Insuring two cars?

[Rave]

My project this month is to get my Peugeot 106 Rallye through its MOT and taxed again. I've just ordered a fault code reader so I can hopefully find out why it's misfiring, and I'm resigned to having to pay a man to do the other little jobs it needs to get through the MOT. So that's all good, and it'll be nice not to have to borrow my mum's car any more.

But then a couple of days ago my father in law phoned me up and offered me his diesel Mondeo (Ghia, so nice inside) for £500. Since he owes me £400-ish anyway, I'm basically getting it for next to nothing. It's a good car, in pretty good nick, just very slow and ponderous.

So I might as well have two cars, a hot hatch for high days and holidays, and an old clunker the rest of the time. Now as I understand it the two cars are a similar insurance risk. Since I can only drive one at a time it would make sense to me that I should be able to insure both of them for not much more than the cost to insure one. However insurance companies don't seem to see it that way- in fact quite the opposite, I've been told that I can only use my no claims discount on one car at a time?

I've never been in the position of owning two cars before and I'd appreciate any advice other people in this fortunate situation have for saving money on insurance. Any recommended insurers or brokers? I can just about afford to pay out full whack on both cars but I'd rather not....

[mmh]

just because you can only drive one at a time, doesnt mean they both cant be nicked together!

driving is only part of the risk for insurance companies all that time you have that easily nickable 106 on the drive when ur not driving it is risk for them.

[kalniel]

Direct line have been advertising cheap multi-car insurance recently.. don't know if that's actually the case or if it's just marketing, but worth looking at.

[Howard]

I've used Admiral's multicar policy too, it's very competitively priced. Give them a ring and see what they can do, especially if you won't be doing many miles in the 106

[Shad]

No claims bonus applies to a single continuous policy, so while you can transfer it around between different cars when renewing, you can't duplicate it into a completely fresh and seperate policy. You'll have to start with zero years NCB for your second policy, although some companies do take your history into consideration.

I currently have my Caterham with Flux and iQ with Bell and pay around £600 in total. The slightly hidden costs of fuel and tax do add up though, running two cars isn't cheap. Though it helps when one is tax free and good on fuel

[Howard]

£600 in total? Rude. I pay £660 for my MX5 (modified, but they don't charge unless you increase power) with HIC and £450 for the Accord with Admiral

[Rave]

£600 in total? Rude. I pay £660 for my MX5 (modified, but they don't charge unless you increase power) with HIC and £450 for the Accord with Admiral

That's because you're 12 tho innit?

Admiral inevitably give me the cheapest quote, I've been with them for five of the 7 years I've had car insurance, in fact they rang me up today to pester me to take out a policy today after I got some quotes from Confused (who they own, I believe). I should have asked the geezer then, but I wanted to go back to sleep.

[Konan555]

I just got a really good quote from Primo.

They actually do a multi-car insurance with just a single policy, rather than multiple policies with a discount. Worked out 30% cheaper in my case (and about 33% of the quote I got from Admiral).

[Rave]

Thanks Konan, they look good, although I guess I'll have to stop naming my mum as a driver, which usually knocks £50 off the quote for a single car. I'll give them a bell tomorrow.

[Howard]

Thanks Konan, they look good, although I guess I'll have to stop naming my mum as a driver

Why?

[just-me]

When I first had two cars Tesco gave me a reasonable introductory discount for the second one.
:¬}

[Rave]

Well in the end through sheer luck I seem to have resolved the situation to my satisfaction. I never did end up getting any quotes cheaper than £580 for a two car policy. I needed to insure the Mondeo so I could drive it down to Sussex to collect my father-in-law's new car, and drive it to work. In the end the 14 days I had to cancel expired without me doing anything. I paid £330 for TPFT on the Mondeo with Admiral.

I'm off on Holiday tomorrow, the Peugeot's tax ran out yesterday. I gave my father in law a lift to pick up his car from the backstreet mechanic up the road on Tuesday, and on impulse asked him to have a look at it the next day. He agreed. I dropped it off, went off to have my teeth looked at, and then went to work. At 4pm I got a call- he'd sorted the dodgy hub and it had passed its MOT! I was stunned. On the way home it was misfiring worse than ever though- bloody thing.

So to this afternoon. Decided to try a 'classic' insurance quote. On my second attempt, Footman James' quick online quote service offered me a price of £127! Only problem is that that assumes you have a garage, and I don't. So I rang them. In the end they offered me fully comp, with breakdown cover included, for £193. So that's both cars insured for under £530! I'm well pleased.

Unfortunately the DVLA database hasn't yet updated and I'll be on a plane in 12 hours, so I'll have to get my mum to do the tax online while I'm away.

So, all that remains to do now is try and clear my newly enlarged overdraft, and then find out why the Mondeo smokes so much when you floor it, and why the Peugeot runs as rough as a badger's arse as soon as it warms up. Oh, and sort its dodgy tyres, poor tracking, rusty brakes, and laughable Roadstar stereo with lovely dial radio tuning.

[kalniel]

, and then find out why the Mondeo smokes so much when you floor it

Isn't that normal for a mondeo?

and why the Peugeot runs as rough as a badger's arse as soon as it warms up.

Isn't that normal for a...

Good job on the insurance.