I’m new so this may well have been covered many times on here.
I just wondered what constitutes a Classic Car. Could an early MX5 be considered or are Classic Cars still age related? I sometimes hear people say the MK1 is a Classic Cars, but I always thought the term was related to cars over 25 years old.
Any thoughts?
It varies when it comes to insurance but i`ve had Classic Cover on both my Roadsters & the first one was 15 years old. This one will be 20 in June.
As for Classic car shows most say cars need to be 20 years old in my experience.
That’s interesting. Is Classic Car insurance any better?
I imagine that a Classic Car must be in original trim with no alterations or modifications.
Probably best to give a couple of the "classic ca"r insurers a ring for a definitive answer or a specialist like Adrian Flux. Do like that colour scheme by the way and welcome.
Thanks Phil, I fell in love with it because of the colours. I do like something different. The last one was in the dark green and I covered it in chrome, it did look a litttle special, but this one is something very special to me.
Permitted modifications will differ between insurers. A limited mileage Classic policy, some with agreed valuation, should work out much cheaper than a standard policy.
Give a few specialists a ring. Footman James offer good discount to club members. Also try Adrian Flux, REIS, A-Plan, Lancaster & SKY
On a Classic Car policy, generally there are restrictions on annual mileage, and you can’t earn any NCB. I was told by REIS that if you change your policy from a regular NCB based policy to a Classic policy, you will lose your NCB, and they implied to me that companies that claimed to “protect” your NCB on a classic policy were liars. I’m not sure about that claim. Some of these policies also have odd restrictions; one policy indicates that your car must be garaged after dark, within a 2 mile distance of your home. This impacted on a club member who found he couldn’t take his MX5 to a mid-week club evening meet, as the location was near his house. Additionally, most of these policies don’t extend 3rd party cover to other vehicles, which is the usual case for regular policies. There are reasons why these policies are cheaper.
Good thoughts AT. As an owner of various classics (some going back to 1939) for over 30 years I can confirm that a lot of the so called classic policies do not do what they say on the tin. If you look carefully you will usually find you are getting a lot less for your premium - no NCB, no cover on other cars for example - than if you opt for “normal” policies on a restricted mileage basis. Always best to look around and not go straight to those that claim to be specialists.
Hi strangways, have no definitive answer to your question as such, but just to say your 5 looks great in the avatar - Edenbridge eh! Not a million miles from me in TW!
I’ve just insured my eunos through Adrian Flux. It’s on a classic (cherished) policy. I am earning no claims. Can drive other cars 3rd party. And the best bit was that it was £250 cheaper than anyone else 
Excellent - although it’s worth mentioning that “other cars 3rd party” means cars other than your own, ie, registered at another address. It doesn’t mean you can use your wife’s car to nip to the shops and you will be ok.
I used to be on this policy. Its not actually a Classic Car policy, despite what they call it; they were initially cheaper for me than anyone else, and then they jacked up the rates (ironically, I switched from Aon (now called Footman James) to Aon, to save a bit. Now I am back with FJ). Additionally, in the event of a claim, I found them to be terrible (they didn’t actually inform the Insurers that my car was sitting at the coachworks awaiting an assessor), which delayed repairs by 3 weeks (in the event, I had to directly contact the insurer, who immediately gave the garage authorisation to proceed, without inspecting the car). I suppose I was lucky, because they went ahead and sold my brother’s FTO before he had even agreed a settlement figure with them (removing his option of getting the car repaired himself). They will still only value your car according to market values. Actual Classic Car policies allow the owner to obtain a valuation of their car if they want.
True Classic Car policies (my Roadster is insured on one) are fine for certain types of driver. They are no good if that is your only car, or if you need the car for the regular M-F commute (as opposed to the occasional commute).
Two very different problems:
The first is a fault with the broker reporting all the details to the insurer (Aviva in this case), which can be easily remedied by reporting claims directly to them, as AT has done. This applies to any broker.
The second, im not too sure AT - are you saying that Flux were given a settlement figure by Aviva and, instead of speaking to your brother to pass the news on (ie, acting as an intermediary), they simply said “yeah, that’ll do - he’ll accept that”?
That’s a job for the ombudsman that one. Truly terrible if so!
Hi Mark, Thanks for the comment. There are some bigger photo’s on my web site if you want to have a look. I will take some decent photo’s in the next couple of weeks and post them.
It was not Aviva; some other mob whom I don’t recall right now. In my view, I am forming a contract with Adrian Flux, who promise, like any insurance broker, are offering a complete package, which includes dedicated claims lines (all extras which are funded by your quotation). I shouldn’t have to spend 4 hours hunting for a direct number to my insurer (and yes, the number I needed was difficult to find). Yes, this could be the case for others, but I would like to hope that not all brokers are incompetant. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of dealing with claims against a Roadster with two different insurers. The first claim was a Roadster that was a total loss after a theft; Aon were first rate in their service, and displayed real, and gratefully received, common sense. The second was Adrian Flux who did not fulfill my expectations. I really hope I don’t have to test this part of their service again.
The insurers sold on a car at auction that did not belong to them; I understand this is an increasingly common practice, presumably to force people to accept derisory settlement figures (a fait accompli). Only when my brother threatened to bring in the Ombudsman, and take them to court, did they suddenly up their offer to something more reasonable (after 3 months of letters). What role AF played in this is uncertain, though it took threats to AF to get them to do their job (in other cases, people blame the salvage agents in selling the cars without authority). If I was ever in this situation, I would hope I could keep hold of the car until a course of action is agreed; this though is difficult to do if your car is in pieces, at 9pm on the M3, and the police need you to get your heap off the hard shoulder. The car was still very drivable (two cracked headlights and a bumper is enough to write off a £5k FTO apparently), and he was never given the option to retrieve the car from wherever it was stored. He wanted to get the car back himself, as it was cheaper for him to source some used parts, and fix the car, than what he faced in losing. Naturally, he was shocked when told that the car was gone.
Anyhow, that past experience, plus AF’s increase (compared to other quotes) was enough for me to jump ship; and I do not simply switch insurers because they are cheap; they are providing a service commitment, and I expect them to watch my back in the event, and to look after my interests. You can dispute the validity of my statements, but as far as I am concerned, they are truthful. Its up to others if they wish to take note or not.
I had my motorbike insured by FJ and was unable to insure it on a Classic policy as it was not kept in a secure garage, The Bike Barn although as secure or better was not deemed a garage, have found the same problem with my MK1 you have to read the small print.
Put your talons away, my aim was to understand, not dispute.
If AF have their own claims lines then they are actually in the minority - usually the number on brokers documents is to a call centre run by the insurer - the specific number sends a “whisper” to the callhandler to tell them how to greet you. This means they can standardize the system to (hopefully) make it simpler and quicker. AF have been with Aviva for as long as I remember but it’s possible it was General Accident (who Aviva bought in the 80’s).
My point is that it’s quite rare for a broker to go through taking your claim details (or wanting to deal with you at all once you’ve paid up) and then ringing the insurer to go through it all again - when they do, they usually wait until they have a few and then rattle them off together. Of course, when they do this either the callhandler, the broker, or both of them tend to get a bit bored and mistakes are made or parts omitted. Not really a good way to do business.
Depending on whether your brother had somewhere off-road to keep the vehicle and whether it was the insurer’s recovery provider that plucked him off the motorway, he would have been within his rights to insist on being taken home. However, if the police got to him first they would have organised their own uplift (often with the very same provider) and at that point he loses control as you have said. This can be extremely frustrating and is made worse by the fact that recovery agents will receive £105 per police job and around £63 from someone like AA/RAC so guess who’s job sheet they throw away?! Once it’s in the ‘system’ it can be one unholy nightmare retreiving it and that’s true for the insurer too!
I would expect a breakdown of communication in the car selling part rather than conspiracy really, unfortunate though it was. It would be very unusual for a recovery agent to go to the trouble of breaking the law in this way (this would be theft after all), the cost of moving vehicles (without authorisation) and risking their relationship with the insurers for a return of what, £1500 auction value and the risk of criminal charges and untold lost future earnings. I know Aviva has never had a vehicle go missing in this way. They are much more likely to hold onto the car for as long as they can - some of those storage yards turn into bottomless pits. The going rate for a night’s storage is around £20, much more in London.
You may think it would be bizarre for an insurance company to forget about locations of cars but in 2006 an internal study found that Aviva was paying over £4million pounds a year on storing cars (just cars) unnecessarily - these cars had either been declared scrap, had claims completed on them or were otherwise financially “written off” and forgotten about.
As one of hundreds of examples, a 1988 Mini Metro with a pre accident valuation of £500 had been sat accruing storage charges for over two years - the eventual storage fee paid to finally release it for crushing was negotiated down to about £2800.
After the study was completed, it was decided that the costs to change the system could not be justified and the practise continues to this day as far as I know.
All this provided simply for additional information 
“you pays your money and convince yourself there was a choice”
I only asked what a Classic Car was! 
ha ha - for insurance, it’s whatever an insurance company decides it is. Underwriters will allow anything over 10 years old to go on a classic policy if the insurers want it.