]

in-jokes? wasn't aware of them...call mine an in-joke then