Advanced driving not age limits

From your tale you have a year's experience or less. This is the only significant information the insurance company had about you.

You may also have evidence of having further training by passing such schemes as Pass Plus, IAM or RoSPA however the fact remains you are a very inexperienced driver in a very high risk category i.e. males under 21.

The insurer does not know that you are "..not stupid and not a boy racer driver..." - how could they - and you are not paying for people who crash their cars any more than I am, you are simply in the category of people who are most likely to be involved in accidents and, even more damming, far more likely to cause death or serious injury as a result.

You can however take steps to help reduce your premium immediately: fit an immobiliser and alarm, park you car in a garage at night, keep your annual mileage to a minimum and swap your 1.4 Honda for a 1 litre Vauxhall or Ford which are cheaper to repair and hence in a lower insurance group.

I am 18 I took my test when I was 17 and got 3 minors on my 1st go and passed my 1st car cost 800 pound and my insurance was 2200 on a 1.4 golf 60 bhp pretty slow so I am paying for people who crashd their car im not stupid and not a boy racer driver infact I think its embarassing to be racing anything less than a 2 litre I have a bike that can go 3 times as fast as my car yet my bike insurance is 300 pound and my car 2400 now as I now have a honda civic 1.4i

I paid my £400 third party insurance when I was 17 ,then year by year I reduced it by being careful,I know what its like for insurance to charge big numbers.BUT you know nothing about road road sense when your 17.I am 42 now and pay small amounts for car insurance,I won t preach but bide your time....

Insurance companies are commercial organisations who are there simply to make a profit.

I know this is 'stating the obvious' but it has to be spelt out because some people seem to think very high premiums for very young drivers i.e 17-19 year olds are unreasonable however the only calculation that insurers make is risk balanced against profit.

The simple fact is that statistically young drivers as a group are a high risk.

Further driver training for youngsters, be it RoSPA, IAM or Pass Plus is to be recommended and I agree with the OP on this however convincing an insurer of your competence on an individual basis is impractical and would be far too costly.

I believe that the price of insurance already discriminates and determines who can and can't drive due to prices..... for instance when I passed 3 years ago at 17, I paid £600 for a KA it wasn't the best value for money but I was eager to get on the road and then it cost me £1900 to insure it..... this meant paying insurance payment of over £170 a month because of the area I live in. Then once I turned 18 I got my inheritance cheque and was looking at buying an audi a3.....my dad advised against it thinking I would have it taken off me, so on I plodded to get sum insurance qoutes, norwich union £17,000, swinton...wouldnt insure me, sheilas wheels £8000........ see what I mean??????

Jason, I was referring to the comment just below mine. But then I suppose (hope) that wickedno1 would fail the written test anyway!

Now that is an excellent idea, but you know, so many people would fail the test. Probably not a bad thing either though. Perhaps and IQ test should be included in the right to bring up children too. What an amazing world we could have by introducing these tests.

I think an IQ test should be included in the driving test!

im 17 and I want to buy and jaguar or beetle what is the size engiune limit do I have to be a certain age to drive a certain sized engiune ?

I am in general agreement with the suggestion that better training will prove more beneficial than raising the age at which drivers can take their test and the IAM is as good a way as any to do this however some of their 'Observers' are very anal with unpleasant supercillious attitudes. And it's not just the Honda / Skoda / Volvo-driving old geezers with caps and stringback gloves that are like that. It was this more than anything that put me off renewing membership.

ROSPA offer equivalent schemes and I would recommend that anyone wanting to improve their driving try both gropus before deciding.

More worryingly the IAM appears to favour some of the Goverments dafter anti-speed proposals.

It seems to be the 'In' thing these days to aim all criticism at young drivers. While I admit that young drivers can be irresponsible, the answer isn't simply to raise the age limit. Can you remember when you were 16, just about to turn 17 and learn to drive? It's an exciting time, and lots of people look forward to this moment immensely.

Restricting the age of those who can learn would, in my opinion, not only irritate and alienate the youth of the country, but would lead to an increase in car crime, and people driving without licenses and insurance. If you think carefully, you'll realise this. If you are 17, and everyone else you know has learnt at 17, you will also want to. If suddenly, you are told that you are not responsible enough, this would create an attitude which woul d cause people to believe they can still drive.

Following on from this, the main problem is a lack of driving experience, which is caused simply by the age at which we are allowed to learn. If the age is raised to 21, then surely the lack of experience would still be there, just in slightly older drivers. I feel that I, as a 20 year old driver, am a safer driver than someone who is 21 and just starting out, as I already have 2 years of experience.

It is hard enough learning to drive at 17, with insurance companies trying to charge £1200 for a group 2 car without raising the age requirement for a driving license.

Anything that is changed will simply change the age at which inexperienced drivers are allowed on the road. Surely, early education is much better than waiting until later when it's more difficult to learn new skills.

I believe that the age restriction will not help, in fact it shall just cause more chaos because all the younger drivers which are not yet passed shall intentionally drive illegally (without a liscence, insurance, MOT, road tax etc...). If something is to be restricted, it should be the horse power of the car or perhaps the engine size. I also believe that this shall not make much of a difference as well because if some one wants to drive recklessly they could also do it in a car such as a Nissan Micra (i am not criticising Nissan Micras). Driving tests should also become more advanced. Perhaps there should be a motorway test? I do hope that many of you agree with me because increasing the age restriction will definitely cause a lot of chaos and youngsters shall not be very happy indeed.

Thanx