Bristol West Announces $30 Million Stock Repurchase Program

DAVIE, Fla., March 14 -- Bristol West Holdings, Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $30 million of the Company's outstanding common stock. Under this program, share purchases may be made from time to time in the open market depending on share price, market conditions and other factors. The Company has engaged Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. to administer the stock repurchase program.

James R. Fisher, Chairman and CEO, said, "We are focused on maintaining our strategy of controlled and profitable growth and currently have sufficient capital to support our operations. We have repeatedly stated that we are willing to operate with a reasonable amount of operating leverage given our discipline and the strength of our pricing and underwriting controls. We also have put in place standby facilities to support our growth in the form of our variable quota share reinsurance agreement and our undrawn revolving credit facility. At recent trading levels we believe our stock is attractively priced and we can repurchase shares with existing organically generated funds. We believe our strategy will continue to produce attractive returns on equity and that repurchasing shares is in the best interests of our shareholders."

About Bristol West

Bristol West Holdings, Inc. began its operations in 1973, and provides non-standard private passenger automobile insurance exclusively through agents and brokers in 21 states. Bristol West is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol, BRW.

For more information about Bristol West, please visit our website, http://www.bristolwest.com/.

This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements." All statements in this press release not dealing with historical results are forward-looking and are based on estimates, assumptions and projections. Statements that include the words "believe", "expect", "may", "will", "should", "seek", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "anticipate" or the negative version of those words or other comparable terminology and similar statements of a future or forward-looking nature identify forward-looking statements.

All forward-looking statements address matters that involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. Please see the risk factors in our final prospectus dated February 11, 2004. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.