In the UK the insurance groups are divided into a banding structure, until very recently this ran from 1 to 12. Cars are no banded in insurance groups from 1 to 50 with 1 being the cheapest to insure and 50 being the most expensive. As a general rule the more expensive the car is going to cost the insurer in terms of claims the higher it will be grouped.
This insurance grouping has the same effect on insurance premiums for short term car insurance as is does for your annual car insurance policy. So if you are trying to keep costs down then a car in the lower groups 1 to 5 is going to have a big effect on keeping costs down. For example the Chevrolet Spark 1.0i is in group 1 and so is going to be far cheaper to insure than a Vauxhall Zafira.
For young drivers today it is even more important that they consider the insurance grouping of a car above any other factor. If you are looking to borrow a car and want to get insured for a day or two then choosing a low car insurance group will greatly reduce the premium that you are going to pay.
To put these figures into context if you have just passed your test and you were looking to get an annual insurance policy you would expect to pay around £7,000. Even if you tried to reduce the cost by adding yourself to your parents policy it would still add £3,000 to the cost.
Of course daily car insurance would be a lot less expensive as you are only buying coverage for a relatively short period of time. However the difference in cost from the lowest possible insurance group to the highest is going to be magnified the younger that you are. For an experienced driver the gap between the cost of a group 1 and group 50 policy is going to be a lot less than that for a 21 year old.
If you are planning a trip and need to borrow a car it would make much more sense to borrow one that is grouped in the lowest 5, that means groups 1 to 5. Obviously if your choice is limited as to who will let you borrow their car then there is not much you are going to be able to do about the effect of the insurance group on the cost of your daily insurance policy.
Besides the obvious effect on cost the insurance group of the car you are looking to insure is important due to some of the restrictions on short term insurance. A daily policy will only cover you up to a certain level and this will be dependant on the insurer. This means that if you are looking to get daily cover for a high insurance group car then you are not likely to be able to get cover no matter what your age. This is the same reason that you cannot get short term cover for performance cars.
Under 25 Insurance
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