Insurance... I'll never understand it

[DAN AT ADRIAN FLUX]

Originally Posted by RollingThunder

Its the time of year that I dread more than the MoT test - the annual insurance renewal!

I had my renewal notice from Carol Nash, which was a pleasant £290, however I queried a few things, not least the summary that said it was a UK model (sigh...). The agent said he'd check with the underwriter and call me back that evening, or if not then, then the following day.

Two days later I'm still waiting, so I did the usual checks using compare-the-meerkat, confusion.com etc and they all came back with quotes of £450+... So I suspect that Carol Nash made an admin error with their renewal, and perhaps have decided that they can't insure a Japanese import after all - glad I found out now, rather than during a claim!!!

So I called Adrian Flux, as I still get renewal emails from them, and I know they definitely insure Japanese imports as they insured my Japanese import Discovery V8 a few years ago. I asked for two quotes, one just a bog standard renewal with no mods, and one with the RICA 280 ECU fitted. In the end he just came back with the RICA quote - at £350 (ish).

Obviously I've jumped at that! However he did say that I had to fit the RICA ECU within 30 days of taking out the insurance as the car wouldn't be 'as described' and so wouldn't be insured if I didn't fit it Never before have I had an insurer tell me to chip a car to ensure it is insured

So a great result - a cheaper quote than available from the comparison sites, a quote that is DEFINITELY for a Jap import car, and a quote for a remapped ECU... happy days!

Hi.
I'm glad we could help out with your insurance this year.
Regards,
Dan.

[DaveNP]

Insurance is generally based on the insurers experience of previous claims and that isn't always how we instinctively perceive it. The most extreme example I've personally seen is when my son had just passed his test. My sister offered to give him her old Peugeot 205 but I said lets just check the insurance first, phoned our insurer (Admiral) and got them to do the numbers for him being added to his mum's Nissan Almera as an occasional driver, and for him having the Peugeot. I listened carefully to the figures and wrote them down, then asked the bloke to repeat it all as I seemed to have missed something. But no, for him to have his own car to use whenever he wanted £2000 for the year, to be added to his mum's car which he could only use when we didn't want it £3000. The only explanation I can give is that no 18 year old lad ever admitted to driving a Peugeot 205, let alone claimed for an accident, as it would ruin their street cred.

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by DaveNP

Insurance is generally based on the insurers experience of previous claims and that isn't always how we instinctively perceive it. The most extreme example I've personally seen is when my son had just passed his test. My sister offered to give him her old Peugeot 205 but I said lets just check the insurance first, phoned our insurer (Admiral) and got them to do the numbers for him being added to his mum's Nissan Almera as an occasional driver, and for him having the Peugeot. I listened carefully to the figures and wrote them down, then asked the bloke to repeat it all as I seemed to have missed something. But no, for him to have his own car to use whenever he wanted £2000 for the year, to be added to his mum's car which he could only use when we didn't want it £3000. The only explanation I can give is that no 18 year old lad ever admitted to driving a Peugeot 205, let alone claimed for an accident, as it would ruin their street cred.

A Peugeot would ruin his street cred and an Almere wouldn’t???

I’m missing summat!

[eagle58]

Despite the annoying adverts, I've believed I did well with Go Compare. £200 for my C70 with no no-claims seemed good to me.

It did go up a bit this year even though I then had 1 years no-claims but next year I'll look around again and see what I can get.

[Dippydog]

The boyfriend of one of my granddaughters[he's 32]was driving a 2.5V6 manual Mondeo Ghia estate something went wrong with it engine wise so he parked it on his drive and put on the road a Corsa 1.4 automatic.When he phoned his insurance company to change his cover over they quoted him just over £2,000 for the Corsa where the Mondeo was only costing him sub £1,000!! My renewal quote for the V70[6yrs NCD]came through yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised to find that at £180 it's £20 cheaper than last year.

[CNGBiFuel]

Makes perfect sense to me. I don't know for fact, yet an educated guess says for every 1000 policies under a Corsa, there's 2-3 times as many claims as any Mondeo or a Volvo, and they'll be bigger pay-outs into the bargain.

[RollingThunder]

An annoying update on this... having received the policy docs and declaration forms, it seems my SkyTag tracker isn't acceptable as its a 'self-fit' type, and so the 'theft' part of the policy is void !!! Nice one AF, thanks!

I was never asked if it was a self fit type, and told the AF guy many many times that it was a SkyTag tracker, for which I paid a monthly subscription.

So I've emailed them to ask why (as Heritage for example positively encourages the use of them), and I want a declaration that the theft side is definitely active!

If not, I'll be going elsewhere after all... As I said in my original post, I hate this time of year!

[CNGBiFuel]

See RT, you've failed, and not for want of trying. And it doesn't sound like you could be expected to do better?

Which sadly, kinda' backs-up the point. What we're dealing with here is a off-track bent bookie that takes our bet, and woe-betide we claim a 'win'. The small-print explains why our, er... 'horse' didn't romp home.

Never did understand why estate-agents are figures of hate, it's us that set the prices, not them. if they can't find a face to pay it, they can't sell it. Banks, and insurance companies on the other hand...

[cross-Member]

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