I think that would be high for the UK - depending on claims history .
I’m living in a emote village, and have a protected no claims bonus, no excess, hire car , full legal on a Mini One. I know I can get cheaper but I want the cover this way so that in the event of an accident I have no nasty surprises.
Total cost £310 per year.
Italy is very expensive (or was) my old employers underwrote annual policies in European countries and Italy, France and Spain were amongst the higher costs.
Thanks Ian - much appreciate the info.
I would also suggest that the cheapest is not necessarily the best when it comes to insurance!
The experience of dealing with those more geared to handling their claims well, compared with the majority of others, which can be appalling, would tend to make you wish you’d stumped up an extra fifty quid for your cover!
Which? usually has a decent claims comparison table on the go.
Another point of curiosity - what would you guys say is the average number of miles/km per year that is considered “normal” in the UK - here, it runs about 12,000 to 15,000 miles annually. (Although since COVID I am running about half that.)
I got fed up with the lottery of renewal increases, price comparison websites and online quotations. On the basis of recommendations from friends and family, together with the results of customer satisfaction surveys published by Auto Express, I went with NFU. It is very refreshing (perhaps old fashioned) to actually speak to a fellow human being to discuss specific requirements, premiums, etc.
The algorithmic nature of car insurance premiums allows for savings to be made based upon the options that are chosen. For example, when asked whether you have access to another car, answer ‘yes’ because the quote becomes cheaper because it considers that you may use your main car less often. In addition, choosing a higher excess will also result in a cheaper price (in the event that you make a non fault claim the excess will be refunded). Please feel free to share other money saving tips that play the system 
I once saved a nice chunk by specifying the the milage as 2999 instead of 3000.
I have a friend who is an insurance agent. I was in his office and at his desk, messing around with the premium quote software on his PC. In the USA and at that time (about 20+ years ago), cars were assigned a “symbol,” which was a number from single digits to over 30, and it related to how fast/how much HP the car had - this had a tremendous impact on insurance rates. At the time I had an '86 Honda Civi Si, and the Si was a regular civic but with the larger CRX motor, and the symbol was 10. I paid more than a “regular” Civic (symbol = 6) because it could go faster. Cars like Corvettes and such had symbols over 30, and premiums that matched.
Not sure if this is the same system in operation these days, but it was kind of fun to sit there and put in all manner of vehicles to see how rates were affected. This symbol parameter had way more to do with the rate than newness or even vehicle value.
Occupation can also be a big factor.
For example a Musician is classed as high risk and will pay a higher premium. This was much to the amusement and annoyance of my late uncle who was a 1st violinist in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. As he used to say, he was hardly living a rock and roll lifestyle!
Was thinking of switching car insurance provider as Aviva was £120 cheaper but with a higher Excess.
Rang my current provide who offered me a £100 discount at my exiting, lower, Excess so I stayed with them.
Richard
Yes, cars have different ratings , performance is part as are repair costs -indeed as does frequency of claims.
Because of it’s robust construction, rural use and slow speed we used to be very cheap on Land Rover Defenders - these days it’s a car thief’s dream , as a result I understand costs have rocketed
Value has little to do with it, identical damage on (say) a one, five or ten year old Mini will cost the same
Programmes like that have been utilised since the 1980s , they analyse driver, accident history, area, milage.
Also shock horror , not all insurers want all cases . Sometimes they will price NOT to get the business or to encourage the consumer to go elsewhere
Quite. Having reached the sort of age where SAGA offer applicable products 
I thought I’d give them a try. Right age, clean licence and accident history.
I don’t think SAGA wanted my business…
It can be more complex than that. Modern cars are often cheaper to repair than older cars of the same model for minor accidents because they are built to come apart easily. For example unbolt a damaged wing, bolt on a new one and it’s straight into prep for spraying. But on the other hand the latest cars are covered in sensors and cameras that are more expensive to replace than in cars that didn’t have them at all.
Best
David
I think there’s old and there’s old!
Go back 30 years and cars are REAL easy to fix 
You may think easier to repair, what with bolted wings and plastic ends but IME they are the same/if not more to repair when it comes to relatively minor dents and dings, as the ARCs don’t like stripping a car unless absolutely necessary and will pull-out and fill most reasonable dents/pings - the primary issue it seems is that quality ARCs will blend the new paint finish back in on adjacent panels, so there’s often far more to strip paint/lacquer-wise than it first appears.
Plus, insurance companies won’t always stand for the more expensive solution e.g. new wing/door skin.
I learnt the hard way that expecting a dinged car to come back looking ‘new’ (as regards the impact area) may not happen. It looks very good but there are some indicators.
Indeed. Just working on a 44 year old at the moment…
Saga decided to charge me a extra £14.00 per anum just because I drive a second car insured by another company. They wouldn’t consider waving the extra charge. When asked why they came up with some lousy excuse of higher risk so I decided not to renew the policy and go somewhere else. If they want my hard earned cash they must try harder. Their loss.
I remember when my wife bought a new car and rang the insurance company (Direct Line). The uplift in premium for the remaining month of the year was trivial (her old car was the same as the new one, except that the new one was new, not four years old).
So having sorted the uplift for the one month, they then suggested we did the next year at the same time. The premium they quoted was about a third higher than the year before. I argued with the sales guy. He said he didn’t have a car yet himself, but it was like when you bought a new pair of trainers, you would be sure to mess them up the first time you wore them!
I said that this was totally absurd and anyway she would drive the new car more carefully than the old. Anyway we declined the offer for the next year and had no trouble insuring elsewhere for the following year at a lower cost than the current year.
Length of ownership is a significant factor in their stats. The first year of ownership is always the worst!
Quick Q - I have to renew my Saga home insurance.
I have new for old.
If I use the replacement value of my hifi components, several of them would be over the standard cost per item that’s covered.
If I do nothing will I get paid out the maximum allowable amount per item if I need to claim - or would they perhaps say the items were not properly insured?
Or should I insure them for full replacement value or for the price I paid for them mostly bought SH?
How much do they tend to charge per £1k over the max normal insured amount per item??
(Sorry this is not about cars!)