Muppet Insurance Companies

[tri_longer]

Just spoken to Admiral to see how much it would cost extra to fit a rear ARB, replacement dump valve and a K&N panel filter.

Apparantly a rear ARB is considered high risk and they won't touch it. Fair enough!

A dump valve is high risk?!?! Can someone explain that one to me.

This however is not as funny as been asked to pay £52 a year extra for a K&N panel filter!!!

Oh and to make matters even worse, unless you were to buy a standard air filter from Skoda, an aftermarket one from Halfords is also considered a non-standard part and you would be charged extra for it.

It was however by the end of the conversation that I discovered that I wasn't talking to a normal person in the UK but one of those wonderful call centres in India. At this juncture I gave up and said I would speak to an underwriter tomorrow who actually knows what they are talking about.

[gillywibble]

There's no such thing as an underwriter who knows what they're talking about.

[Mr Grumpy]

I am with Direct Line and had recourse to speak with them yesterday.
They said they would accept ANY mods. as long as they are properly declared.
Mind you I have two cars and household insurance with them, and have had for several years.Is this normal??

[gillywibble]

No it isn't. Very unusual. You must be a shareholder.

[Mr Grumpy]

Originally Posted by gillywibble

No it isn't. Very unusual. You must be a shareholder.

Noooooo, I didn't mean is having 2 cars and household insurance with the same company normal, I meant.......
Oh never mind, I think I know what I mean

[Dr Zoidberg]

Originally Posted by tri_longer

A dump valve is high risk?!?! Can someone explain that one to me.

Yep.
Put quite simply , many of the people who want dump valves are those who are going to drive their cars fast and crash.

It's not the valve itself that is high risk but the type of driver

[gillywibble]

That's just called lazy. You couldn't be arsed to get more than one quote

[Taztastic]

These are taken from archives in the West Midlands, why is it cheaper to not bother having insurance and risk getting away with it.
Those who declare mods lawfully get penalised and non insured drivers get off lightly.


Nicholas James Pike, aged 22 of Chawn Hill, Stourbridge, pleaded guilty to having no motor insurance. He was fined £150

Stephen Wayne Cox, aged 31, of Grove Road, Wollescote, pleaded guilty to having no motor insurance. He was given an absolute discharge, ordered to pay £35 costs and had six penalty points endorsed on his licence.

[VRStu]

The rear ARB is classed as 'suspension other' by admiral and elephant.

[tri_longer]

I wouldn't be as annoyed if when asked what it would cost to put wider/narrower profile tyres on.

They said i didn't even need to notify them!!! Work that one out.

I would say that having none standard tyres to the manufacturer would warrant at least another couple of hundred quid!!

[Sheaf]

insurance makes no sense.... it's done on a computer and the computer doesn't understand life and logic.

Try Adrian Flux. They were the best for me by £200 and actually understand mods. I've heard they're not so clever when making a claim mind, but the prices/call centres of other places do my head in.

[mattbeef]

tbh i wouldnt have even told them. I can bet that if you said that you have put a thicker ARB they wouldnt have cared.
As for telling them about stuff like panel filter/dump valve again i dont think i would have bothered they arent performance enhancing mods so i personally cant see a problem

[tri_longer]

Been on to Chris Knott this morning; you'll love this bit.

If you live in Bradford, Manchester or Liverpool (there are other areas but couldn't remember them all) and you don't keep your car off-road at night, and you want a modified car, they will not look at insuring you!!!

Anyway despite this they took my details and came back in an hour or so with a quote of £629.99, & £350 excess.

This is about £80 more that Admiral and it will ocst me £45 to cancel my policy now, but at least they will insure any mods that I make to the car.

[cheezemonkhai]

Try telling admiral this and watch them agree to match it for the rest of your policy.

[MC Bodge]

If something doesn't enhance performance and meets the OEM spec it shouldn't affect the premium in my view. If they were to replace the part it would be a standard OEM part, obviously. Panel Filters and replacement dump valves (it already has a dump valve!) are irrelevant in my opinion.

People working in call centres have a list of prompts and questions -they need to know nothing about cars or insurance.

The database is set up for known risks, which is fairly simple, hence certain 'categories' of mods costing a certain amount, although they often seem fairly arbitrary to me. It does keep their admin costs down though which is why they do it.

Dave Smith(they often give them 'British' names to use ) in Bombay will do and say the same as Ahmed(who will be British...) in a call centre in Bolton.

I'll be asking my insurance about a rear ARB (which doesn't warrant much of a change in my view), but I need to psyche myself up first for the potential frustration. To be fair, when I informed them about the re-map and the wider tyres they were fine -as they took the large sum of money for th re-map....

[MC Bodge]

Originally Posted by tri_longer

If you live in Bradford, Manchester or Liverpool (there are other areas but couldn't remember them all) and you don't keep your car off-road at night, and you want a modified car, they will not look at insuring you!!!

How does a standard car with a re-map (and no stickers to tell the world about it) suddenly become more likely to be stolen? I've argued that sort of thing before.

[cheezemonkhai]

It's a general policy, they can't check every car, but a mhwassivvvveee spoiler and phat allows generally make a car nickable.

This is 90% accurate for modified cars as far as they are concerned, so the business they turn away is less than the cost to get it more accurate. Thats just standard business economics and a good enough yard stick.

[Sheaf]

to throw a spanner in the works...

http://www.channel4.com/4car/news/ne...08&ref=archive

[MC Bodge]

It doesn't really prove anything. A large proportion of US cars with over 200bhp are probably pickup trucks or SUVs, which aren't actually that fast or nimble.

[HodgyVRS]

This is a hypothetical question, if I was to buy a second hand VRS which had been re-mapped but wasn't told by the seller would this help in an insurance claims situation?
Also, hypothetically of course, if you had a re-map done with say REVO and also purchased an SPS unit, if you reverted the car back to the original settings would an insurance company be able to tell a re-map had been done in the first place?