The first car…whether offered by parents as a reward for good results in the baccalaureate or financed by a summer job, is an important step in life. Everyone remembers their first car… and often because it was very (too) expensive to insure. At a time when many novices on the road are looking for their first car, either to go on vacation or to prepare for their college entrance, Hyperassur explains to them how not to be mistaken.
To fully understand how the choice of your first car has a major impact on the amount of the auto insurance premium, we will take as an example the favorite model of the French, the Renault Clio. The profile of the driver will be a young 18-year-old license living in the provinces, having not done accompanied driving and without experience as an insured.
The difference between a new car and a used car?
By simply using our car insurance comparison tool, by filling in the profile mentioned above with a mileage of approximately 10,000 km/year and a Renault vehicle, we obtain:
- new car (Renault Clio IV 2017 5-door 1.2 16V Life): the cheapest third-party insurance offer is €689/year, the cheapest all-risk insurance offer is €961/year
- used car 10 years old (Renault Clio III 2007 5 doors 1.2 16V Authentic 4CV petrol): the cheapest third-party insurance offer is €512/year, the cheapest all-risk insurance offer is €840 €/year
- A 20-year-old used car (Renault Clio 1997 5-door 1.2 RL 4CV petrol): the cheapest third-party insurance offer is €463/year, the cheapest all-risk insurance offer is €689/ year year
It’s hard not to notice the link between the age of the car and the price of insurance because, with an equivalent formula, a new car can cost up to 1.5 times more to insure than a used car.
The protection of a new car will be all the more expensive since most insurers will not want to insure it other than in all risks, whereas a third-party formula will suffice for an already old car.
The difference between a car with a small engine and a powerful model?
Always in the same way and using the same insured profile, we wanted to estimate the impact of power on the insurance premium:
- new 5 CV petrol car (Renault Clio IV 2017 5-door TCE90 Zen): the cheapest third-party insurance offer is €757/year, the cheapest all-risk insurance offer is €1,087/year
- new 6 CV petrol car (Renault Clio IV 2017 5-door TCE 120 Intens): the cheapest third-party insurance offer is €796/year, the cheapest all-risk insurance offer is €1,172/year
- new 11CV petrol car (Renault Clio IV 2017 Renault Sport 200 EDC): the cheapest third-party insurance offer is €1,050/year, the cheapest all-risk insurance offer is €1,427/year
The amount of the insurance premium also seems to increase with the number of horsepower under the hood, reaching almost 50% more between the least powerful model and the most powerful. It should also be noted that the number of offers from insurers decreases as power increases, with some believing that the risk becomes too great to insure.
On some sports cars, it will not be uncommon to be denied insurance as a young driver. With a lower choice of insurer, the danger is that you no longer have a choice at prices.
The benefits of accompanied driving
The insurance code provides for an additional premium for young drivers, ie a sort of penalty equivalent to 100% of the basic premium the first year, 50% the second year, and 25% the third year.
Taking the example of our new Clio IV, insurable from €961/year for all risks, this means that the second year the insurance premium for our young driver would drop to around €700, then around €600 the third year and would finally arrive at the base rate (around €500) in the fourth year.
With a license obtained in accompanied driving, our novice driver would avoid the additional premium at 100% and could insure this model for around 700 € the first year to arrive at the basic rate the third year. With accompanied driving, the additional premium is reduced by half and lasts only two years.
