Car Insurance: I'm old, no experience and want something nice

jel

Hi,

I'm 28 years old and have no driving experience at this point.

Next year I would be looking to get a car, but would be interested in getting something nice, rather than starting out with a crappy 1990 punto!

Cars I'm looking at are a 3.7 litre and a 2.0 litre. I got an online quote from 123.ie saying i had 1 years provisional experience and it came in at 1900 for the 3.7 litre. I could not say I had 0 months experience as they wouldnt give me a quote online.

My question is what is the best way to go about this:
- Should I get named experience on a car now for a year
- Should I wait and get the car i want with 0 experience, will they actually insure me?

Any thoughts would be grateful as i'm stuck as to what to do!

Big Nasty

Not really enough info there to say!

Have you any exp at all?

Driving licence?

Even though you're 28 I don't think any company is gonna quote you on a 3.7 as your starter car, and if they do it sure will be hefty!

bladebrew

jel wrote: »

Hi,

I'm 28 years old and have no driving experience at this point.

Next year I would be looking to get a car, but would be interested in getting something nice, rather than starting out with a crappy 1990 punto!

Cars I'm looking at are a 3.7 litre and a 2.0 litre. I got an online quote from 123.ie saying i had 1 years provisional experience and it came in at 1900 for the 3.7 litre. I could not say I had 0 months experience as they wouldnt give me a quote online.

My question is what is the best way to go about this:
- Should I get named experience on a car now for a year
- Should I wait and get the car i want with 0 experience, will they actually insure me?

Any thoughts would be grateful as i'm stuck as to what to do!

what car is it thats 3.7litre???
i can see the insurance company charging a fair bit for a driver with no experience in a 3.7 litre car:)

some compnys wont quote you online at all,you will have to ring them,
my advice is start with something smaller,your insurance will drop a fair bit if you bulid up a no claims.

dodge ram,jeep liberty(?) or cherokee,a8,range rover sport diesel,infiniti g37,hummer h3,??

jel

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Not really enough info there to say!

Have you any exp at all?

Driving licence?

Even though you're 28 I don't think any company is gonna quote you on a 3.7 as your starter car, and if they do it sure will be hefty!

Nope, 0 experience.

I could get my driver's license in time before i get the car, but it still means i have no experience.


The one thing i dont want is to buy a crap car for a few months just to get insured on something i really want, as it's a waste of money.

I think i would be better off aiming for a 2 litre.

jel

bladebrew wrote: »

what car is it thats 3.7litre???
i can see the insurance company charging a fair bit for a driver with no experience in a 3.7 litre car:)

some compnys wont quote you online at all,you will have to ring them,
my advice is start with something smaller,your insurance will drop a fair bit if you bulid up a no claims.

an '03 merc SL 350 . It's something i love and would keep for years.

I would rather pay the extra on the insurance than fork out for a car that costs a grand just to get rid of it as scrap a few months later.

One option is to buy a banger, get it insured and then this time next year, move on with 1 year's no claim bonus...but is it really worth it?!

bladebrew

jel wrote: »

an '03 merc SL 350 . It's something i love and would keep for years.

I would rather pay the extra on the insurance than fork out for a car that costs a grand just to get rid of it as scrap a few months later.

One option is to buy a banger, get it insured and then this time next year, move on with 1 year's no claim bonus...but is it really worth it?!

sweet:cool:,i think your best bet is to spend maybe a grand on a car,plenty of half decent cars around for that and learn to drive in it,
one years no claims was a 16% discount or me im not sure is this standard??
getting your full licence will take a few hundred off your quote aswell,


then get the merc:)

jel

bladebrew wrote: »

sweet:cool:,i think your best bet is to spend maybe a grand on a car,plenty of half decent cars around for that and learn to drive in it,
one years no claims was a 16% discount or me im not sure is this standard??
getting your full licence will take a few hundred off your quote aswell,


then get the merc:)

Yep, i think you're dead right. Get a car for a grand now, insurance for a grand max. Then in a year's time i'd have experience and hopefully a license and the price of insuring the merc wouldnt be so bad.

And more importantly - I wouldnt write off the merc!

Thanks for the advice.

Mr Benevolent

jel wrote: »

Yep, i think you're dead right. Get a car for a grand now, insurance for a grand max. Then in a year's time i'd have experience and hopefully a license and the price of insuring the merc wouldnt be so bad.

And more importantly - I wouldnt write off the merc!

Thanks for the advice.

That's sensible. I'm a year older than you and in the same position. I'll probably get a 1.3 Micra insured for €1300. Interestingly, a 1.3 Colt is €2000 for me to insure, and an MX-5 is €3000!

PS: 28 is NOT old!

Matt Simis

Tried XSDirect.ie ?

jel

Matt Simis wrote: »

Tried XSDirect.ie ?

That looks a bit suss mate, i put in Male, prov license, <1 year experience, >3.5 litre and it quoted me 1500.

I changed it to 1.0 -1.2 litre and the quote dropped to 1300.

Seems to good to be true, especially for the big engine!!

Confab wrote: »

That's sensible. I'm a year older than you and in the same position. I'll probably get a 1.3 Micra insured for €1300. Interestingly, a 1.3 Colt is €2000 for me to insure, and an MX-5 is €3000!

PS: 28 is NOT old!

Those prices seem a bit high compared to the quotes 123.ie were giving, although i put down a year's prov experience.

Ha - 28 is borderline old...bones are starting to creak!

Damien360

Be smart and buy something cheap and I am afraid not so cheerful for your first car. You will (i promise) dent it, scratch it and do all manor of other things to it. At least if it has little value, you will not be too bothered.

Give yourself at least 10000 miles experience before stepping up to something nice. Years do not count as you could only be doing a few miles a week and that is not enough to be considered even remotely experienced enough to get a nice car that you will not damage.

Anan1

Damien360 wrote: »

Be smart and buy something cheap and I am afraid not so cheerful for your first car. You will (i promise) dent it, scratch it and do all manor of other things to it. At least if it has little value, you will not be too bothered.

Give yourself at least 10000 miles experience before stepping up to something nice. Years do not count as you could only be doing a few miles a week and that is not enough to be considered even remotely experienced enough to get a nice car that you will not damage.

Best advice you'll get, OP.

Matt Simis

jel wrote: »

That looks a bit suss mate, i put in Male, prov license, <1 year experience, >3.5 litre and it quoted me 1500.

I changed it to 1.0 -1.2 litre and the quote dropped to 1300.

Seems to good to be true, especially for the big engine!!

Nothing suss about it, they are well known and underwritten by Wrightway. The deal is your excess is high with them (as in 2 to 4k). Still fully comp though, so just dont go around causing accidents. Ive been with them for a few years due to my choice of engines, age and gender working against me.

Dont use them if you can get insurance elsewhere (ie on anything under 2.0L).

Sleepy

Definitely agree with the 'get something you won't mind putting a few scratches/dings on' for your first car...

I'm taking posession of old an Audi A4 1.6 tomorrow after driving one for a few weeks. Would recommend them as a cheap starter for someone looking to get a merc in a year or two - decent size so you can used to the spatial awareness of driving a larger car than a micra and coming from a slightly smaller car (a 1.4 civic) it's reasonably peppy as well...

I'm paying 2,500 for a 99 but if you don't mind high mileage (which you shouldn't for a first car) you could almost certainly pick up a slightly older one for 1,500 or so...

jel

Damien360 wrote: »

Be smart and buy something cheap and I am afraid not so cheerful for your first car. You will (i promise) dent it, scratch it and do all manor of other things to it. At least if it has little value, you will not be too bothered.

Give yourself at least 10000 miles experience before stepping up to something nice. Years do not count as you could only be doing a few miles a week and that is not enough to be considered even remotely experienced enough to get a nice car that you will not damage.

Thanks for the advice - you are dead right!

jel

Sleepy wrote: »

Definitely agree with the 'get something you won't mind putting a few scratches/dings on' for your first car...

I'm taking posession of old an Audi A4 1.6 tomorrow after driving one for a few weeks. Would recommend them as a cheap starter for someone looking to get a merc in a year or two - decent size so you can used to the spatial awareness of driving a larger car than a micra and coming from a slightly smaller car (a 1.4 civic) it's reasonably peppy as well...

I'm paying 2,500 for a 99 but if you don't mind high mileage (which you shouldn't for a first car) you could almost certainly pick up a slightly older one for 1,500 or so...

Thanks...yep I just want to get something that will be cheap to buy and to insure and keep for a year, so i'll prob get something small for around 1K that's around 1.0 litre.

Anan1

jel wrote: »

Thanks...yep I just want to get something that will be cheap to buy and to insure and keep for a year, so i'll prob get something small for around 1K that's around 1.0 litre.

You could go a bit bigger than that, just as long as it's not too shiny and unmarked! If I were in your shoes i'd be looking for a mechanically excellent but cosmetically ok 1.6 to 2.0 saloon, spend maybe €3000 and you'll get something you like and you don't have to worry about learning in.

Matt Simis

Anan1 wrote: »

You could go a bit bigger than that, just as long as it's not too shiny and unmarked! If I were in your shoes i'd be looking for a mechanically excellent but cosmetically ok 1.6 to 2.0 saloon, spend maybe €3000 and you'll get something you like and you don't have to worry about learning in.

This is sound advise.

bladebrew

Anan1 wrote: »

You could go a bit bigger than that, just as long as it's not too shiny and unmarked! If I were in your shoes i'd be looking for a mechanically excellent but cosmetically ok 1.6 to 2.0 saloon, spend maybe €3000 and you'll get something you like and you don't have to worry about learning in.

+1 your 28 (not that old!) but from an insurance point of view you shouldnt be restricted to just a 1litre,

galwaytt

bladebrew wrote: »

+1 your 28 (not that old!) but from an insurance point of view you shouldnt be restricted to just a 1litre,

Actually, I think you should. If you go for a motorbike, you're restricted to 33bhp for 2 years AFTER your test.

Don't see why there's an open-book arrangement for cars, tbh. Learners far more inclined to carry passengers, too.........

dah

Some good advice, other thing to think about is Motor Tax be hefty on a 3.6.
Whatever you decide shop around and play insurance companies against each other. Like so many other insurances 123.ie seem to come up tops alot of the time.
Get yourself experience then get the flash motor thats what I did.

bladebrew

galwaytt wrote: »

Actually, I think you should. If you go for a motorbike, you're restricted to 33bhp for 2 years AFTER your test.

Don't see why there's an open-book arrangement for cars, tbh. Learners far more inclined to carry passengers, too.........

well in certain circumstances id agree,but a 28 year old in a mercedes isnt likely to be messing about on the roads,
the insurance companies know which cars are likely to be bought by young males for showing off,hence huge premiums to keep them away from such cars, eg,civics,glanzas,

even the changes in licensing trying to prevent young people driving alone didnt do much,despite the risk of a €1000 fine, everyday i see someone in the car alone with the l plates up!!

way off topic though:)

Keith C

Get a list of cars you like, then get your insurance quotes, when your happy with your insurance then buy the car.
DONT buy the car then go for insurance quotes. You'd be surprised how many people buy the car then find no one will insure it!

Big Nasty

Keith C wrote: »

You'd be surprised how many people buy the car then find noone will insure it!

Noone? Haven't tried them yet!

(Sorry Keith!)

useless

Get your licence before buying that Merc. If you pass your test in an auto you'll be restricted to driving autos afterwards.

+1 on the buying something cheap and pre-scratched. I never regretted it & I was 27 getting my first motor (a 2.0 mondeo)

jel

Thanks a lot for all the advice!