Watch out if you’ve got a five-year-old car

Drivers with five-year-old cars are the most likely to have to claim on their car insurance, analysis from Virgin Money Car Insurance shows.

Its database shows 9.6% of all motor claims were from drivers with five-year-old cars with four-year-old cars narrowly behind.

Indeed cars aged between three to six-years-old account for nearly 40% of all claims despite making up just 24% of cars on the road, Virgin Money Car Insurance says.

Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders shows 7.425 million of the 31.167 million cars on UK roads are aged between three and six years old.

But Virgin Money Car Insurance's analysis of its own database shows they make up 37.3% of all claims.

Grant Bather, spokesman at Virgin Money Car Insurance, said: "Drivers tend to change their car every three to five years and on this evidence they have some justification.

"This is not to say that cars five years old are the most dangerous, but that they are more likely to be involved in an incident that leads to a claim being made. This may be a traffic accident, breakdown or theft.

"Looking at these statistics, people looking at buying a second hand car should also make sure that they have taken the necessary action to ensure that the car meets all of the road standards."

Cars aged 10 years account for over 6% of all claims, the Virgin Money Car Insurance database shows.

However drivers with new cars less than a year old were unlikely to have to make a claim, accounting for just over 2% of all claims.