temporary car insurance

Are cars really just means of transport, are a very expensive fashion accessory? I ask this because it seems that they are the ultimate status symbol; a man may live in an inner-city slum but if he drives around in a Ferrari is looked upon by many as little less than an urban God! Car companies spend mega fortunes on advertising which attempts to convince us that if we buy one of their cars we will be instantly transformed into desirable creatures of good taste and breeding, worshipped by the opposite sex and envied by those who would otherwise be considered our superiors. This is all a very long way indeed from a product whose original function was simply to convey us from a to B quickly and economically.

It is then little surprise that the last 60 years the number of cars in Great Britain have increased 16 fold, and there is scarcely a family without at least one of them sat on the drive or on the pavement outside the house. Instead of having to wait until their 30s or 40s, which their parents had to do, Young people now expect as a right to have their own wheels the moment they are past their driving test at 17 or 18. This increase in the number of young people on the roads has had a profound effect upon average insurance prices, because the age group of 17 to 25 is the most accident prone of all; not only do they have more accidents than their older counterparts but they have more serious ones to, with a greater proportion of people being seriously injured or even killed. It is no wonder that car insurance prices for young drivers is so expensive.

This high price of car insurance has led to another phenomena; a huge increase in the number of drivers on the road who have no insurance. I proportion of these are young people, and the combination of inexperience, testosterone and reduced sense of responsibility means that the cost of insurance for the rest of us has risen well in advance of the rate of inflation. This increase has not come to an end yet either; there are few car insurance companies that are making a great deal of money, and until a firm grip is taken of uninsured drivers and that other curse of our modern age, the compensation culture, prices are set to continue to rise in the foreseeable future.

It is easy to see why a fairly new product, short term car insurance (see here), has become so popular in the UK. Many people who live in cities have no need of day-to-day transport of their own; some of them can walk or cycle to work, others use taxis or other forms of public transport. Cars are often brought out only at weekends when the family wish to travel somewhere, and it can be argued that it is a complete waste of money buying car insurance from whole year for a vehicle which spends 90% of its time sat in the garage or on a drive. The advantage of temporary car insurance is that it can be taken out instantly, as soon as a decision is made to drive a car; and it is extremely flexible, so the motorist can decide to have it for just one day, a few days, two or three weeks or a month. We live in a pay as you go era, in which people are used to paying for modern essentials as mobile phones, taxis, etc as and when they need them and the trend now is to do the same thing with car insurance to.

It is quite possible that in the foreseeable future the lunacy which calls itself 'human rights' will demand that everyone of us pay is exactly the same for our car insurance; on that day sales of temporary car insurance will go through the roof.