Car insurance - age of car?

SeanW

Just about to switch car insurance because my renewal was insane. Main reason is my car is a little older than I'd like to admit and even though my driving history is long and boringly uneventful, most insurers won't quote you and those that do, it's usually a 4 figure sum.

Is the rule simply "car over 10 years old - good luck!" or are the insurance rules around older cars more graduated. E.g. would it be easier to insure yourself on an '08 car vs a '00? Or would you simply need to get a car that's under 10 years old, e.g. 2012? What rate drops/increases have people experienced going between older vs. newer cars?

yamaha4life

You should get a decent quote if you are 30+ but you will have to shop around a painful amount ring places rather than using online, I had a 05 1.6 Toyota at the start of the year Liberty quoted the best at €460 TPFT. Axa will insure a car around 1995 up but I wouldn’t expect the premium to be less than €600.

con747

Every year it's a marathon of phone calls or online quotes which end up as phone calls Do as many as you can before it drives you mad, quotes can vary by hundreds of Euro so well worth a morning doing it. I have insured all ages of cars and no consistency. 38+ years no claims.

Eggs For Dinner

It is easier to insure an older car that you have owned for a few years, than one recently purchased

theteal

Yes OP, in Ireland cars turn to dust as soon as they hit 10. At least that's what most of the insurance companies would have us believe anyway. There must be some exceptions but you will have to do a bit of legwork. A broker may be of use???

It's a bit sickening and one of things things I least look forward to when/if we return. In comparison, insurance for my 07 Mazda us £230 here in the UK.

Also, dont be ashamed of your older car (not that i think 10 years is old in the slightest), I love seeing old, well maintained cars on the road. On top if that you're doing the planet a favour.

SeanW

Thanks for all the responses so far, one other thing sometimes when I look at an insurer's website and it comes back saying "we can't quote you online" they usually include a phone number saying something like "but you can call us at such a number to discuss your application/request/whatever further." I've never done that as I always assume it will either be "we can't quote you" when you call, or if you do get a quote, the amount will be insane. My thinking is, if you have to beg for a quote, it's probably not going to be worth it even if you get one.

Might it be worth calling in some of those cases?

frozenfrozen

an post insurnace and chill.ie are the only online quotes that give me a number if you want to try them

cplwhisper

frozenfrozen wrote: »

an post insurnace and chill.ie are the only online quotes that give me a number if you want to try them

The reason insurer wishes to chat is to determine how long you actually own the older car as , for example, you are going from a modern car to an older car simply to get a younger driver insured as they may not qualify fir same, it may simply be the car you’ve had for years and they’d recognise it as genuine cared for car

Del2005

I found that if you try for TPO the quotes can be higher than fully compressive and never value your car less than €5k, they will only pay what it's worth but charge more to insure older cheaper cars.

I have a big engined old car!

Turbohymac

Hi op.you shouldn't have a problem getting good quotes well under the figures you quote .but you have failed to mention..
Your age..hopefully over 30.
And a full clean driving license.
Also that car is in good mechanical condition and has a current nct.
If theres any history or issues with you not having a clean driving history.
Oh. And the magic 5 years No claims bonus. Then I'd agree with previous posters that you need to shop around..
But if the problem might be related to past driving history. Then you can't blame the age of your car..

tippingpoint

My boyfriend has an '03 car and he got a reasonable quote with AIB insurance, around €500 or so for the year. Also, try ringing a broker, they can usually find a cheap quote for you. Hastings Insurance brokers are meant to be good, I haven't used them myself but worth a shot if they can save you a few euro!

cplwhisper

AIB is underwritten by Axa who have will insure older cars with of course T&C.

coylemj

SeanW wrote: »

.... sometimes when I look at an insurer's website and it comes back saying "we can't quote you online" they usually include a phone number saying something like "but you can call us at such a number to discuss your application/request/whatever further." I've never done that as I always assume it will either be "we can't quote you" when you call, or if you do get a quote, the amount will be insane. My thinking is, if you have to beg for a quote, it's probably not going to be worth it even if you get one.

Declining to give you an online quote does not necessarily mean they don't want your business. The quotation system is designed to reduce the overhead of paying a call agent to manuallly input your details into the system, it's intended that it can handle >90% of the people looking for a quote on the website. There will always be situations where you need to deal with a human and yours is clearly one of them.

SeanW wrote: »

Might it be worth calling in some of those cases?

Look at the message you quoted, they're not refusing your business, they're just refusing to give you an online quote and they're explicitly inviting you to call them.

So call them.