Plight of 17-year-old son who cannot afford to insure his car

Amanda Laycock, Grange Road, West Cowick, Goole.

I AM writing this letter out of frustration as a parent of a responsible 17-year-old who has just passed his driving test, having spent most of yesterday trying to get insurance for his car. I’m sure I speak on behalf of many frustrated parents with teenagers.

As parents, we have gone out of our way to try to help our son as much as we can. We have bought his car, which is only a small car, helped him with his lessons and the rest is all down to him.

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From leaving school with good exam results and excellent reports, he has found himself an apprenticeship and is now working full time. His training takes him all the way down to Bristol, which he does for two weeks at a time, five times a year, without moaning because he knows its going to help him get where he wants in life. But the train fare costs nearly £400 – half of which the company pays for.

Students attend this college from all over England, Scotland and Wales, and being able to drive would drastically cut his costs. He is an apprentice mechanic working for a highly reputed HGV dealer.

We are now faced with the prospect of having to sell my son’s car, as he cannot afford to pay the £4,000 to £5,000 insurance cost. Our first hurdle was that as a mechanic, the premiums are far higher than that of other professions. But when quoting for insurance you have to let them know if the car is modified in anyway, which it is not and which he has no intention of doing – so why should being a mechanic hinder in any way? Surely it should be more beneficial.

Even to add my son to my own car insurance would cost £2,000.

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It appears the insurance companies are all in it together, to keep 17-year-olds off the road by having ludicrous premiums for even small-engine cars. The cheapest we have found is about £3,500 for the year.

I am finding it hard to understand why the age limit is 17 years old to drive, when there is no reasonable way any of them can afford to pay the insurance. I now understand why there are so many uninsured drivers on the road.

For the insurance companies to just outright stonewall the youth of today must surely have a knock-on effect in the future, not only for them but for business and the economy too.

I would like to think there are other ways around this, other than demanding sky-high premiums – perhaps by adding some sort of restriction.

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A curfew preventing driving between 11pm and 6am would at least allow students to travel in the day and be able to get to work or college.

Have a limited mileage on new drivers; let them drive only up to one-litre engines; even have speed restrictions similar to HGVs set at 56mph.

The situation seems to be totally unfair on my son, who still cannot drive and now also feels as if he has wasted his time and money.