Insurance time again - saved loads!

[The_Laird]

So, the renewal notices for my S8 and my wife's mini came a few days ago and, at £364 for the '8 alone, I thought it was a bit expensive - so off I went to the home of the meercats!

A few questions later, up came a load of quotes. The cheapest was from Admiral at £154 but, 5th on the list was my existing insurer, Privilege, at £226!
So I gave them a call and they instantly dropped my renewal premium to £226.

My wife's renewal premium was £115 (with Legal & General), so I thought I'd give Admiral a ring and see about their multi car insurance (I'll come back to that in a minute).

I also called L&G for a quote on the Audi. They don't do multi-car insurance and wanted £372 for the '8!

So back to Admiral. They were very efficient and found my details from the meercats so I didn't have to answer all the questions again - just a few about SWMBO and the mini. The quote for both cars was £246.16; £117.90 for the mini and just £128.26 for the '8 (including business use and protected NCB).

So, if I's accepted the renewal premiums, I'd have paid out a few pennies over £480. A price comparison site and a couple of phone calls later and I'm £234 better off!

But what I don't really understand is what drives the quote systems that give prices for the same car between £372 and £128?