Defender insurance for teen

[Debender]

Hi all, I’m a 17yr old and have spent the best part of the last year rebuilding a 1993 200tdi defender. I have recently passed my driving test and have started looking for insurance as my learner insurance was no longer valid (the learner insurance was around £2000) the learner insurance was more expensive for me in a defender as expected but only by a couple hundred compared to my mates in more “normal” cars but now it’s come time to get full insurance it’s becoming bonkers. IV been quoted £10000 and the lowest iv been able to fine was £9500.

I’m at a real loss here as would never of expected the insurance to cose the same as the car dose. 

Any advice on what insurance companies to try or if there are any mods that can be done to lower insurance (tracker or high lever break light?)

[Bowie69]

That's potty, completely.

I would ring up a few proper brokers, NFU, Adrian Flus, Lancaster etc, none of the online quotes will do you any good at all.

Then you can talk through the options and ways to reduce the premium, even have one of those tracker/dashcams may be a good idea for you.

Are you rural or inner city Glasgow?

[miketomcat]

An advanced motorist qualification (IAM) would probably help too.

Mike

[Mutley]

@Debender OUCH!!!... I feel your pain lad, regards any mods!?! I would steer well clear as these will only INCREASE the cost, keep as close to it's original state as possible. 

How many miles a year are you telling them??? As most insurance companies have a threshold, keep it below 4K

As for insurance companies give Footman James a try, I find them reasonable but then again I'm OLD!?!

Failing all that I'm sure a grown-up will offer better advice.  Good luck all the same. 

[Stellaghost]

Definately agree to have a tracker fitted, makes a vast difference to your premium also you get rewarded with lower payments for good behaviour, young lad on my team went that way and was very happy, try specialist 4x4 like Adrian Flux as stated above

regards Stephen

[steve b]

I know someone in the same boat as you , he has a 1963 109 sw completely standard apart from an LDV 2.5na diesel and he has got himself a "cheap" to insure for a young new driver tiny hatchback to accrue some clean time on his policy. All rather frustrating for you as I think you all should be given a sensible chance to start out driving and prove yourselves instead of being treated as guilty of bad driving before you even move.....

Driving monitors are worth insurance gold stars

I use HIC for Land Rover insurance but I am somewhat aged...

Steve

[fmmv]

If you have an older driver with a clean record added as a named driver that can sometimes substantially reduce premiums.

[jeremy996]

At 17 you are going to struggle; statistically, you are going to have a fault accident in the next 2 years! Defenders make large holes in the scenery and are readily stolen, so all of the bases are loaded against you.

Try all of the brokers and see what they can suggest. Add one or more parents to your policy, that will usually reduce the cost. Add a recognised tracker and other anti-theft devices. Keep modifications to a minimum and NO performance enhancements. Agree to having a black box fitted and a low annual mileage.

At 21, you will have access to classic car insurance, so you might find it easier to buy a cheap, unfasionable car to collect some no claims bonus - until recently we had a Vauxhall Agila 1.0, (grandparent special, so no street cred), as the young driver car.

 

[Filbee]

Wow, those are some scary quotes!

Another one to try is A-Plan/Howdens.

I currently have all my vehicles insured through them, and whilst I think I'll try shopping around when my Defender policy runs out as I thought it was a bit much, I did manage to insure my eldest daughter who's just passed her test for under £1k on a little VW Up, and no black box required!

Things that will help include adding your parents to the policy, even if they never drive the truck, and limiting the number of miles you can cover in the year.

Or if you can't get a sensible-ish quote, spend another couple of years fettling your Defender whilst you drive round in a s***ter accumulating no claims bonus and getting more on-road experience.

Good luck and keep us posted with tales from your quest!

Edited November 13, 2023 by Filbee

[Debender]

Hi all thanks for all the advice, just spend my night going through price comparisons websites with little luck. One problem iv been facing is that SOME websites have the defender as a van when I enter the reg and therefor won’t give me car insurance quotes (the defender is a van back so no windows but is dose have bench seats with lap belts) i have done some van insurance quotes which where slightly cheaper at around £7000 but not sure whether when it come time to pay they’ll turn round and say the defender isn’t a van because it hade seats or some nonsense like that.
Any advice on wether to try and peruse van insurance instead or its it better to just keep trying with car insurance 

ps on all quotes iv had my dad as the primary driver as he dose drive the car. I live in the west-end of Glasgow but has a small cottage at lock eck (Dunoon) and when puting that as the primary address for the car the insurance was much lower (£5500-£6000) is that worth doing or dose it open a can of worms for the insurance company not to pay out if something happens. 
 

thank again with the advice still trying to find my way around insurance which seams to change the rules on what lower and raises premiums every time I look.

[landroversforever]

I know it can be a bit of a pain, but ring rather than use the online quote things. Something like an older defender isn't 'normal' enough, particularly when it comes to being a 'van' in their eyes. Yes, lots of the specialists are likely to have minimum ages but you'll have to ask to find out who. 

One thing you might find will drop the premium is removing the sideways facing seats in the rear if you're not likely to use them. I know several insurers in the past have refused to cover sideways facing seats any more. Less potential passengers = less potential claims too. 

Don't have your parents as the primary driver if they're not genuinely the main driver, it's called 'fronting', and they're pretty hot on it now. Have the parents on the policy, but not as the main driver if you're the one driving it most often. Always worth trying whether adding one or both will help. Same for the address, keep it to what is usually the case. If it's not normally kept in Dunoon, then don't tell them it's there most of the time. 

Trouble with all of it is that one insurer will give a good price for one person, but might be a hideous cost for someone else. So there isn't really a substitute for a session ringing round sadly.

[Bowie69]

17 minutes ago, landroversforever said:

Don't have your parents as the primary driver if they're not genuinely the main driver, it's called 'fronting', and they're pretty hot on it now. Have the parents on the policy, but not as the main driver if you're the one driving it most often. Always worth trying whether adding one or both will help. Same for the address, keep it to what is usually the case. If it's not normally kept in Dunoon, then don't tell them it's there most of the time. 

Correct, if you are the main user, you MUST be the policy holder or in an accident where you are travelling for work, for example, you could be uninsured. Then watch your premiums grow after that.

[smallfry]

No good using the comparison websites for this, you are wasting your time. 

Try ringing RH, Firebond, Peter Best, or Lancaster. I wouldn't touch Adrian Flux personally.

I assume you are using it as your primary vehicle. Most of us have other vehicles, and are elderly (at least 40) so can get away with classic policies.

Companies are wise to parent as main driver with a teenager as named driver. Could get away with this when I was your age, but not now. Because of where you live, they may also insist on it being garaged, or at the very least on a private drive.

Don't forget that insurance companies will do their utmost not to pay out. So do not give then any excuse, or you could end up with a very large financial burden for life. Also not unknown for them to do some snooping on Google Earth !  

[stevebus]

A mate of my daughter, he's got an all singing all dancing disco 1, more modifications than you can shake a stick at, goes with Adrian Flux, he submitted every last mod that he has done to them so they couldn't blag him if he had a claim, he's 22 and pays 700 quid, I realise he's got 5 years on you age wise and been driving 3 years, give them a go

10000 quid, what idiot come up with that quote, would be interesting to know? Good luck with it all

[landroversforever]

1 minute ago, stevebus said:

A mate of my daughter, he's got an all singing all dancing disco 1, more modifications than you can shake a stick at, goes with Adrian Flux, he submitted every last mod that he has done to them so they couldn't blag him if he had a claim, he's 22 and pays 700 quid, I realise he's got 5 years on you age wise and been driving 3 years, give them a go

10000 quid, what idiot come up with that quote, would be interesting to know? Good luck with it all

Ones like that £10k they'll jsut be wanting to hopefully price themselves out of something they don't want. Or is a mad quote because it's something they don't understand. 

[stevebus]

Profiteering in my eyes, what a shower, it isn't on is it really! And then they wonder why so many young people don't have insurance, my daughter pays 1800 with the extra for paying it monthly for a 68 plate vauxhall corsa, I nearly choked when she said what she pays a month, shocking

[landroversforever]

I'm not sure it is really.... I very much doubt people are paying that sort of figure on 'normal' cars.

 

[stevebus]

They can't be fella, I agree, I can see what your saying about the insurance company not wanting the work and pricing it high to get out of it, but I still find it quite annoying, and the poor lad who's trying to get the insurance must be heart broken I should think, perhaps we should all chip in a quid, there's enough people on here to do that, everyone needs a bit of help sometimes, either that or he gives us the idiots number who quoted him that and we could have minute relay on ringing the c@^t asking for defender insurance 

[Debender]

hi thanks all again for the input. I will be getting on the phone over the next couple of nights, Do you have any advice on what to tell them when it comes to mods as you can expect very few if any of the parts are original and when I have been fixing/replacing stuff iv tried my best to get the newer and more reliable parts best example being the clutch cylinder which when i replace was leaking break fluid everywhere and i replaced it with one of the light clutches, the difference was amazing. but is stuff like that worth mentioning or will it not make a difference or even increase insurance?

I would love some input on this as seem to be reading conflicting evidence everywhere I look about when it's considered a mod and whether you need/is in your best to tell insurance companies.

 

thanks again for the ongoing advice.

[landroversforever]

Depends what it is, I’d suggest mentioning all of it, and they’ll tell you what they’re interested in or not. This is where it’s worth getting it all written down and confirmed by them. 

[western]

Mods like engine change or upgrades, brakes from drum to disc, dash camera, rear view camera, suspension upgrades, number of seats will be stuff insurers want to know about. 

[smallfry]

7 hours ago, landroversforever said:

Ones like that £10k they'll jsut be wanting to hopefully price themselves out of something they don't want. Or is a mad quote because it's something they don't understand. 

I think this hits the nail on the head really. As an example I paid £147 fully comp for one of my vans this year, but I also had quotes for £900 for the same thing, and I go through the charade of checking prices every year.

I believe most companies have parameters on what risks they will accept. 

[landroversforever]

1 hour ago, western said:

Mods like engine change or upgrades, brakes from drum to disc, dash camera, rear view camera, suspension upgrades, number of seats will be stuff insurers want to know about. 

They’ll need to know about almost everything from stock. They’ll decide how much that changes the risk for them.

For @Debender an example for you of why it’s so important to go with specialists. Most high street insurers would see a snorkel/raised air intake as some kind of performance induction kit or similar. Whereas a specialist is likely to see it as something that’s not going to change the risk much, and not increase performance. 

[jeremy996]

Whether it is a van or a car depends on how it is registered, (my Grenadier is technically a van!) If yours is a hard top with extra seats, take the extra seats out - most insurers will have fits with sideways seats and lapbelts. For most intents and purposes, you have a van. (My old 90 was described as a van with windows for a reason).

Ring all of the companies in the specialist LR press for quotes, listing every change you have fitted from standard. (Don't worry about the lighter clutch, worry about cosmetics, performance and value). Try Endsleigh, (young driver specialist but no understanding of LRs), try Admiral, A-Plan, NFU etc. I have had OK deals from Lancaster and walk-in brokers; there is no substitute for leg work as the on-line comparison sites only work well with standard risks.

As others have said, never lie to an insurance company and make sure you can prove any statements that might appear dodgy to an outsider. If it is usually at one address, use that, if the other one is cheaper move the vehicle permanently! Make sure your social media output matches the statement you gave to the insurance company. 

[Debender]

Hi all thanks for the advice thought I’d give you all an up date iv spent the weekend calling insurance companies will little success except from admiral who where willing to offer a semi responsible price £5000 which although is still way more than I was expecting to pay will do for now so I can continue to drive and working on the defender whilst looking for better options.