UK drivers beware

[Saracen]

....

When I say I could only get insured with a box fitted, I meant to say that it was the only way I could afford to be insured, as quotes for a 19 year old driving a 54 plate 1.2 Corsa can often be quite high!

Oh, I know. A young friend of mine was quoted £2500 for a 1.0 litre car, worth £2k, about 10 years ago. Quotes for a 19 year old driving anything these days are sky high. I mean, it never was cheap, but these days ....

And I doubt today's 19-year olds are any more reckless or aggressive than I was at that age. And it wasn't cheap in my day.

The world around you has changed, though. No doubt, compensation culture is part of it, putting up premiums for us all. Car design has cganged, too. In my day, a minor knock and you'd probably bang the dent out of an okd metal bumper, and that's that. These days, you barely have to scratch a panel and it's a grand to fix.

But perhaps the most significant change is that the roads are a LOT busier, so when, in my youth, I tried some moronic stunt, it was far less likely to involve someone else, and therefore a claim, if I messed up.

[ConnorLowe]

I don't drive aggressively to be fair, if its a 70mph limit, I'll go 70mph but I won't go out to hit 100mph or anything like that.

I paid the same price for my insurance as I did for my car! One company offered me a £6700 quote... Its safe to say that they can jog on!

I read on the DM the other day, that someone similar to me was quoted something like £1M for insurance on a little old car like mine.

Repairs cost an arm and a leg too, luckily though my uncle is a mechanic so I can save a bit of cash

[Saracen]

My point, though, wasn't so much about the speed you're doing, but how you (and a generic you, not you personally) do it.

Even sticking strictly to speed limits, 100% of the time, you can still drive aggressively.

For example, in a Polo, I can approach a roundabout near me at 40 (in a 40 limit), slow down, go right round sedately (say, 20) because much faster than that and I won't make it.

Or in an M3, I can go up to that roundabout at 40, change down to second, apply the right power to be driving round, go right round it still at 40, and still be doing 40 as I exit it.

One of those approaches will show minimal g-forces, and the other will (and did ) have an unsuspecting passenger (my next-door neighbour) that doesn't know what a car with decent handling can do, holding on for dear life.

Neither breaks the speed limit, but one sure as hell is a lot more aggressive than the other.

[DDY]

I've opted for telematics box insurance for my first personally owned car for the plain reason that it was the cheapest policy, about a third of the cheapest non telematics insurance.

My particular insurance company "rewards" good driving by means of a partial premium refund rather than penalising poor driving. The reward only counts for the first few months of driving and I scored top points and got the maximum possible refund, despite driving in a way I felt to be detrimental to my monitored performance. For example, I briskly pull out of junctions and often drive "with the flow of traffic".

Even with the black box, I didn't force myself to drive differently, after all, the insurance was cheap and the refund wasn't all that much, there wasn't anything to lose. Getting the full refund was a surprise, my preconception of telematics insurance companies as strict and unreasonable was wrong.

On a practical level I don't have anything negative to say about telematics insurance, although there's still a sub-conscious part of me that would rather pay more for insurance than be constantly monitored.

EDIT: For the record, I'm not a teenager and don't struggle to pay for a car or insurance.

[Saracen]

Was there a cost for installing the box, DDY?

I wouldn't care if such a box was installed (in the Polo) but if the potential refund on an already low premium didn't cover the cost, there's no point.

[DDY]

Was there a cost for installing the box, DDY?

I wouldn't care if such a box was installed (in the Polo) but if the potential refund on an already low premium didn't cover the cost, there's no point.

The only thing I paid for was the insurance premium, there were no additional costs for the box or the installation.

Also, there isn't a cost or a need to return the box once the policy is over.

[wasabi]

First they start a wave of bringing in stupidly low speed limits pretty much everywhere, making 90 percent of the population habitual speeders a.k.a criminals (the other 10 percent are myopic octogenarians or stuck in queues). Then they start bringing in penalties for breaking these stupid limits.

Suspect the endgame of the green agenda and road safety statistics fiddling is to make personal transport as boring as possible. Side-effect - most of the time when I'm riding my motorbike these days filtering between queues - I see drivers of moving vehicles sat Facebooking as they're so bored. OK if you shunt another mobile fortress (car / lorry), not so good for cyclists and pedestrians.

[Tumble]

What's the point of speeding anyway? If I'm driving to Kendal (like I do a lot) it's about an hour and a half away at 65-70. at 85-90 it's about 1 hour 25 minutes away. The other way of looking at it is I can take an extra 5 minutes, and travel up there at 57mpg or blat up there putting myself firmly on the wrong side of the law at 48mpg.... That's a big difference in efficiency, probably equates to £5-£6 of Diesel difference on a return trip. I think I'll keep my licence clean and save on the fuel.....

Oh, and on the "Boring" question... the car is a tool - a means of transport to get you from A to B and back. If you want fun, get a racing car and take it on the track.

[badass]

What's the point of speeding anyway? If I'm driving to Kendal (like I do a lot) it's about an hour and a half away at 65-70. at 85-90 it's about 1 hour 25 minutes away. The other way of looking at it is I can take an extra 5 minutes, and travel up there at 57mpg or blat up there putting myself firmly on the wrong side of the law at 48mpg.... That's a big difference in efficiency, probably equates to £5-£6 of Diesel difference on a return trip. I think I'll keep my licence clean and save on the fuel.....

Oh, and on the "Boring" question... the car is a tool - a means of transport to get you from A to B and back. If you want fun, get a racing car and take it on the track.

I can't be bothered with the maths but with that time difference and those speed differences, you certainly aren't talking about the whole journey being at those speeds.
At a guess, you are travelling at those speeds for at most, 1/2 hour of that 1.5 hour journey.
Thus making your argument a strawman.

On the boring point, to you it may be a tool. That does not make it so for everyone.

[wasabi]

What's the point of speeding anyway? If I'm driving to Kendal (like I do a lot) it's about an hour and a half away at 65-70. at 85-90 it's about 1 hour 25 minutes away.

For most of southern England driving is wall to wall 30-40-50 mph, then back to 30.

20 years ago most of the same road would have been 60 mph with 30s only in proper urban areas. Round here they dropped a major dual carriageway speed limit from 70 to 50 because some stupid mare filled her small car with 8 kids them smashed it due to overloading, not speeding. But they reduced the speed limit anyway due to kneejerk politics.

[DDY]

What's the point of speeding anyway? If I'm driving to Kendal (like I do a lot) it's about an hour and a half away at 65-70. at 85-90 it's about 1 hour 25 minutes away. The other way of looking at it is I can take an extra 5 minutes, and travel up there at 57mpg or blat up there putting myself firmly on the wrong side of the law at 48mpg.... That's a big difference in efficiency, probably equates to £5-£6 of Diesel difference on a return trip. I think I'll keep my licence clean and save on the fuel.....

Oh, and on the "Boring" question... the car is a tool - a means of transport to get you from A to B and back. If you want fun, get a racing car and take it on the track.

If that was a troll effort, 8/10.

Because I was about to break out my calculator in order to debunk your maths and then write an essay about how your opinion is wrong.

[Butcher]

Quick calc:

1hr 30 at 70 = 105 miles.
1hr 25 at 85 = 120.4 miles.

You've gained 15.4 miles there somehow.

[finlay666]

Quick calc:

1hr 30 at 70 = 105 miles.
1hr 25 at 85 = 120.4 miles.

You've gained 15.4 miles there somehow.

Only if it's a straight line with no acceleration/deceleration. On a sharp corner on a windy road if you corner too fast you end up off the road or worse hitting something oncoming.

I hoon a bit, mainly because I drive rarely now (about 100 miles a month as opposed to 150-200 a week) but when I drove a lot I couldn't afford to be a loon, it cost more in fuel, brakes, tyres and increased wear to not make it worth it.

Doesnt stop me going flat out up to 70 going down the A19 every chance I get though, or dropping a gear driving through a tunnel for S+G

[Butcher]

I was thinking motorway driving as that's pretty much the only sort of road where you can maintain 70+ for over an hour.

[kalniel]

I was thinking motorway driving as that's pretty much the only sort of road where you can maintain 70+ for over an hour.

Depends on traffic

I agree with his point *in the real world* it hardly makes a difference - once you factor in acceleration/braking etc. you can't actually take advantage for the extra 15 mph or so for all that long, but each time you've accelerated that bit extra you've used up quite a bit of extra fuel.

I've adopted a kind of version of the 80/20 rule for driving. Most of the time I'm not going anywhere where 5 minutes is going to make a difference (or that I couldn't have allowed for before setting off), so most of the time I'll knock back the speed a touch (only where I'm not holding anyone up of course) and pocket the fuel and mechanical savings. Then if I am in a hurry I'll prioritise time savings instead - but by only doing that where I need to/it'll make a meaningful difference I minimise the mechanical/fuel/environment etc. cost of doing so.

Of course that's mostly concerning the commute/long trips on motorways. I do drive for pleasure too on occasion and I'm not exactly Miss Daisy on B roads, but visibility is usually the limiting factor rather than anything like car performance/driver skill, and below 60 there's not a lot to be gained from dropping down a notch.

[TheAnimus]

My parents, it can be about 5 hours, or about 4 hours. Yes there will be about £10 in diesel difference.

One of the joys about taking a motorway at 9pm.