One careful owner

by Sarah Modlock

16 February 2005

If only I had a pound for every time I heard a joke about women drivers. Endless digs about parking, map-reading and only using the rear view mirror to apply lipstick perpetuate the myth that women and motors are a bad mix. Two legs good; four wheels bad. But jokes such as 'What do you call a woman behind the wheel of a car? An airbag', will always make me smile. Because bundles of research prove that us girls make miles better drivers than boys. And we've got the cheap insurance premiums to prove it.

A recent poll by Tesco Motor Insurance which looked at women's attitudes towards male drivers found that 90% of women believe they are better drivers than men. But women do acknowledge that men are better at some things, such as reversing. They also feel that men are less likely to get lost but also less likely to admit it.

That's always assuming that men even have their eyes on road - a third confess to being distracted by attractive female pedestrians and cyclists, saying they can't help staring even if it puts them at risk of crashing, according to a survey by hire company Carrentals. But the fun doesn't stop there. Nearly one in four men questioned said they had taken part in a sexual act while driving. Presumably they were not alone but as only half as many women confessed to this, we cannot be entirely to blame.

Mirror, signal, manoeuvre

Robin Cummins, Britain's chief driving examiner, is a brave man. He said this week that based on his 30 years of coaching, men are better drivers than women. 'With young men there seems to be more natural ability,' Cummins told the Sunday Times. 'Some females take a lot more teaching to be able to use the controls. It might be in the genes or a matter of observing mum and dad driving, or it might go back to playing with cars rather than dolls. I only know what we see. Of course there are plenty of women who are excellent drivers and plenty of men who are terrible, but overall it does seem to be that men can pick up the basic skills more quickly,' he adds. Playing with dolls? Oh please. I'll take an Aston Martin DB9 any day.

Figures show that men need an average of 12.2 hours of lessons, whereas women need 15.3. The pass rate for men is 46% and an average of 1.87 tests, while women have a pass rate of 40% over an average of 2.12 tests. Women are more likely to fail when reversing or attempting a three-point turn but, you've guessed it, they are better at using their mirrors. Never one to follow trends, I passed first time. My brother passed on his second attempt.

Home Office figures show that men commit 85% of all serious motoring offences. They are also twice as likely to speed and drive through a red light and four times more likely to be convicted of careless driving, according to Diamond Insurance, which specialises in cover for women. Sian Lewis of Diamond says that male drivers tend to have more aggression and are involved in more serious accidents.

The financial advantage women have in terms of lower car insurance premiums can be as much as 30%. The gap is widest for younger drivers where the poor habits of boy racers are more pronounced. Diamond says that a 19-year-old woman driving a 2003 Ford Fiesta in London can expect to pay about £800 less than a man of the same age. As we get older, the gap narrows and then the trend reverses over the age of 75 when men are regarded as a better risk.

Are we there yet?

Although the statstics consistently support the lower risk women pose on our roads, the EU has recently tried to ban insurance companies from using the battle of the sexes when they price car cover. In an uncharacterically tough response, Britain saw off the proposals and saved the day for ladies. Now women need to start using their well-honed shopping skills to find the best insurance deal. They are currently half as likely to compare quotes as men and could be paying more than they need to, according to Bradford & Bingley. The total potential loss in the UK by not shopping for motor insurance around is £1.3bn a year. The average potential saving which could be made by people looking for a competitive premium is £130.

Shopping around certainly paid off for me. Because, frankly, insurance of any kind is pretty dull, I always found it difficult to get excited at renewal time. And because I was insured via a broker which promised to find the best deal for me, I was happy to let them do the work. Of course, most brokers use a panel of insurance companies and so pick the 'best' of what could be a very expensive bunch. After the first renewal, I decided to make a note in my diary to get a few other quotes next time round. What a shock. Two out of the first three insurers I contacted wanted to halve the premium I was paying. Unbelievably, I saved £400 in 10 minutes. All that extra cash to spend on high heels and lip gloss.

But for every customer who makes even the smallest effort to compare quotes, there must be hundreds who just can't be bothered. Broker business must be booming because when I told Swinton I was leaving them they did not even ask why. Either they didn't care or they didn't need to care.

For the record, I am a great driver and happily admit that many of the best driving tips I've had came from men. I keep left on the motorway unless I am overtaking and am ace at parallel parking. Now if only I could flutter my eyelashes at speed cameras.