Some of you have been following my car-trauma saga. To summarise:

• My old car died.
• I've put down the deposit on a new car.
  

So, now I'm looking for insurance.

I asked the AA to quote me for changing the car. They wanted more for a smaller car. I queried the bloke, because this is supposed to be a group 5 car (my old one was group 9, according to Parkers). He claimed it was a group 10 (what?).

I've had a shop around on the Internet. I found quite a range of quotes. The upper end was covered by Zurich, with £1500pa. I found a couple of reasonable quotes (Norwich Union Direct and Endsleigh) who quoted me £950 or so.

By far the cheapest (as yet) was Admiral with £740. I'm going to phone them today to double check this. Can anybody suggest other insurers I should try? Anyone here use Admiral? They any good?

i found the AA quite good but you might of been put through to the pet moron so try again

Try some brokers and lie about the lowest quote you got from other outfits and the cost can tumble.

Also getting your girl friend on the insurance can lower it for some bizarre reason.

But phoneing round is about the best bet

But focus probably a good choice cheap as chips to fix and the zetec is a pretty good engine especially went it ain't in a ford.

Try APlan they usually manage to find you a good quote for the first year at least.

Can anybody suggest other insurers I should try?

Direct Line were around a third cheaper than any others for my daughter's Citroen Saxo - but for an under 21, with business use, that's never going to be cheap! I didn't try Admiral, and after we had done it an insurance broker told me that Tesco were cheapest all round (I think it was Tesco, but might just have been another supermarket chain).

Direct Line insure my 172 for a damn sight less than everyone else.

I'm with Admiral at the moment, mainly because with their online quote engine I could tell them I had a changed steering wheel and upgraded my brakes without it saying "please phone us". They didn't even seem to charge extra for my "upgrades" and were cheaper than my previous insurer.

Don't know how good they are claimwise, as I've not had to make a claim in 6 years of owning my own car.

an insurance broker told me that Tesco were cheapest all round

Tried Tesco. They wanted £1300.

Also getting your girl friend on the insurance can lower it for some bizarre reason.

Done that. It seems to lower it for some, not for others.

Have you tried elephant www.elephant.co.uk

They were £600 cheaper than everyone.

In theory elephant.co.uk should be cheaper than Admiral because they are part of the same group but advertise online. However they might have different loading based on their customer profile etc. so who knows!

Gareth

Well Admiral refused to insure me!

I'm with Admiral, after they came in £200 cheaper than Direct Line ! Just a sniff under £400 FC on a BMW 323i. Good deal :-)

Steve.

In theory elephant.co.uk should be cheaper than Admiral because they are part of the same group but advertise online.

I thought that they might be the same group -- the two quote websites are almost identical.

I checked elephant. They were £9.45 cheaper than Admiral.

Right, I've spent many many hours on the phone with insurance companies.

Admiral used to be cheapest for me in London, but the Halifax were the cheapest this year. Also try:

Bell Direct (part of Admiral, but sometimes cheaper)
Elephant (as above)
Tesco
Alliance and Leicester
Liverpool Victoria

Admiral used to be cheapest for me in London,

Yeah, they were pretty cheap: half the price of simply changing the car on my existing AA insurance.

but the Halifax were the cheapest this year.

Not for me this year.

Elephant (as above)

Cheapest so far.

Tesco

As expensive as the AA.

Alliance and Leicester
Liverpool Victoria
Bell Direct (part of Admiral, but sometimes cheaper)


Hmmm. I shall try this lot. I've also phoned a lot of insurance companies today. Accepted wisdom seems to be to get 10 or so quotes; I think I've talked to 15 insurance companies this weekend. I'll try a couple more and wait for some to get back in touch, then I think I'm going with the elephant quote.

Bell Direct (part of Admiral, but sometimes cheaper)

Woot! Even cheaper than elephant.

Goodo...

I recently shopped around for insurance on my new car and found that Direct Line and Tesco were the cheapest by £250. I went for Direct Line in the end. I was with Churchill who were the next cheapest and also tried elephant (but couldn't get a quote on-line), Norwich Union Direct, its4me and esure.

Had Focus 2.0 Zetecs for over 3 years now. I have tried all the big insurance companies, and elephant, admiral, esure, AA, Tesco, Ford etc. Direct Line are the cheapest for me - Around £310-330 for a brand new 2.0, + wife, with NCB. Surprisingly Ford's own insurance was nearly the same price with Tesco close behind, but they didn't actually have the 2.0 on their list, which concerned me about their reliability!!

Strangely, every car I have ever insured seemed to come in at between £300 and £350 in the end, regardless of my age (turning 30 made no difference to the Focus price), or it's type!

Nick

My insurance has always been expensive, I'm currently paying £1200 for my 172, the worst quote was £6500!

£1200 to insure a shopping trolley!!!

Group 16....

elephant quoted me £2,700 on a Sierra Cosworth. Not to bad considering its reputation!

I got a quote for a MkIV Supra Turbo a while back - around £900 fully comprehensive which I thought was mad!

I'm currently paying £550 on my Camaro (305 V8) and £450 for the Caprice (on the left), 24yo with 2yrs NCD. A snot-gobbling newish Corvette is not much more - I know of people my age insuring them for peanuts with god knows how many mods.

Gareth

Out of curiosity, what period are these rates for? A year, six months?

I suspect with a Camaro, it's the same story as with my German motorhome: Why does it cost £240.00 a year for all that quality German coachwork? Because their aren't many of them around which makes them undesirable to nick. If I had paid out a lot less for a common or garden commercial vehicle based motorhome, insurance would be much more.
By the same token, it's a bit hard to shift a Camaro on the black market, not many around and lhd as well.
On the other hand, I bet you don't drive your Camaro the way I drive my motorhome!

Bitt - they are insurance quotes for a year.

£1200 to insure a shopping trolley!!!

Have you ever driven one?

Which motorhome do you have Godfrey? My parents are thinking of getting one. Either that or a caravan....

It's about the likelihood of damage - owners of unusual/classic vehicles are *supposed* to be more careful drivers - normally the group rating is based on how powerful the car is and how expensive they are to repair.

Old Land Rovers are supposed to be extremely cheap to insure through NFU Mutual - for somebody with full NCD and plenty of driving experience they are under a hundred quid.

Yup - the rates are all for 12 months. You can now get monthly insurance from some places but it's about 20% more.

Gareth

I think mine is a group 17, I'm 32, had 6 years no-claims, had a small accident this year and mine comes out at £530 a year - think it is Zurich (through Subaru Insured) -

Direct Line wanted £740
Elephant wanted £680
the highest I saw was over £1200

Andy - paying that much for a group 16 is outrageous (or do you live near London?)

I live in Manchester, which is just as bad, if not worse! If I had it insured at my parents address in Lincoln the premium goes down to £500.

okay its a fast shopping trolly

But just looking around at quotes for the 7

hopefully nothing stupid should come out

Who wanted 6500 for a 172 and did they ask if you wanted to go through with it.

Adrian Flux.... The woman gave me the quote with a distinct tone in her voice like she knew I wouldn't take it.

Lucky escape - Adrian Flux are known to be not all that good in the event of a claim.

As for 7 insurance, give Dave Spragg at MSM insurance (http://www.msminsurance.co.uk) a call - he'll sort you out with a nice quote.

Yea - I was going to say get Motor Sport, or one of those mags. they seem to be chocker with specialist brokers, but probably your guy is just as good.