I thought I knew all about multiple vehicle car insurance policies but I clearly didn’t. We are now unable to get our 18 year old son insured for less than £2500 per annum on a car worth c£1k.

For many years I have recommended the benefits of multiple vehicle motor insurance policies to others (by word of mouth to friends I hasten to add, FSA) but I have just discovered a downside that I certainly was not aware of until recently.

My husband and I change our family car ‘fleet’ quite often; his hobby is restoring cars. Some stay SORN’d for ages and others come and go at whim. This is rarely a profitable activity I hasten to add…

Which is why a multiple vehicle policy makes best sense for us because we aren’t driving them all at the same time and the risk is therefore reduced on each. All we have to do is phone our insurance broker to say add or remove one and we pay an amendment fee of £20 plus any premium adjustment.

So far so good. Until we come to insure our 18 year old son who is learning to drive this summer. The plan was for him to have c20 hours of paid for lessons plus a further 20 hours of driving with Mum or Dad. Job done we imagined…

But our multiple vehicle insurer doesn’t insure motorists under 25, full stop. And I can understand why of course and I should be pleased if our premiums reflect this, but that’s small beer when this affects me personally…

And if I then extract a low cost vehicle (2001 Citroen) from our multiple car insurance policy to insure Mum (with full NCB) and son elsewhere, I cannot carry any No Claims Bonus with me because it’s being used by our existing insurer. The end result is that to insure us both on a car worth c£1000 it’ll cost something like £2500 for the year with a compulsory £400 excess on any claim.

So, to get our son through the test it’s going to be cheaper for him to have another 20 lessons @ c£480 (AA Driving School rates – we’ve already claimed FOXY’s £36 discount from the first batch of 12) or to shop around for the cheapest driving instructor… which seems to defeat the purpose of choosing the AA Driving School for a fully qualified instructor. And then we start again, looking for car insurance quotes when he has a full license and hopefully will have a part time job to contribute to the cost.

Do we have any other choices? Please tell me if you know better.

To drive uninsured isn’t an option of course, but I’m not surprised to read that others break the rules here. Nor am I shocked to see young drivers actively clawing back the outlay in terms of accident claims (as per the recent Panorama TV programme).

Is this the best way to do it insurers? Shouldn’t you be investing in educating young drivers under 25 not simply washing your hands of them? And to think this will get even worse for female motorists come December 2012.

I’d like to think the motor industry is discussing a better strategy to insure young drivers. But I’m not holding my breath.

FOXY Steph

Forget ‘Essex Girl’, ‘Worcester Women’ and ‘Asda Mums’ the latest election target is ‘Focus Female’ because, allegedly, she drives a Ford Focus, according to recent research by the AA.

With 3 out of 4 female motorists (who are AA members) saying that motoring issues are very or quite important re who they will vote for in the election, this large group of ‘undecideds’ offer a powerful lure for the party that sets out to woo them.

An AA/Populus survey of c15k AA members found that women drivers were more concerned than men about the cost of motoring, drink and drug-driving, and road safety. These were sentiments largely echoed by younger drivers.

According to the AA this is what a Focus Female looks like…

• Juggles work / life – uses car to go to work, gym, take kids to school, visit mum and to go to Waitrose
• Has more concern for road safety – more willing to support tough driver sanctions such as lower drink drive limit
• Listens to BBC Radio 2 and would ring Chris Evans show to say what wheels she is driving
• She will have numerous store loyalty cards in her handbag / glove box
• Ambitious and career minded – keen to progress up the company ladder
• She keeps her car clean and tidy and won’t tolerate smoking inside it
• She drives a Ford Focus and aspires towards a premium sector cabriolet car
• Enjoys an Italian meal with girl friends and will split the bill

Sounds a lot like members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

FOXY Steph

I can’t imagine it’s just me that feels irritated by the latest ActonCO2 advertising campaign stating ‘Drive five miles less a week by combining your journeys’.

Not only is this patronising message costing taxpayers millions to promote but it’s obvious that ACTONCO2 thinks male and female motorists are stupid enough to be driving unnecessary miles in the UK and are not capable of working this elementary statement out for ourselves.

Now I might run FOXY Lady Drivers Club, a life assistance motoring club for women, but that doesn’t mean I use my car any more than I absolutely have to, but sometimes I absolutely have to…

On New Year’s Eve, for example, I had some last minute envelopes to post after business so I walked to our local post box and arrived five minutes before the post should have been collected by Royal Mail. I then found that it had been collected early.  So I had to go home, get the car and drive to the nearest Post Office for a 6pm collection.

And last night our 16 year old son travelled by bus and train to our nearest town (c8m as the crow flies) to go to the cinema there with some friends. His return train was cancelled, he then missed the last bus and Dad had to get the car out to collect him.

With a non existent regular bus or train service in our rural situation, what should I have done in these two instances and many more like them? Perhaps I should have blamed the Royal Mail (fat chance) and failed to carry out my business promises to customers or told my son to risk walking home at midnight ‘to act on CO2′…

Last night on TV I caught one of the ActonCO2 ads on TV that told me motorists were the transport bad guys – this might have been featured many times before as I am not a regular ITV watcher. And in today’s Sunday Telegraph an ad accuses women drivers of driving five miles more than we need to. Of course it doesn’t say ‘this is for silly women drivers’ but which is the more likely gender to ‘collect kids’ ‘go to ‘Dry Cleaners’, ‘visit the Chemist’, ‘John’s house’ or ‘Grandma’ as their half page and again very expensive ad so helpfully maps out? That’s my point.

To me these journeys are the essence of what many community Mums do in their busy week, often fitting in part time work, emergency shopping, community good works and multiple children drop offs as well. We need our cars.

As you can see I am fed up with being told what I can or cannot do with my car that I already pay heavily to run. Like most other women drivers, I am not stupid, just a responsible motorist trying to manage a family budget that includes my car.

With the cost of motoring so high already, and on the up again thanks to the new rate of VAT for starters, I do not need anyone preaching at me, especially when it is they who are wasting OUR scarce financial resources to make motorists feel guilty when we have no choice but to drive in typical everyday lives.

Before we know it, everywhere will be like Brighton, the least friendly British city for motorists and one I avoid whenever I can for that very reason…

Please HM Government’s DfT do something constructive with OUR marketing money instead of preaching at us.

To fulfil your green agenda, why not promote FOXY Lady Drivers Club’s free car fitness checks including emissions?

Or explain to women drivers the safety, reliability and CO2 implications of having your car serviced regularly and by a garage that is good enough to do the job professionally and at a fair price.  So many cars have gone without servicing in 2009 for financial reasons…

At least this would be a positive message for a change and could do the motor industry some good as a consequence.

FOXY Steph

“I am only one but I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something”.