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Must say that suprises me - would love to know how many new drivers there are (although I suspect fewer youngsters are driving) and what the regional breakdown of the drop is.
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Roughly using their percentages gives 38 million motorists in the UK. Average driving career is from 20 years old to 70 years OTTOMH. So you'd expect 38,000,000/50 years = 760,000 drivers to give up in any one year anyway.
I'd expect these figures to vary quite a bit from one year to the next, but 1 million doesn't sound particularly out of the ordinary.
Does the survey say that 1 million licence holders stopped driving, or that there were 1 million fewer active licence holders than in the previous year? Not the same thing at all. I would expect the number of new drivers starting their driving careers to have fallen in recent years, thus accounting for a good proportion of the second figure.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Wed 6 Jul 11 at 12:53
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Statistics are a wonderful thing aren't they!
Behind every headline like this there is another equally true but less sensational headline which in this case could go something like "15% more drivers than average give up driving in one year!"
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>> Statistics are a wonderful thing aren't they!
>>
Yes. I love the one that says that 99.9% of people have more than the average number of legs.
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One of my mates has given his 206 GTI, the MOT was running out, and a change of job means he now gets the bus to work rather than doing a 60+ mile commute he does the journey by bus instead.
I have no plans to give up the Panda though, despite the fact insurance is killing me.
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>> ................ despite the fact insurance is
>> killing me.
www.theaa.com/insurance/young-drivers-car-insurance.html
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I am not so young though, I am 30 next year!
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Insurance is becoming cost prohibitive for young drivers. My 17 year old cousin has just sold the bog standard 1.0 Cinquecento (group 2) he has been slowly spannering back to roadworthiness over the past year because at £3,000 third party only, he simply cannot afford to get it insured.
It's easy to sit here paying a tenth of that fully comp, with loads of policy frills, on a group 14 car, and say "well, the young crash a lot, so what do they expect?" but if we'd been priced off the road at 17, we'd not be quite so unsympathetic about it. I'd struggle to afford a £3k annual insurance bill now. At 17 years old, without wealthy parents, it's simply impossible.
Last edited by: DP on Wed 6 Jul 11 at 21:19
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Another friend, 26 has just handed in their notice at work, as their car is essential and she cannot afford the £800 a month it costs the person to run it. That person will now get a much lower paid job but live without a car and save a fortune.
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>> insurance bill now. At 17 years old, without wealthy parents, it's simply impossible.
I feel for them, I really do. The problem is you then wait till you are 21 thinking it will be cheaper, and you find you have no driving experience and no NCB. It will be nearly just as expensive then.
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I know of one 16/17 year old who is planning to take up an apprenticeship with British Gas. The lure - he gets use of a company van so no insurance difficulty for him.
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>> he gets use of a company van
Our works insurance won't cover the apprentice (or anyone under 25!) even on a small van.
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>> I am not so young though, I am 30 next year!
When I was a teenager my broker told me my premium would come down a lot when I reached 21, as I would be a much lower risk. It stayed roughly the same.
At 21 they told me it would start to fall at 25, as I would be a much lower risk. It stayed the same.
At 25 they said it would drop once I reached 30.
At 30 it was 35.
I turn 40 next year and it's started going up.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 00:32
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I haven't driven for nearly a year now having previously had a car (sometimes 2 or 3 actually) constantly for 22 years.
I've lost about a stone in weight, my ongoing problem with back pain (oblate disc) has not occurred once and I'm at least GBP 500 per month better off (possibly double that if you include SWMBO's car).
My circumstances are different as I'm working abroad, however my dependence on a car and psychological need/want for a car (especially a high end one) has been broken.
The point I'm trying to make is that there are benefits to not having a car, admittedly public transport is excellent where I'm living and it's geographically compact but I wonder whether a shift from the UK's car culture might be beginning, who knows - town centres, village shops etc might have a chance at revival if we didn't all hop into our cars US-style all the time ?
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Exactly my experience, Dave. 41 now and it's still not coming down.
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Isn't it? I doubt many of us have an accurate comparison, but since my mid-30s I've been insuring a Group 15 (as was) car for a premium of £300-£400 - with adjustment for inflation, about the same as I was paying for a 63hp Escort 1.3 at 25, and vastly less in terms of my post-tax income.
But in that time my usage has gone up, then down again, and I've relocated to a higher-traffic but lower-crime area. My point is how many of us have a long enough record of one car, one address, one job, no claims to say whether our real insurance cost is decreasing or not?
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Must say i have noticed the roads to be a bit quieter on a morning before school traffic and the Railways are telling us passenger numbers increasing.
I may start to use the train it's just the shift times gets me to work 5 mins late for start of day shift (first morning train), ok for night shift so this over a month may knock £50.00 off fuel bill.
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Lots of people in developing world can't drive because cars are so expensive to buy there in the first place.
But here people are giving up driving because fuel and insurance cost are going up! Nobody ever said price of car is going up!
We have one of the lowest used car prices in the world, yet our citizens have to give up driving!!
Personally I have now significantly reduced my long distance social travel because of fuel cost.
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Another sympathy vote from me for new drivers.
Pal of mine's 17-year-old son is just starting his driving career in a £500 Polo.
Insurance is about £1,200, which the lad could never afford without help from his dad.
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Owning a car is a luxury, true, it can be extremely useful if you dont live in the right area for non-car ownership, but nonetheless, if you want a car and you cant afford it, you dont have a car, end of.
When I passed my test, petrol was about 55p a litre, road tax was cheaper, insurance was £800 a year fully comp on a 1.3 Polo for a 17 year old, but that was 14 years ago and you cant keep looking back to the past - things cost what they cost and if you cant afford them, you dont have them, which I know is deeply unfashionable even now, but reality bites on occasion, maybe this generation of teenagers will appreciate their financial triumphs more than mine as a result.
Last edited by: FoR on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 16:25
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when I was 21 I had a second hand mini which I bought on HP. I was earning £495 per annum and paid £33/17/6 for insurance with the NU. I still have the receipt. That was just under 7% of my salary. For someone now earning £18,000 a year 7% would be about £1250
Not much has changed really.
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When I was 19 my Capri cost me £600, insurance was £200 - thats 33% of the cost of the car
My son - at 21 - currently pays £700 a year for a car that cost £300 - thats over 200% of the cost of the car.
Things have changed a lot.
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But that's not a meaningful comparison, Z. Consumer goods are, relatively, cheaper than ever, while high housing costs mean services are more expensive. So measuring the price of a service against the price of a consumer good is comparing one moving target with another. Affordability is much better defined, as CGN did, in terms of price against earnings.
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Not at all, its a perfect comparison. *everything* is cheaper in relative terms than it was 30 years ago ( of course there are exceptions) so it needs to be put into context.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 17:08
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Z, if I may quote you from this morning in l'Es's thread:
Under about 30k the value of the car pays little part in the cost of the quote.
So why bring the price or value of the car into the argument here? Insurance costs are driven by legal, medical and repair services, which rise with earnings and leave the price of manufactured goods behind.
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You have taken a quote completely out of context there my Afrikaans Wild Beast as well you know.
The price of the car was brought in as a comparator to show how insurance makes up the total cost of motoring for a youngster these days. I don't know why you are trying to dispute the now huge disparity in insurance costs based on age, one that didn't exist to such a degree in my days some 36 years ago.
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I have just had the renewal for the insurance for my classic car. £84, four named drivers, comprehensive insurance including breakdown cover.
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My gut feeling is car insurance for young drivers has gone up, however you measure it.
I think I paid around £200 for my first car, a Triumph Herald.
Can't remember what the insurance was, but no way was it three or four times the buying price of the car.
Were I 17 today, insurance would be a much higher proportion of my motoring budget than it was then.
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Of your motoring budget, maybe - but of your overall budget, or your post-tax earnings? I doubt it.
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Million+ gave up driving! - Bill Payer
