[UK] Teenager receives £33k car insurance quote

A teenager has received a car insurance quote of over £33,000 to insure her first car.
Eighteen-year-old Kaljeet Bansal passed her driving test on her first attempt but when she started looking into car insurance options she was shocked to find that the cheapest quote she could find was almost £20,000, while the most expensive came in a whopping £33,845.22.
The quotes were for insuring a Daewoo Matiz with an 800cc engine. The vehicle was worth around £400.
Kaljeet told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “When I saw the numbers come up on my laptop screen I thought it must be a mistake. But I've tried it four times now and it's the same every time. My friends haven't started driving lessons yet but I think this will put them off.”
A spokesman for Flux Direct, the company that provided the £33,845 quote, told the paper that his company does always try to provide a quote for young drivers, even where other companies don't.
He said: “We try to always provide a quote, which allows us to log the results and refine the final premium when we have more information about the risk. So while it may be unrealistic for the customer to take the policy out online at that price, our underwriters will hopefully be able to provide a cheaper quote when they can assess the risk more accurately over the phone.”