MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
In order to be a better driver and to lower the costs of a first car's insurance, what's the best training(s) that the owner of the "green P plate car" can do?
Are Pass Plus, AA Proficiency, IoAM pretty much the same or do they focus on different qualities?
Any insurers better than the other for noobs?
Cheers,
T
GTA5
As your goal is lower insurance you can check boxes when getting quotes online to see difference in savings between courses.
I did a pass plus many years ago as soon as I passed as it introduced motorways, which I had not driven on yet but would need to for work. The course paid for itself after 5 months of monthly insurance payments so I looked at it as a free course and cheaper insurance.
Waiting another year to own a car.....was going to be waaaay cheaper for my cousin who recently passed his test.
He wouldn't/couldn't wait and paid full whack. Ouchy.
Best thing Sandwich Jr did was fail his first test. We had a policy in his name for one of the cars in the household which he was insured on as the main driver. A month extra on a learner licence cut his solo premium on passing by £300.
He went on to do pass plus which seems quite good for teaching motorway driving and reinforcing good practice. He went straight to sleep on getting home from it as he was mentally drained after 6 hours in the car.
I thought the policies with a tracker in the car made more difference than a course?
Which do you want, to save money or be a better driver?
My 17y/o passed earlier this year and while the black box policies were cheaper (saved a couple of hundred) they weren't cheaper enough in the scheme of things to be worth the 'risk'. £1500 vs £1700.
Plus I wanted to also drive his car and didn't want my driving to impact him. Before anyone says anything about 'fronting', it's his car in his name and I'm only down as a 'named' (which does reduce the premium).
To get lower insurance, follow the tips above.
If you want better driving, get a course. The Pass Plus very much depends on the instructor who delivers it and to some extent, the area which you live.
To be Pass Plus registered, a Driving Instructor just needs to register they don't need any more qualifications. I'm in Manchester area so I've got a good mix of motorways, dual carraigeways, city centres to use. If you are elsewhere you may not get the mix. The level of experience of the instructor will also come into play here. I know instructors who had done hardly any miles on the motorway themselves before qualifying and the quailiying test is 1 hour and only includes a bit of motorway, so you can only pass the knowledge on if you have it yourself. 😉
IAM is more of the advanced using police type methods, obviously without the speed. I've done it and really enjoyed it and it definatly helped my driving.
Many thanks for all the replies!
Main goal is to be a better driver as I'm gonna be carrying little folks in the back seats, and any insurance savings would be a bonus!
I'll play with online quotes and see how are they affected by different courses etc., I'm in Brum so there's plenty of decent "training grounds" around.
Is there any general wisdom as to what would be cheaper: diesel over petrol, estate over V8 cabrio etc? What little things shall I look for? I've no problem with Black Box fitting...
I've up to 2.5k for a car, most of the quotes for estates/MPVs comes at around 2k(fully comp, SDP use, parked on road, 8k annual mileage).
Cheers,
T
@RichPenny: I've found Carmageddon to be more than helpful 😈
In terms of observation etc I reckon doing a motorcycle CBT helps with improving car driving.