Uninsured cars.

[Frenchie]

Had a call from a friend of ours in the UK,their car has been hit by an uninsured driver,so lots of problems. Here in France it's impossible to own a car without being insured. Sorn doesn't exist. If you buy a new car you can't collect it without showing your insurance certificate. If you sell your car you have to notify the relevant authority that you have sold your car and to whom. We have very few uninsured cars,did some research and the estimate is that there are currently one million uninsured cars on the road on any day.

[Big Kas]

Originally Posted by Frenchie

Had a call from a friend of ours in the UK,their car has been hit by an uninsured driver,so lots of problems. Here in France it's impossible to own a car without being insured. Sorn doesn't exist. If you buy a new car you can't collect it without showing your insurance certificate. If you sell your car you have to notify the relevant authority that you have sold your car and to whom. We have very few uninsured cars,did some research and the estimate is that there are currently one million uninsured cars on the road on any day.

So before I start waffling let me ask that everyone please be understanding of what Im about to say ! Im not a bad person!

When I passed my test at 18, I bought a daewoo matiz for £600.00 and went to get insured, the quote was: £11,790.00 (yes thats £12k!). I didnt know it at the time but I was born in the highest insurance area in the UK, (in gangland birmingham) haha

For me and most of my friends at the time this presented a real big issue, as we were starting uni, had applied for part time jobs to pay rent etc...only to realise we cant drive ! I.E my work was around 20 miles from my university and had no bus links. So at this point you can guess what my friends decided to do... they shared two cars between themselves and spent the next ~6ish years driving without insurance. No accidents, never pulled over but to be fair they selected times/routes/parking locations which were quite and away from the old bill patrol routes.

Im not saying what they did was right, nor would I ecourage anyone else to do that, but people are going to do what they have to do to survive. Fast forward 15 years and they are successful proffessionals, all working in aerospace. And yes they do now have insurance lol

I think my point is that there will always be uninsured drivers unless there is a radical overhaul of the system like they have in france etc... but I personally imagine as the economy gets worse, people struggle to pay rent/mortgages, people will end up making the choice of "do I eat this month or pay insurance?"
"Or do i stop driving and loose my job?"

My 2 cents!