After buying our completely standard 2011 Kendo we have been looking for insurance.
My partner who had personal no- claims for 9 years, followed by a further 3 years company car no claims was somewhat confused to learn that she could not benefit from this.
As an approved supplier also offering 15% added discount i thought we would be on to a winner.
We were somewhat surprised when we phoned to be told that they cant do anything about it after all, (not exactly what their website leads you to believe) and the best quote they could come up with was £1500.
Quite shocking when we managed to obtain cover for £365 including full RAC cover from a leading brand, the mind boggles.
Ill never understand who insurance premiums are calculated, change with the tide it seems.
Following an accident in my 5, where an elderly gent changed lanes into me without acknowledging my presence, my insurance premium went up and I lost 2 of my 5 years no claims. He managed to get off scot-free, but we won’t go down that hole…
I digress, my premium with my insurer went up from £550ish per year to £790ish, which is a fair jump. I looked around and surprisingly found that it was still the cheapest around despite it being an automatic renewal. Phoned A-Plan and they said it would be £2k without modifications or modified to 185+ bhp would bring it down to about £1k which was the 2nd lowest price I found bar my auto-renewal. Bizarre that there can be so much fluctuation, with the smallest increase on the proviso my car is more powerful.
Insurance is a funny thing where clear logic seems not to apply -
A few years ago a friend of mine and I had the exactly the same model of the same car, same year. He was a Country Beat Bobby, and had done no further training following a basic driving test. and his wife was a learner with no previous experience.
I was also a Bobby but on Traffic Dept with Class 1 Advanced Certificates on both car and bike, my wife had 15 yrs on a full licence with no claims. I was also an authorised Advanced Examiner for RoSPA and IAM.
We also lived within 7 miles of each other in small relatively crime-free villages. Guess who got the cheapest insurance quote from the same company?
After ten years of my wife having only her various company cars, and me not having a car at all, we bought an MX-5 as a second-car in October 2016. We discovered that we could not use her no-claims, because it was logged against her company car, and as I obviously had no no-claims at all (although I was a named driver on her company-car policy), we had to start from scratch with the MX-5.
We got what we thought was a good deal from Direct Line - £316.00. When it came up for renewal this October, the fact that my wife had an argument with a concrete bollard in a car park one day in her Scirocco company-car, the Direct Line renewal was £525.00 for the MX-5.
We went straight to Aviva, and despite the ding in the Scirocco, we got insurance for the MX-5 for just £200.00 !
Understand it ? Not a bit !
And the ‘specialist’ companies, that advertise in STHT, all seem to be horrendously expensive compared with the mainstream companies.
It seems though, that the major insurance companies offer new customers introductory prices, but jack up the premiums for subsequent years. So it seems that it is necessary to switch insurance providers annually - pain in the arse, but there it is - the 21st century for you !
What I find more annoying is getting your renewal quote then finding a cheaper one. You tell your old insurance company you are leaving then they offer you the price of your new quotation. So when you get your new renewal go online for a cheaper one. Then get your insurance company to match it and they usually will. They never act in your best interests only their own.
What really gets me in that situation is when you go back and tell them of the better offer they say “Oh, we can match that” so you say “In that case why didn’t you offer me that in the first case” they can’t give you a valid reason, they might waffle on a bit but that’s all!
I am doing the quotation thing this week, well having a rest for a few days after having quotes coming out of my ears this and last week.
Insurance due on both cars around the end of the month, yep one has gone up too much for my liking, the Mk3 sport I’m still waiting on that renewal, not holding my breath though judging on previous years.
Had an interesting conversation with one company who rang me back, kept him busy for ages on the phone number crunching, end result favourable but I still waiting for the Mk3 quote I told him. During the conversation the question was asked about why the various companies can be so wide of the mark with quotes, whilst some can be considerably lower. The answer, certain companies target different groups to give or try and entice new business to their company and one particular time or year. For instance you may get a very good quote if you are young and inexperienced or they target the more elderly to get them on board. Just depends what’s on offer at the time of getting the quote.
Anyways believe the above or not, I’m not sure they know themselves why they hike prices. I did the online comparison site thing and they were the only one’s to ring me (I usually accidently of course put a wrong digit in my phone number supplied) but they managed to get hold of me?? Glad they did the online quote of £338 turned into a phone quote of £224, now that’s better but I told them it’s got to be sub £200…to be continued when they ring me back next week to see if I want to buy along with a yet to be quoted Mk3 sport.
You must live on a remote island somewhere off mainland Britain and be the only person who owns a car on it.
Coming close to my state pension here (well in two years) and I’m still waiting for a sub £200 quote. I did get close once a few years for a sub £100 quote for my Mk1, £124, that didn’t last long they soon hiked it up the following year.
Insurance issues come up on this forum as regular as clockwork, and Adrian Flux, along with the other ‘specialist’ companies who advertise on here and in the magazine, just as regularly, get panned for quoting six, seven, eight hundred quid !
This £95.00 is a wonderful price - might be worth a call next year !
My last quote (yesterday) they said, why don’t you add your wife, I said that would be interesting, she can’t drive.
Also the company rep I was talking to about the quote told me, he can’t get a reasonable quote from his own comany despite factoring in the staff discount he gets, he has to go elsewhere for cover if he wants a decent price
He also said his wife’s insurance works out fine, price wise with his company so she goes with them.
It shouldn’t necessarily cost more to go through a broker.
For some insurers it is their standard method of distribution and it might be difficult or impossible to buy direct.
There are always distribution costs whether selling direct (advertising, direct marketing, call centres all have to be paid for) via comparison sites (listing and/or commissions) or brokers (commission).
Some ‘insurers’ are brokers - such as Saga, or use panels of insurers from whom they receive a commission (AA & RAC IIRC)
There’s really no substitute for trawling the comparison sites and the better known direct insurers - which is unfortunate because I detest doing it.
For hobby/classic/oddball cars specialist brokers can be very useful.
Agree 100%. All depends on business models. There are brokers…then there are brokers.
I started off last November with Flux to seek a quote for my son’s first car insurance for a mere 1 years old Fiesta 1.25. £1,800-odd fully comp, all whistles and bells.
His first insurance, and it mattered not he’s 28 and has driven every MOD machine bar tanks for years, including RMP vehicles.
Swinton came in at £1,750-odd.
Ended up with Hastings at £670.00 using the precise same criteria…
I have to say that I’ve been very disappointed with the price of the so-called preferred insurance offered via the club; I have posted about this before.
My own quote went up 24% for the renewal ( actually two quotes, I had two cars insured with the broker previously mentioned, the other a BMW).
Needless to say, I now go elsewhere.
On a similar theme, the main “specialist” MX5 parts supplier advertised on the club website offers no discount to club members. None at all.
The Halfords 10% discount is good, but I can get most parts at lower cost at my local motor factor at standard prices.
I’m sorry we were unable to help with the insurance. Whilst we do have a number of schemes that will accept “out of date” NCD we can’t always guarantee they will be competitive I’m afraid.
I must admit though I’m surprised we were so far out from your most competitive quotation.
Dan, No-one was more surprised than me. How does your company justify a 24% increase in premium after earning a year’s no claims and joining the MX-5 owners’ club?
Hi,
It’s a bit difficult for me to reply without knowing the full circumstances I’m afraid. It had been well documented in the press etc that insurance premiums and tax have increased massively over the last 12 months or so, so I wont go into those. I’d be happy to take a look at your file though if you wanted to PM me your details to see if any other reasons.
Regards,
Dan.