Passing soon? Here’s what the first year actually costs.
Insurance is the biggest number in a first car, and it is decided almost entirely by things you fix before you buy — your age when the policy starts, where the car sleeps, which car it is. Every one of those is still open while you’re learning. This page shows what they’re worth.
If you pass at 17, a typical first car on our London anchor works out at £2,584/yr to insure.
If a birthday lands before you pass, you'd be 18 instead — and today's data puts the same car at £2,389/yr, about £195 a year less. That gap is the single biggest thing you control between now and your first policy.
Median across our group 1–15 first cars, at that age. The same figure the risk map shows for London. These are estimates built from public data, not quotes.
Heads-up: Market update (27 July 2026): two major insurer groups — including the cheapest black-box provider in most of our data — left the comparison panel we calibrate against, and cheapest quotes for young drivers rose roughly 50%. Our estimates now track this new, higher market. If those insurers return, real quotes could come in below the range shown — get a real quote before you budget.
Ages 17, 18, 19, 21 and 24 come straight from our premium data; 20, 22 and 23 are interpolated from the age curve between them. Figures checked July 2026
Monthly figure is the cost to keep it on the road at 17 — insurance, road tax, fuel and MOT. The car itself is paid upfront and shown separately; no loan assumed. London-based estimate — your area could be higher or lower.
See every car ranked in the FinderThat’s the whole point of setting this up now rather than on the day you pass. Our estimates move when the public data underneath them moves — and it has moved a lot this year. We’ll track the picture at 17 and email you when it changes.
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How these figures are worked out
We take the median annual premium across our group 1–15 first cars for a driver of that age in London, then scale it by what our risk model says your postcode district does to a premium relative to that same London anchor. It is the identical calculation behind the risk map and the district pages, so the three surfaces cannot disagree about the same district and age. The monthly figures beside each car add road tax, fuel and the MOT to the insurance estimate.
The risk score behind the district scaling comes entirely from open data — Open data: police.uk, Police Scotland, DfT, ONS, NRS, MHCLG/WG/SG. Estimates cover ages 17 to 24; below 17 there is no full licence to insure, and above 24 we have no anchor to work from, so we stop rather than extrapolate.
Why we don’t ask when your birthday is
Because we’d only be able to act on it by storing it, and a date of birth is more than this page needs. Telling us roughly when you expect to pass is enough to work out how many birthdays fall in between — to within one. That last one is exactly what the birthday figure above is about, so we show it rather than pretending to know which side of it you’ll land on.
A projection is not a prediction. It says what today’s public data implies for a driver of that age in that area — not what you personally will be charged next spring. Your car, your address and your own record move a real price far more than any of this does.
Next: rank every first car by what it costs to keep on the road, see what your area does to a premium, or check a specific car before you go and look at it.
These are estimates based on public data, not quotes, and Vouched does not give insurance advice. When you’re ready to buy, we introduce you to authorised providers for a real quote.