Looking at replacing my car. Dealer only offering a derisory amount for my old car (not unreasonable given what I’m buying is fairly bargain basement and I believe him that there’s not much profit in it), so thinking of selling on ebay. However I’ll only get a few hundred for it at best, maybe as little as one hundred so looking to minimise costs. Asked my insurance company about having both cars covered for a week or two and they’re quoting me £53 for a week – that’s despite my annual policy only being ~£200, so they’d charge me as much for a month of temporary cover as I pay for a year. I was kind of expecting £20 or so a week.

Surely there must be a cheaper way to do this? Can I get normal cover for the old car (having transferred my normal policy) and cancel it after a week getting most of my money back? Alternatively, I might be able to fit it on the bit of non-public road outside our house, or keep it on the drive and put the new car on the road for a week or so (I’m assuming I can’t keep an uninsured car on the public road) – though that means it can’t be test driven.

…oh unless anybody is interested in a tatty well worn T reg 406 estate with 158k miles (still drives well and gets 50mpg though).

bump – nobody got any thoughts on insuring a second car?

Colleague at work has similar issue at moment and his insurance co will allow him to insure it for £10 plus £10 a week. Sounds like you are unlucky with your insurance company.

Might be worth ringing again and checking they understood you properly?

So a long time ago I need to insure my friend on my car. It was cheaper just to keep him on the insurance until the end of the policy rather than put him on and take him off again as for the insurance company that involved two lots of paperwork.

If you think it may go for a ton then get a breakers/scrappers to come and take it off your hands.

A lady I know had her Kia Pride taken away and was paid £175 in to the bargain.

Insure it for a year, then cancel the policy and get most of your money back, plus a £30 admin fee. that’s how Admiral works anyway, and that’s what I have done a few times.

Sounds like a £300/£400 car all day long though!
This is £300 for example:

Don’t think you’ll get any cheaper than £53 tbh. There’s are short term insurers on the interent but I think if you’re looking at over a week of cross over then you’ll soon hit £50+ as I seem to remember it being ~£15/day.

You’ll get more than £100 on Ebay for it if it’s MOT’d.

Sell before the new one delivered?

Insure it for a year, then cancel the policy and get most of your money back, plus a £30 admin fee. that’s how Admiral works anyway, and that’s what I have done a few times.

+1, don’t think More Than charge the admin fee, and many have a 14 day ‘cooling off’ period where you can cancel it FOC (less the used period) anyway. That’s what I’d be doing.

You’ll get more than £100 on Ebay for it if it’s MOT’d.

5 months MOT. Spares/repairs ones are going for a couple of hundred.

Sell before the new one delivered?

I’ll probably get the new one at the start of next week, so not much time for that now – I wasn’t sure until today I was getting it. Actually that’s the best idea yet – I’m not in that big a hurry to get the new one, so I could put the dealer off for a week whilst I sell. Always assuming of course I don’t have any hassle with the buyer, though I do have a fall back option in that case.

If you think it may go for a ton then get a breakers/scrappers to come and take it off your hands.

A lady I know had her Kia Pride taken away and was paid £175 in to the bargain.

Really? I’ll have to look into that, good idea if so.

+1, don’t think More Than charge the admin fee, and many have a 14 day ‘cooling off’ period where you can cancel it FOC (less the used period) anyway. That’s what I’d be doing.

Ah – I did wonder if that was possible. Shall look into that – thanks for the tip. It looks like I may have the scrappy as a fall back option.

How much has the dealer offered you vs what you think you’ll get for it – and is it worth the hassle?

Really? I’ll have to look into that, good idea if so.

Absolutely. It’s the way to go if you want rid with minimum hassle.

How much has the dealer offered you

Effectively £70. Hence I could live with getting a ton for it, but would hope to get a bit more.

Mate – do the sums…

Great cyclist car massice boot takes 3 full race bikes and two sports bags at once. Diesels are very economical as well as said before at worst get it to the scrappy and more then double your money

I got £120 for a T reg Vectra with 7 months MOT at the scapyard, I had looked on ebay and they were fetching approx £150 -£200 but couldn’t be bothered with the time wasters, idiots and the extra insurance and parking hassles

Well the answer is I’m selling on ebay before picking up the new one.

Though having set up the auction last night, this morning whilst reading the thread on insurance costs, another answer occurred to me – take out a new policy on the new car and keep the old policy on the old one. Given a quote on the new car is only £188, that I have only a little more than a month until my renewal and that they want to charge me £7 to change the car until my renewal, the effective cost of doing that is only ~£10 for a month and a bit’s insurance. Kind of tempted to go with that and pick up the new car a little earlier, which also means I’m not so worried about ebay time-wasters.

It will be worth about £150 as scrap, so don’t get rid for less than that.

It will be worth about £150 as scrap, so don’t get rid for less than that.

Just in case anybody is interested, I have £420 cash sitting here now, having sold it on ebay – which is rather more than I was expecting. Oh, and I picked the other car up on Friday and set up a new insurance policy for that which cost £170, so the effective cost to me of insuring both for a month and a half was £14 (given it would have cost £7 to swap).

Spookily enough, I am also looking for temporary insurance cover and this evening my insurers suggested I google ‘temporary insurance cover’ as my new wheels are 6 groups’ lower than my existing and they would only provide temporary cover for a change of 5 groups or less.

Bit odd I thought, but hey ho. I’ve yet to google btw…