Bedford Driving Lessons

A learner driver has been quoted a staggering £17,000 to insure his £2,000 Vauxhall Corsa. Student James Hayes, who turns 17 next week, saved for months to buy his modest one-litre car but has been astonished at the sky-high quotes for insurance. He will have to work flat out over the summer to pay the premiums. His case highlights how insurers are increasingly using prohibitive premiums as a weapon against young male drivers. The failure of insurers to offer reasonably priced insurance is being blamed on an explosion in uninsured drivers, which drives up the cost of cover for others and leads middle-class parents to commit a crime by putting themselves as the main driver on their children’s cars. This reluctance to insure young men is based on accident statistics. Men aged 17 to 20 are almost ten times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the roads than older drivers, while one in five new drivers has a crash within six months of passing their test, according to road safety charity Brake. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says the average claim of a younger driver is also three times more than older drivers. But their refusal to cover male teenagers for affordable premiums has led to almost a quarter driving uninsured, according to Brake. And this ends up costing all motorists as they foot the £500million annual bill for accidents caused by uninsured drivers. Fines for driving without insurance can be as small as £200 plus six points on the licence. More