The Cost of Learning to Drive

When Callan turned 17 in June there was only one thing on his wish list – Driving Lessons!

Finding a driving school that didn’t cost the earth was our first hurdle – when I learned to drive it cost me £9.50 per hour, these days it is more than double that!  Thankfully we found Flypass Driving School and Sue is a brilliant teacher for Callan and he is ready to take his driving test after just 20 hours of lessons.  His dad also takes him motor racing, so he has had driving experience before – albeit racing around a muddy track!

That being said, he needs to do his theory test first – he forgot the first one and turned up a day late to take it and the second one he failed by a couple of marks so he needs to rebook again.  I am hoping that by making him pay for it, a) he will remember and b) he will prepare better this time!

Then there is the car want list!

It is safe to say he won’t be getting the Lamborghini Gallardo of his dreams.  I have left his dad in charge of keeping his feet on the ground and finding a decent car as this is his area of expertise.  I have stipulated that it needs to have no more than a 1.1L engine so we can try to keep the insurance costs down and he seems to be steering towards a Renault Clio.

Shopping around for car insurance for young drivers is quite an eye opener.  When Abbey learned to drive 4 years ago her initial insurance was £1200 which, whilst expensive, wasn’t completely out of reach.  Shopping around for deals for Callan and his cousin Brandon has insurance for them coming in at £2500.  I am not sure if it is because they are male, or just the cost of insurance has risen that much!

I have started looking into Telematics, otherwise known as blackbox technology.  The box monitors a number of factors including how they use their accelerator and brakes, what time of day they drive and the type of road they use.  Although it is quite invasive it can save them up £440 a year on their car insurance which is a lot of money and they can monitor their own driving online and make adjustments in their behaviour to bring their premiums down.

Other tips I have found that help bring the cost of insurance down is by adding one of the parents on the insurance as a named driver.  I am still on Abbey’s policy as it saves her around £300 a year, and it also means I can go and rescue her and her car after a messy night out!

Hurry up and book that test Callan – it’s about time you started chauffering me around!!!

Do you have any tips on saving young drivers money?

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