If you haven't already done so, experiment with putting additional drivers on the policy, with a clean history and over 25 and remove people who increase the premium. I'm 30 and my partner, who is 28, dropped my price from £750 to £550 and that's with zero NCB's on the the 197 (I have a daily). She also owns her own car which further helps and I therefore have access to two other cars. The insurers see it as a reduced risk this way. Also don't presume parking on the drive or garage means less risk (and lower cost), I stated I park mines in the street and the cost dropped further. My excess is £250.
The big reason behind the rise in insurance is the scummy Accident Claims companies encouraging everyone to put in injury claims, and many are fraudulent. Here's a typical link, there are many on this subject:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2011/04/insurance_premiums.html
An example of how low these guys go is when your local bus company hits the brakes a little too hard which apparently causes whiplash injuries to all on board. They actively encourage claiming for this kind of crap on their websites, these types of expensive claims occur every single day. Here's a typical claims companies "advice" page:
http://www.theclaimsconnection.co.uk/bus-passenger-accident.html These costs are all passed on to us.
Also car insurance is the WORST insurance game to be in profit wise. For every £1 going in most of it goes straight back out in payouts:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance
- Car Insurance: 78%
- Home Insurance: 54%
- Mortgage PPI: 28%
- Personal Loan PPI: 15%
- Credit Card PPI: 11%
As you can see the banks are in the best area. The insurers only see a tiny portion of the PPI profit (often mis-sold to customers as the article highlights), the banks pocket the vast majority. No surprises there tbh.
Another interesting development was mentioned to me by a mate who is an assessor for Aviva regarding the damage sustained by new cars due to modern designs in crumple zones etc. Relatively light damage to the can now amount to a write off.
Coupled with insane petrol prices it's no wonder folks are selling up thier sports cars.