Aero Kit & Lowering Kit?

Buying a ‘5 and Insurance advice Insurance Advice
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Hi guys, just did an insurance quote for an RF which has the Mazda supplied and fitted ‘Aero Kit & Lowering Kit’ fitted. The quote jumped up by about 50% after adding them as the mods fitted. It was via Go Compare which specifically asked if the car had been modified, option in the list was for skirts and splitter and just suspension changes.

I then went to direct line and no questions about mods just wanted the reg! Quote was right back down again.

So any of you guys with the above fitted, has it altered your insurance at all?

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

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I had the Mazda lowered springs , dealer fitted and my existing insurer , Tesco declined to cover me . Footman James offered , but with a 5k annual mileage limit - which was neither use nor ornament . Flux to the rescue - minor increase , no mileage limit , sorted .

We all expect to pay nowt for insurance , so I guess we shouldn’t complain that when faced with any deviation from the norm an insurer’s algorithms say 'no ’ .

But why I paid less for a more valuable Caterham with 440bhp/tonne than for a 140bhp/tonne (ish ) MX5 still escapes me

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Thanks mate, yeah insurance is very strange, had a £30k+ Audi S3 with 300BHP and it was £272 to insure, did a quote as I was looking to downsize to a £21k Fiesta ST, £1,900 with the same company :crazy_face:

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I guess that’s because the Audi would be thought of as a car driven by a responsible adult. The Fiesta ST on the other hand is seen as an out and out “Boy Racermobile” and much more of a risk.

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As @Countryboy said above, it has more to do with the cars history than the cars value.

Based on insurance company statistics my guess is a Fiesta ST is more likely to be in an incident that requires them to payout than an Audi S3.

My favourite example of this was when the Mustang was first released in the UK, it was cheaper to insure myself on a brand new Mustang 5.0 V8 GT than it was for a used Fiesta ST!

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I insured my car with the same factory fitted options as you have, and was asked if the car was “as supplied from the dealer, including manufacturer and dealer fitted options and accessories” to which the answer is yes. They didn’t consider them modifications which is interesting and sort of makes sense.

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Thanks for all the replies guys, I’ll give them a quick call and see what they say.

That’s the one thing that puts me off the ST, as you say it’s predominantly driven by boy racers and I’m too old to be one of them! :grin:

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I have my car insured with Privilege Insurance. When I had it lowered they just increased the Excess by the value of the components added, which seemed fair enough. No change to the Premium.

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Probably because they know that there are no distraction factors in a Caterham you are totally focussed on your driving.

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Try REIS insurance… https://reis.co.uk

They aren’t worried about mods, my RF had loads, only thing they want to know is if there’s any BHP increase, anything else isn’t an issue.

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Always wondered what would happen if you bought a car second hand unaware of any modifications so you declared standard spec and you needed to claim,I’ve know idea if mines fully standard or not.

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Cheers again for the replies guys, didn’t phone my insurance as the website said busy, so I sent them an email asking the question! But I did find this on the LV site:

mods
mods1217×596 74.6 KB

I did mention it was delivered from the factory to the dealership and then the dealership fitted the options, so we shall see what they say!

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Got an answer from my current insurance company AXA:

Hi and thanks for getting in touch.
As these were fitted after manufacture (after the car left the Mazda factory), they’d be classed as modifications and we wouldn’t be able to offer cover for this, I’m afraid.
Hope this answers your query

So it looks like it’s insurance dependant! But not to cover at all!!!

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