The same car, every few days, and what the panel gives back
Insurance for a 17–24 year old is not one market — it is whichever insurers happen to be willing to quote you that week. So we quote one car, one driver and one postcode on a comparison site every few days and publish what comes back: the cheapest price, how many prices came up, and which insurers we saw. When that changes, young drivers pay for it, and this is where you find out.
What happened in July
On 24 July 2026 the cheapest black-box quote for our control car at 21 was £1,083, from Admiral LittleBox. On 28 July 2026 — after the Admiral group and Hastings stopped appearing for this profile — the cheapest was £1,735, from MYPOLICY. Same car, same driver, same postcode, same cover: ×1.60 the price in four days.
Here is the part that matters for anyone budgeting. The panel did not shrink: it returned 31 prices before and 30 after. A comparison site can look exactly as healthy as it did last week while the price a young driver actually pays moves by half again — because what sets that price is which insurers are on the panel, not how many. That is the thing this page is watching for.
This is also why our own estimates were rebuilt at the end of July. The full working — what the change did to our accuracy, and what we did about it — is on our accuracy page.
Every reading we have taken
One car, quoted at four driver ages, sitting by sitting. Prices are exactly as the comparison site returned them. Where a column is blank we did not record that flavour of cover in that sitting — it does not mean nothing was offered.
| Sitting | Market | Age | Cheapest with a black box | Cheapest without |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 July 2026 | Market before 27 July | 17 | £1,679.61Admiral LittleBox | £2,657.22elephant |
| 24 July 2026 | Market before 27 July | 19 | £1,035.56Admiral LittleBox | £1,605.89elephant |
| 24 July 2026 | Market before 27 July | 21 | £1,083.26Admiral LittleBox | £1,759.52Admiral |
| 24 July 2026 | Market before 27 July | 24 | £949.04Admiral LittleBox | £1,464.44Admiral |
| 27 July 2026 | Market before 27 July | 19 | £1,269.87Admiral LittleBox | £1,969.24elephant |
| 27 July 2026 | Market from 27 July | 19 | £1,898.67MYPOLICY | Not recorded |
| 28 July 2026 | Market from 27 July | 21 | £1,734.76MYPOLICY | £3,639.37Moja Essentials |
Policy start dates move between sittings and are recorded with each reading where we have them, so a small part of any change between two rows is the start date rather than the market.
How many prices came back
The comparison site states its own count above the results. We record it for the first reading of each sitting, where a record holds it.
| Sitting | Market | Age | Prices found |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 July 2026 | Market before 27 July | 19 | 19 |
| 24 July 2026 | Market before 27 July | 21 | 31 |
| 24 July 2026 | Market before 27 July | 24 | 45 |
| 28 July 2026 | Market from 27 July | 21 | 30 |
Read these counts carefully. Run several quotes back to back in one session and the number of results drifts down, without the main insurers dropping out — an artefact of the comparison site, not a change in the market. Only the first reading of a session is comparable with the first reading of another, and that is the reading this table records. It is also why the count is the weaker signal here: the price is what we watch.
Which insurers we saw
Brands as the results page names them. Insurers owned by the same group are listed separately, because they quote separately — grouped here only so the July change reads as the one event it was.
| Insurer | 24 Julbefore the change | 27 Julbefore the change | 27 Julafter the change | 28 Julafter the change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aviva | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| AXA | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| General Accident | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| Marshmallow | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| Moja | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| Moja Essentials | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| MYPOLICY | Seen quoting in that sitting | Seen quoting in that sitting | Seen quoting in that sitting | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| Quote Me Happy | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| Quote Me Happy Connect | Seen quoting in that sitting | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| Swiftcover | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Seen quoting in that sitting |
| Admiral | Seen quoting in that sitting | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Checked, and not on the panel |
| Admiral Gold | Seen quoting in that sitting | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Checked, and not on the panel |
| Admiral LittleBox | Seen quoting in that sitting | Seen quoting in that sitting | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Checked, and not on the panel |
| Bell | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Checked, and not on the panel |
| Diamond | Seen quoting in that sitting | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Checked, and not on the panel |
| elephant | Seen quoting in that sitting | Seen quoting in that sitting | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Checked, and not on the panel |
| Hastings YouDrive | Seen quoting in that sitting | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Not observed — we did not record it either way | Checked, and not on the panel |
- Seen quoting in that sitting
- Checked, and not on the panel
- Not observed — we did not record it either way
A blank is not a verdict. Each sitting records the insurers that won on price and the ones visible at the top of the results page — not the full list. An insurer without a tick may well have quoted that day; we simply did not record it. A cross appears only where we checked a clean set of results and the insurer was not in it.
How we do it
- One control car, one profile. Every sitting quotes the same Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 (E). One car, one driver profile, one postcode — only the week changes: a new driver with no no-claims history, comprehensive cover, £250 voluntary excess, annual policy, parked at N20 9BU in London.
- The prices are real quotes, gathered by hand. A person sits down and runs the journey on a comparison site — there is no automated quoting of any kind. That also means sittings are periodic, not continuous.
- These are not our estimates. Every insurance figure elsewhere on Vouched is an estimate based on cited public data. The figures on this page are the opposite: real quotes for one narrow profile, which tell you nothing directly about your own.
- Counts are the site's own. We record the number the results page states, not a number we count ourselves.
- No recommendations, ever. Saying who quoted is a fact. Telling you who to buy from would be advice, and we do not give insurance advice — where insurance is involved we introduce you to authorised providers. Nothing here is a ranking or an endorsement, and the order of the table is not a merit order.
The July change and what it did to our own model are recorded in full in our validation record — sections 9 and 9.1 of the working document kept in the repository that builds this site, alongside the raw quote data.
Last sitting: 28 July 2026. These are periodic manual checks at 4 driver ages, not a live feed — if the date above is old, the panel may have moved since.
Next: how our estimates score against real quotes — the same evidence, pointed at our own numbers instead of the market's. Or see what goes into an estimate before you budget with one.
Vouched does not give insurance advice and does not sell insurance; where insurance is involved we introduce you to authorised providers. The quotes on this page are observations of one fixed profile on particular days — your age, address, car and history all move the number, so treat them as evidence about the market, never as a price for you.