Car insurance

My husband and I are hoping to move to North West England around Chester, we were greatly suprised to find that you can get a fairly decent used auto for a good price, how much should we expect to pay on car insurance and what is MOT. I saw a lot of cars that said MOT is new 8 months left.  

A MOT is an annual test required by the government which checks to see that your car is road worthy.  New cars under 3 years old do not need an annual MOT, those over 3 years old do.

insurance is impossible to guess as we dont know your details. MOT is ministry of transport and is what Caitlinn said

We would more than likely buy a small volvo 1995, we both have excellent driving records and will only be driving a few miles each day would the rate of insurance be some what the same as here in the states? I pay about $180.00 for six months on a 1995 Subaru.

95 will be N/M Registration - I will presume you know our system for plates. Its still hard to tell; it depends on age, location, where the car is stored, number of years no claims. The best idea would be to have your insurance comapny in the US write a letter stating how many years of claim free motoring you have enjoyed in the US. A UK insurer may well take this into account, otherwise you will need to start from fresh builiding your discount up in the UK.

  Also something not mentioned, it also depends on the type of insurance you want  i.e. Third Party only right up to Fully Comprehensive,   also having done it the opposite way to yourself my rate of insurance was more than it is in the states.

there are two types of cover.

third party fire and theft - covers the third party etc

fully comprehensive - covers you and the third party.

In any event, we cannot really help; you need to contact a UK insurance company.

actually there are three types of cover

 Third party(only) is one you missed metric

I dont think you can obtain only third party these days, for example, directline (who are underwritten by uki - who provide most of the insurance for cars) offer two as i stated waterg.  
 


Ok, so what do we offer? We offer two types of motor insurance:
1. Third Party Fire & Theft
Covers you for claims made by other people for bodily injury or damage to their property and your car is also covered if stolen or damaged by fire.

Get a quote
2. Comprehensive
This gives you the previous type of cover and also covers accidental damage to your car.


Get a quote

From tesco.com - who offer car insurance:

Q: What type of cover can I buy?
A: You can choose to cover your car fully comprehensive or third party fire and theft. You can also choose third party only cover.

That is the mimimum legal requirement - however, as i stated, not all insurers offer this level of cover. I would still suggest, to the original poster, that comprehensive is the route to go.

Also please note, as far as i understand, third party does not allow you to build up your no claims.

As I deal with motor insurers every day at the solicitors firm I work for, you can get Third Party cover only but I don't think it's very common from what I've noticed.

You are right I believe, Metric, that TPFT cover will not build up your 'no claims bonus' but that is because you aren't technically making a claim against your insurance (ie: you pay for any damage to you own vehicle at all times---unless the other party is at fault in which case their insurers would pay for your damage).  But I could be wrong as other Parties can make claims against your policy thus losing your 'no claims bonus'.  I don't work in insurance so I don't know for sure.

This is the coverage we have as our vehicle is old enough (92 Nissan 100nx) that it isn't that important what it looks like to us anymore and any costly repair wouldn't be worth the vehicle value so it would probably write it off.

I would say that comprehensive insurance would be important if you have a new-ish car (keeping in mind that cars here depreciate in value amazingly quick, imo) or if you are vain about your car appearance....or rich!  

There's arguments for each policy.  It just depends on your priorities and situation.

There are competative "cheap" insurers over here just as there are in the states and the rates I think vary as much as in the states too.  Back home, I had what would be considered criminally low insurance rates for the area (driving 17+ yrs, over 30 yrs old with no motor convictions) but it was still more expensive than the rate we're paying here (husband only with less than one year license).

Do some web searching for free online quotes and see what you come up with!

Gah!! Work related!! I'm stopping now!