New driver in the household. How much did your insurance go up?

[Johnnykretentiv]

It's only fitting that I am in the market for a vette when my stepson is turning 16 and learning to drive.

I am assuming my insurance will sky rocket with him driving. Does anyone have expereince with a new driver in the house. What was the damage $$$? Can I set something up with the agent to assure him that he will never drive the vette, or the mustang for that matter?

Thanks

 

[MsSchroder]

We had USAA when our son Eric turned 16. Our rates did not go up any.
The rates on Eric's car were NOT low, however.

Tammy

 

[65-to-00]

Wife says that with my 16 year old now on our policy, it went up about $400.

 

[Johnnykretentiv]

I guess I get what I deserve. I wrecked my Mom's truck (on her birthday) when I was 16. Nothing serious but enough to stop me from playing sports and force me get a job to pay my own insurance.

I'll have to call my agent and see what we has to say.

Thank you

 

[bossvette]

I just went that route last month when the insurance co added Craig jr to my policy even though he has his own car and insurance and he is excluded from driving my car. The form I was supposed to sign was "Lost" in the mail and my monthly payment went from $170 to $558 and played havock with my checking account :ugh I had thought it was adding the two C3's and the two tickets I got this summer (not in the Vette) and by the time I got it straightened out it was too late to change this months payment also. The only good thing is my next four payments will be rather small


Check around out here the best thing to do is get the teen a beater and put it on a seperate policy and exclude him from yours.

 

[zagger]

Added my 16 year old daughter this June, she is covered on all five vehicles including the vette. With good student discount she still cost me $800 a year:duh , full coverage on all vehicles. Insurance or not I still will not let her drive the vette!

 

[vett boy]

IT's been a long time but this is what we did.Gave an old 3/4 ton truck 6cyl 2wd pickup to each of the boys and paid half of the insurance till they bought thier own.They also we're required to pass thier drivers test with a full size vehicle std trans.My wife felt I was kind not to make 'em do it with a dump truck.

 

[Johnnykretentiv]

Thank you all for the comments and good advice. $800 OUCH!!!!!!!!

A beater car is in order here for sure. I will also be very strict when it comes to the prereqs for getting said driving permit.

It looks like IL. is thinking about changing the rules soon too. They are considing the # hours behind the wheel and the driving age going to 18.

 

[IH2LOSE]

Although I don't have children Driving yet, I would highly suggest any one young drivers in the home to insist they get there own policy if they have there own car.

The reason being statistically a young driver is at more risk of having an auto accident. Depending on what your personal assets are I think the added layer of you not being associated Thu insurance is an added security to protect your personal assets

Understand your policy limits. The folks who are driving around with the state minimum limits are putting all of there assets on the line. Speak to your agent

Lastly your actually doing the child a favor by insisting they have there own policy. We had a fellow who was on the parents policy till he was 26 he purchased a new truck and his insurance payment was higher then his truck payment because he was put in assigned risk because it was his first payment.

Now I love my kids the much as the next but I am not willing to put all of my assets on the line in order for them to have inexpensive insurance.

 

[IH2LOSE]

PS

I also don't want to have the worry of my policy becoming unaffordable in the event of one of the children having an accident. That would now effect my quality of life or my employable

Think about what i am saying

 

[zagger]

I hate to disagree, but if a minor lives with you and has his/her own insurance, that in itself does not release you from civil liability if they get into an accident and they don't have enough coverage. I chose the rout of obtaining the largest coverage I could with in my set budget. My daughter drives a Dodge Durango and that is what she took her test in. In CA minor drivers have to be of the roads from 11M to 5:AM and are not allowed to drive with anyone under the age of 25 for the first year. Don't just trust your insurance agent to tel you what the liability's are, if possible consult an attorney. The laws are different from state to state. Good luck!

 

[IH2LOSE]

I hate to disagree, but if a minor lives with you and has his/her own insurance, that in itself does not release you from civil liability if they get into an accident and they don't have enough coverage. I chose the rout of obtaining the largest coverage I could with in my set budget. My daughter drives a Dodge Durango and that is what she took her test in. In CA minor drivers have to be of the roads from 11M to 5:AM and are not allowed to drive with anyone under the age of 25 for the first year. Don't just trust your insurance agent to tel you what the liability's are, if possible consult an attorney. The laws are different from state to state. Good luck!

Yes I am aware of this, But the added layer of protection is what I am looking for, also knowing that if my household become UN-insurable it would be mine or my wife's fault, not an irresponsible child.

I say UN-insurable as one of my workers has a Daughter who has been driving less then a year and has already had 3 accidents, last one with a pedestrian. There insurance company will not re-new with them and the prices they are getting know are almost quadruple what they were paying

 

[Johnnykretentiv]

My wife says that we should wait until he's 18. The boy is fairly resposible but has a "weak moment" every now and then.

I would guess it's just part of the "whole having kids thing" that we have to deal with and other capitalize on.

 

[Patrick]

Although I don't have children, I have a number of co-workers who are beginning to wrestle with this issue themselves. And these discussions about how high-risk teenagers are when it comes to driving reminds me of a quote:

"Good judgement comes from experience. And where does experience come from? Experience comes from bad judgement."
-Mark Twain

Do you all remember when you were first learning to drive a car? My experience, as my dad wanted me to master a manual transmission before I went to an automatic, was in my dad's old 1971 Triumph Spitfire. On Saturday mornings, we would go to an empty high school parking lot and I would practice the basics of learning to shift into first from a complete stop, learning to shift between gears, learning to shift into reverse, learning to park, learning to steer and brake, etc. And there were plenty of opportunities for bad judgements to reveal themselves and serve as learning opportunities on the road to developing experience behind the wheel.

And what I remember about all those Saturday mornings when I wasn't in a Driver's Ed class learning the rules of the road and safety, was that learning to drive involved learning to process a completely different set of variables. It's a tough thing to go from experiencing and perceiving speed as one walks or rides a bicycle, to how one perceives and experiences speed in a car. You are having to learn to juggle variables in a completely new way. You are having to learn to train your feet to be part of the process in way you've never done before. You are having to form completely new habits. And that's a tough thing to do.

Couple that with the fact that Teenagers are renowned for having short attention spans, and are easily distracted, and you have the reason why teens- especially teenage boys- are so expensive to insure.

It seems to me that the best thing you can do for a teen who's about to start driving is to give them lots of time to master those new variables, skill sets and habits in as consequence free an environment as possible. Spend that time with them in those empty parking lots mastering the basics. Let them sit behind the wheel on those short trips around the corner to pick up some groceries or fill up the car. Let them build those mental pathways that become rote memory in time slowly and safely. Those experiences will help them develop good judgement behind the wheel.

Ultimately, it's the foundation you help those new drivers build that will determine what sort of risk they are viewed to be by an insurance carrier. Yes, things like good grades, the kind of car they drive, and whether they've taken a certified driver's educational course, are all indicators Insurance Companies will look at, but in the end, their road record will be the ultimate factor in what insurance for a new driver will cost.


-Patrick

 

[Johnnykretentiv]

Very well said Patrick. Just today I took the boy out to a church parking lot to teach him how to drive stick. He did surprisingly well.

My backyard neighbor owns a Driver's Education School so you can bet he will be enrolled there.

 

[GerryLP]

Hagerty, man, Hagerty

One word...Hagerty

I just purchased a one year full coverage with no deductibles from Hagerty Insurance for $260.00 plus the 50 mile free tow coverage fee. Totaled $310.00 dollars.

They even told me that they believe that there is a chance that my daughter would be driving the vette (if they only knew that not even my 24 year old has driven it...:L ), so she's even included. I had them match my 50/100k dollars liability on my other vehicles as well.

By the way, Farmers Insurance best quote was $610.00 per year with $500 deductible -that's even though we also have our home and other 3 vehicles with them. They could not beat the Hagerty quote.

Bud (aka Rare81) turn me on to them. Great tip!

GerryLP:cool

 

[Johnnykretentiv]

Wow that's amazing!!!
I'll be sure to get them a call.

 

[MsSchroder]

Patrick is spot-on.
I learned 2 important things when my first son got to be of driving age:
1) Drivers Ed class is very valuable. I will have the next 2 do it as well.
2) Spend as much time as you can just riding with your son or daughter, getting into potential "situations" and discussing how to handle them.

I recall one afternoon in the early days when I was with Eric. He came to a 2 way stop, and thought it was a 4-way. He began to pull out in front of an oncoming pickup truck- if I hadn't been in there urgently telling him to stop, he would probably be dead.

That was the day that he learned that even if you think you have the right of way, don't pull out if it doesn't look like the traffic is going to yield.

With these next 2, I am going to invest in even more driving classes- probably some defensive-driving ones.

Tammy

 

[Pinky]

"Good judgement comes from experience. And where does experience come from? Experience comes from bad judgement."
-Mark Twain

Well you-all have given the bad news so I'll tell a little good-news story: my younger son, who will be 18 in January, last year bought his first car (all by himself), a '74 Jeep Wagoneer - "Old Yeller" (it is school bus yellow). After sinking $3000 into a new motor and 6 months in the shop, he finally got to drive it. 3 weeks later a nutty old woman (HAHA, 2 years old than me) in a Honda Accord ran a stop sign to make a left turn and then stopped in the oncoming traffic lane, making herself a very effective bullseye as he crested the top of a hill. While her car was totalled, his car got a bent bumper on one side and no one was even scratched.

I am all for the teen driver having an inexpensive car, but the moral of this story is...make sure it's a lead sled. A '65 Impala would be good...:L

(By the way, she got a ticket so her insurance company totalled the Jeep, gave us $3500 for it and let us buy it back for $86. So we didn't have to take Old Yeller out back and shoot him after all.)

 

[vett boy]

From Experience I was involved in a series of accidents that we're clearly not my fault several years ago.The insurance company does hold 'em against the non -fault driver as well. Not fair but they do. Last but not least I'm glad your son was not harmed and you made a wise choice in vehicles