What car do you drive?

[Ian]

I’m a bit for a sucker for French design and have been running round in a Megane 4 for a couple of years now. Still really enjoy it, and it’s never given me any grief. It’s pretty solidly built too, especially the interior finishing (puts my parents VW to shame).





First time I’d gone for an auto too, as I do a fair bit of distance driving, and dealing with gears is effort.

Prior to this I drove a Megane 2 (the one with the big, beautiful ass ) which served me very well and continues to run Joel around.

I had been toying with a Velar as my next car, but after a week of driving a brand new Tucson around Florida I may have to change my plans. A different class of car, but daaaaayum it is was nice!

 

[James]

When I first passed, my insurance was over £2000 (this was after taking the Pass Plus course, which supposedly helped with insurance costs, haha). It dropped to £700 the year after that!

My insurance isn't due until later this year, so I've yet to judge whether it's going up in price or not. I had a sharp decline in insurance prices for years on end (when I got out of the young driver premiums), and for the last few years, I've either paid around the same or less. It will be interesting to see what it is this year. I always tend to change insurers. Aviva was pretty good for three years until they randomly hiked it up by £200 last year, so I jumped ship and went with someone offering £200 less. Loyalty gets you nowhere!

My car choices are pretty boring. I currently have a 2019 Vauxhall Grandland X, which I enjoy driving around. We got off to a rocky start with some issues after buying, but it has treated me well since.





Before that, I had a 2015 Vauxhall Astra. This car caused me no issues whatsoever for the six years I had it, which is probably why I've got a Vauxhall now!

Spoiler

Then, before that, my first car! A 2002 Fiat Punto. I'm sure everyone will agree your first car is always a character. I had a lot of lovely adventures with this car: an entire brake system replacement, welding to fix corroding metalwork, an exhaust pipe deciding to drop to the ground in the middle of a roundabout, and my favourite experience, a total clutch failure on a duel carriageway, during rush hour, and a very young upset and stressed James panicking for his life. She eventually decided to kill herself in 2016, and the engine was dead as a dodo; lucky for me, this was at home, and she sadly went for the scrap heap.

Spoiler

 

[GaryH]

Have a look see what your NCB discount actually is. I suspect you'll find it isn't quantified anywhere - and that's probably because it's nil.

Good point. I’ve dug out my policy with Aviva and it says with regards my NCD:

I have 20+ years NCD.

Over 5 years I get 35% discount.

With no protection: If I have a fault bump in the next 12 months my NCD will drop to 3 years and attract a 30% discount. If I have another bump after that, it drops to 0 and I get no discount.

With my protected NCD it stays at 20 years for the first and second bump and then drops to 3 years after the third bump and zero on the fourth.

Maybe it’s different with other insurance companies but for me and my policy I think it’s worth it.

 

[rob666]

Your ncd will be part protected, but your premiums will shoot up because you have had a claim...and you will still end up paying much more at renewal.
That is how you get shafted regardless by insurance companies sir, and why they all make billions.
Once you have had a claim, you are statistically more likely to have another claim in the future, justifying a premium increase by all companies.
I have had a (very) few own fault minor bumps in my lifetime, happily settled with the other side in cash in full, with an apology and minor gift.
Saved me many thousands in insurance, and budget insurance with high voluntary excess has saved me many thousands more.

 

[Matt.GC]

Car insurance really is a money spinner for big business. It's a win win for them. It's a product that's mandated by law. If the industry sees a year of higher that expected payouts, they can just work together as a cartel and recoup the coasts off of everyone else by nationality whacking everyone's premiums up. And if you don't claim personally, they don't really have to do anything at all.

Mines up for renewal next month (I remember renewing it as it sat in a car park back at Gatwick when I was at Portadventura). So last May I basically gave Churchill £340 and they've had to do pretty much nothing at all as I haven't claimed. I haven't even talked to them, or logged online to view my documents. They just took my payment last May, sent me a confirmation email and that's it.

 

[GaryH]

Always do car insurance through a cash back website such as Quidco

 

[WillPS]

Good point. I’ve dug out my policy with Aviva and it says with regards my NCD:

I have 20+ years NCD.

Over 5 years I get 35% discount.

With no protection: If I have a fault bump in the next 12 months my NCD will drop to 3 years and attract a 30% discount. If I have another bump after that, it drops to 0 and I get no discount.

With my protected NCD it stays at 20 years for the first and second bump and then drops to 3 years after the third bump and zero on the fourth.

Maybe it’s different with other insurance companies but for me and my policy I think it’s worth it.

You'd probably find that you were just offered a different policy which didn't define an NCB discount at all.

Aviva I had remembered as the one big holdout from my insurance days... I guess perhaps that remains the case.