A General Car Question

[Damer]

Youngest will be going to Uni in October. She won't be taking her car with her (a Mini Cooper), but doesn't want to keep paying for insurance, road tax etc, whilst she is away, but wants to be able to use it when she is back. We can store it off the road, but not sure how the tax and insurance works. Can she get temporary tax and insurance?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Herbie]

Not sure about tax but insurance has to be continuous, just in case it gets nicked or bursts into flames or whatever.

[Malc]

there's the Road Tax and SORN issues ...  MOT too I guess        Insurance one can buy piecemeal road cover from various providers .....  maybe check AA and RAC if you're a member 

.......... but as above, insurance could be continuous just in case there's vandalism, summat drops on it, gets stolen whatever ...  not just road driving issues

good luck in your / her investigations

Malc

[wendle]

My Daughter had the same problem, her car sat here for 3 years, she only used it a few time a year when she came home, clocked up 500 miles in 3 years, at least she clocked up 3 years no claim bonus as well

[Damer]

16 hours ago, wendle said:

My Daughter had the same problem, her car sat here for 3 years, she only used it a few time a year when she came home, clocked up 500 miles in 3 years, at least she clocked up 3 years no claim bonus as well

So did you keep it taxed & insured the whole time? I am thinking we should, then I can use it as a second car when the Wife takes the Lexus.

[wendle]

10 hours ago, Damer said:

So did you keep it taxed & insured the whole time? I am thinking we should, then I can use it as a second car when the Wife takes the Lexus.

Yes Taxed and insured, i put myself as a named driver and used the car every now and then, if she hadn't had a car when she came home it would have meant a lot of taxi rides, or me running her around everywhere, and as i said she has now got 3 years no clams bonus so in a couple of years time when she buys a better car her insurance won't be sky high.

 

[Damer]

Thanks. I am covered to drive her car (3rd party) under my policy. Adding myself or Wife as a named driver is just not do-able. At first it was Wife's car, so we tried to add Youngest as named driver, and nobody would insure her. We transferred ownership to Youngest, then all of a sudden she could get insured. I think we are going to have to bite the bullet and pay her insurance for her whilst she is at Uni.

[Spacewagon52]

Insurance for younger family members is a real headache. The premium goes down if they insure it themselves and add a parent as an additional driver - rather than the other way round. Owning a car in a lower insurance bracket (Aygo for example) and fitting a "black box" telematics thingy, all help to reduce premiums. Unless it is absolutely essential to learn to drive (living in the countryside) the advice is to hang ion until after University / 21 years of age before you take your test.

Many youngsters do not have the same drive (pun intended) to pass their test. For me, and many of my contemporaries, it was a burning ambition to pass as soon as possible. In my day it was not considered very romantic to go to the cinema on a bus! How times and attitudes change. We would take every opportunity to get in the car for a drive. Now, when teenagers want a lift, it is a pain!

[Damer]

Youngest passed her test about a year ago. Our original plan was to put her as a named driver on Wife's 15 yr old 1.6 Mini Cooper. Literally no-one would insure her. Maybe it was a bit naive of us to think just because it was an older car the insurance would be cheap. So we sold her the car (for 5p), transferred ownership and low and behold she get insured. So the the same car, at the same address, is suddenly insurable. She has a black box fitted and is really careful about it. She had a fit when it went in for a service and the garage were test driving it and went over 30mph (she monitors the telematics on an App). She made the garage write a letter to her insurers that it wasn't her driving! 

It does look like I will have to insure the car for her whilst she is at Uni and not earning.

[Malc]

1 hour ago, Damer said:

It does look like I will have to insure the car for her whilst she is at Uni and not earning.

it's a parental ( or maybe a grandparental ) thing .................  supporting one's kids in all sorts of financially expensive ways   ..... sometimes throughout life

they just have to be deserving of that support .........  and understand the graciousness of it's effectiveness and wonder

Malc

[royoftherovers]

Sometimes helping children is not the best way of educating them.

[Damer]

She has paid for all her own driving lessons, insurance, tax, maintenance, fuel etc. Driven herself to and from work every day through the pandemic, and amongst all that has secured herself a place at Oxford, starting in October. So I think she is educated. I resent that comment. I was asking for genuine advice and experiences from others.

 

[Phil xxkr]

6 minutes ago, Damer said:

She has paid for all her own driving lessons, insurance, tax, maintenance, fuel etc. Driven herself to and from work every day through the pandemic, and amongst all that has secured herself a place at Oxford, starting in October. So I think she is educated. I resent that comment. I was asking for genuine advice and experiences from others.

 

Then Damian you are to be commended, the number of people who could make a similar claim will be vanishingly small and her future job prospects are fabulous with that sort of grit, tenacity and resilience. If I were still an employer I should be asking for her details. 👍We old folk desperately need more individuals like your daughter to create the wealth of the future and in more than just money. So in a similar situation I chose to think of the now spend as a form of long term promissory note which I will continue to get back in the form of the State Pension. 😎

[Damer]

2 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Then Damian you are to be commended, the number of people who could make a similar claim will be vanishingly small and her future job prospects are fabulous with that sort of grit, tenacity and resilience. If I were still an employer I should be asking for her details. 👍We old folk desperately need more individuals like your daughter to create the wealth of the future and in more than just money. So in a similar situation I chose to think of the now spend as a form of long term promissory note which I will continue to get back in the form of the State Pension. 😎

Thank you. She went to a state school & college. It is all her own hard graft. When the pandemic broke out she got herself a job as a lab tech in a high school and has spent a large amought of the last year carrying out CV-19 tests on students and staff. I was just asking a question if you can get temporary tax and insurance, so we can SORN her car whilst she is away, but have her able to drive it when she is back between terms. 

[Phil xxkr]

13 minutes ago, Damer said:

Thank you. She went to a state school & college. It is all her own hard graft. When the pandemic broke out she got herself a job as a lab tech in a high school and has spent a large amought of the last year carrying out CV-19 tests on students and staff. I was just asking a question if you can get temporary tax and insurance, so we can SORN her car whilst she is away, but have her able to drive it when she is back between terms. 

Not sure how cost effective hanging on to the mini will be since even a SORN car needs maintenance ? Tax can be refunded if timed correctly, insurance can be arranged for sure, but you will not accrue NCB I believe.Why not consider funding a rental car or is taking the car to uni completely impractical? 

[Malc]

for the time she's at uni maybe the simplest and best option is just to have the car on the road full time, in your and her care as appropriate ......  it's only money .  if you can afford that ....  she'll doubtless make a sensible contribution as and when she can ...  it's in her nature seemingly .........  she sounds a good sort and probably untypical of her generation sadly ...... where's that cheque book ??

Malc

[Damer]

Thank you for your constructive advice. Taking it to Uni is impractical. There is no parking and there is no need for a car at her College. They only have 8 week terms at Oxford, so declaring it SORN and then reapplying each term holidays seems impractical. I think we will store it off the road, but keep it taxed and insured.

Thank you.

 

[LenT]

At the risk of stating the obvious, there are certain precautions to be taken if laying up a car for some weeks.

I thought this article by the AA might be useful.

https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/laying-up

And if you don’t already have one, then investing in a good trickle charger (eg a CTEK) which can be left permanently connected without risk of overcharging, will protect the Battery.

[Damer]

3 minutes ago, LenT said:

At the risk of stating the obvious, there are certain precautions to be taken if laying up a car for some weeks.

I thought this article by the AA might be useful.

https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/laying-up

And if you don’t already have one, then investing in a good trickle charger (eg a CTEK) which can be left permanently connected without risk of overcharging, will protect the battery.

Thank you, that was helpful. I hadn't thought of getting a trickle charger. If we do keep it, it will probably get a run out once week whilst she is away. Ideally I would just sell it and just put her on the Lexus insurance for when she is back, but my insurance company won't consider anyone under 23yrs. 

[LenT]

4 hours ago, Damer said:

 I hadn't thought of getting a trickle charger.

It often takes a flat Battery to prompt the thought!

Ironically, that’s been the subject of another thread over the last couple of days.

4 hours ago, Damer said:

If we do keep it, it will probably get a run out once week whilst she is away. Ideally I would just sell it…. 

Alternatively keep it ready for when she returns until, when appropriate, she finally returns to find you’ve p/x’d it for something altogether newer as a graduation gift!  Just a thought…

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi.

If you need any help with insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.

[Damer]

59 minutes ago, LenT said:

It often takes a flat battery to prompt the thought!

Ironically, that’s been the subject of another thread over the last couple of days.

Alternatively keep it ready for when she returns until, when appropriate, she finally returns to find you’ve p/x’d it for something altogether newer as a graduation gift!  Just a thought…

Nice idea. Been talking to her about it tonight.

I think she would rather we sold it when she goes to Uni, and the money we would get from selling it and what we would have to pay for insurance, tax, maintenance etc all go towards her tuition and accommodation fees. It will just mean it will be "Taxi of Dad" in-between terms.

She has her head screwed on.