Had a Aviva multicar policy a few years, which has full NCD, they usually bung 2 or 3 years NCD discount on new cars that I add for which I don't have earned NCD to transfer.

I also use an Admiral multi-car policy and have previously found it quite cost-effective to add new vehicles. There are two named drivers (myself and my slightly younger sister who lives a few miles from me) and between us we’ve got five cars on the policy including my three 940s. Individual annual premiums for fully comprehensive cover range from £117 to £168 per car depending on use and estimated mileage.

I generally avoid classic policies, despite my newest car being 1998 vintage, because they tend not to permit commuting and business use.

An alternative view-
I've paid insurance premiums on two cars for nearly 40 years as my wife and I both needed cars for work etc, having put all that money into the pot we get NCB on both of them, now some tightwad who has only paid one premium all his life gets a second car and wants the same discount on it as I get having paid all those premiums for all those years. ###### outrageous, the government should stop it!
In truth that already does happen as if you phone the insurer and press them they will find ways to discount the first car and add introductory bonuses to the second, my insurer even started scrabbling to sort me a discount when I just phoned up to check a detail on the policy document. We have a multicar policy with Admiral now which links the cars together to give a discount and also allows for 'occasional drivers' rather than 'second driver' to recognise that one person won't drive two cars twice as far as one car and three people can't all use one car at the same time.
There used to be a term in finance where a customer was a 'Rate Tart' basically someone who was always chasing the latest best deal with a whichever company was offering it, shop around and play hardball but be prepared to do it every year.


Incidently something to consider for those who do have two cars, as we're getting older the prospect of mortality looms, previously both cars were in my name with my wife as a second driver, if I were to pass on my wife would be left with no NCB as she wasn't the policy holder, we recently got them to make her the policyholder on 'her' car and swap the NCB over to her too.

Also had this issue. I've usually had two cars, ( one for work, and one for play) but occasionally ran 3. Over the years I have been caught out several times with having to start the NCB on the 3rd car from scratch. I tried to remind Aviva on one occasion, that I had 3 years NCB built up on a previous third car so asked them could I use this. "Sorry... but that policy has been lapsed for more than 2 years.... you'll have to start again" was the gist of their response. I have even tried swapping 3 policies between 2 cars annually, to maintain a one year buffer, but somehow that did not work either for me.
I now accept this type of renewal of car insurance as a sort of "Git tax" - If I did not try and run 3 cars I would not have to pay the tax :)

This is particularly relevant to me at the moment as my daughter has just thrown her broken Jazz at me, as she has just bought a newer car and the garage offered her £1.. I joke not. So I'm having it - far to good to throw away, I have repaired the Jazz which now sits on my drive awaiting the next stage of its life.

Huuurrr they never did that for me :)

Cheers
Bob

I had same problem a couple of years back. My 3 litre needed the ignition sorting out and as it was my daily, I wanted to spend time and do the job properly. I considered buying a friends little run about for about £3-400 until I enquired the cost of insurance. More than the car! Same reason as others give you- start from scratch with a second car. Didn't bother!

hastings,, well no shock that shower of thieves pulled that on you

Dad did the online check and got a few quotes before going to see his V50
hastings came out best (not the cheapest but best overall) on what they offered for the £, we Rang them to check "going to look at the car tomorrow,, If we buy can we sort over the phone" "yes" was the reply

we get there, car is Better than the advert,, (strange but true)
Phone hastings,, they add £30 on for "over the phone" ,, then cut dad off
call back,, they add Another £30 on, goto transfer dad to some Other opperator who adds £30 on again
they then hang up Again
I phone back (dads phone was out of credit by now),, they add another £30 on
£120 added on for No reason other than they could ,,
guess who got a Royal blast from me,,

we phoned the broker dad used for his old car "yes ok , fine ,, give me the reg ,,,, "pause for a min "ok your covered on that car now,, £0, call us tomorrow when your home and we can sort you out with ins on the old car !"

Hastings = thieves, id not recommend them to anyone ,not even if i Really didnt like the person :D,,

40 years NCB is a waste anyway, best to see if you can split it, if not, find a company that will, prob be cheaper in the long run, also, split it down the middle, dont favour one for the other, reason being, the max NC discount is only around 9 years (75% allowance), if you collect more NC, they are not counted...

I know someone who insured a tiny car that wasnt even his, just to build up NCD on another policy for a second car, im sure he took the details of a scrapper lol

This was an issue for me a few years ago, got a trade policy from covea for £670. Could insure and drive anything I wanted upto a value of 15k. The price kept going up for the policy so I cancelled it last year. Got a quote the other day from them and it was an eye watering £1458. I have maximum no claims and no points. Guess premium's have gone up :(

What worked for us some time ago was putting the second car in my wife's name.

At the time we only had one car insured with Admiral and when we decided to get a second car I contacted Admiral to get a quote with my wife as registered keeper and policyholder and for me to be a named driver.

Because she had been a named driver on my policy for years and both of our records were squeaky clean, they gave her maximum NCD on her car and she has retained this even though she has insured with another company this time

I think the whole NCB concept is a facade nowadays. You’ll find that if you make a claim your premium will rise on all your cars, not just the one you’ve claimed against. They will say this is because they base your premium on a risk calculation and declaring a recent claim increases your risk score. So technically you’ll still be getting the percentage discount but against a larger premium.

This is also why protected NCBs are such a laughable con. Someone who has dutifully been paying their favourite insurance company over the odds for years to “protect” their NCB will still see their premium rise steeply should they claim and would in fact do far better to shop around for a lower price. Except, of course, they’ll have now got even more sunk investment in the company that’s merrily rogering them!

It’s worth remembering that many of the old high street names are now just fronts for private equity and venture capital operations whose sole purpose is to take as much money from their victims as they can get away with.