Two months into ND ownership and I’ve come to the conclusion, as many other have, that there is too much body roll spoiling the country lane experience.
So before splashing out on a nice set of BBR springs, I though I had better check what it’ll do to my insurance.
To say I was shocked is rather an understatement - up from £244 to £1736!
How do people get insured on a full BBR220 package if just changing the springs make such a difference.
Looks like my car will be staying standard.
Depends who you are insured with.
I have just renewed my insurance with the same company. Bearing in mind I’m 67 yrs old, Saga wouldn’t quote me but my current (Admiral) insurers are fine with lowered suspension and power mods, depending on what it is. The price was good too, just a few pounds added.
I had quotes this time from others which started at £250 up to £800.
Guessing the quoted price you got they just don’t want to cover you on the mods hence the higher quote.
1 Like
No penalty from Admiral for lowering springs.
1 Like
I’m with LV and if memory serves me right it was around £20 extra for BBR 220, springs, brakes, full exhaust
1 Like
Time to shop around then, plus of course see what I get back if I cancel the insurance after just 2 months. Currently with the RAC. I’m 63 with a clean licence and full no claims, so I wasn’t expecting such a jump. It’s good to know who others are insured with though. Thanks.
Sometimes you just fall out of the ‘box tick’ parameters for that particular company with that combination of cover requirements.
So just ring around after arming yourself with data from the online compare websites.
Be sure to either use ‘private browsing’ or carefully wipe the cookies they set, each time you leave the site, so as to get a fresh unweighted quote each time.
3 Likes
Definitely ring around, £300 for ours with LV, might have got it cheaper, but they were happy with all the mods so stayed with them. 61, 3pts 1 claim within last 5yrs
1 Like
Agree completely with the above, sometimes there’s just something that the company doesn’t like and bang it goes sky high. Good tip about the cookies too
1 Like
I’ve never had a decent quote from the RAC, who knows why?
It seems your current price is pretty decent, well compared to mine it seems so but we have different models and of course post code areas and much more are factors.
Depending on their (RAC) T&C’s you could end up with nowt to come back if you cancel. I’d stick with them until renewal time, receive their renewal quote that’ll arm you with a figure to get cover elsewhere, hopefully at a better price too.
As mentioned above my current company like a fair few have an habit of inflating their renewal price. Very surprised this last renewal I wanted it lower of course they immediately agreed to a lower figure, I politely said it’s not low enough armed with quotes from elsewhere. No quibbles a further reduction was applied.
1 Like
Thanks MickAP. I must fit in the RACs preferred demographic at the moment, even with an East London post code - just as long as the car remains standard. They weren’t the cheapest, but not far off it. I avoided those companies with terrible reviews and on line only - if there’s ever a problem I want to talk to a person not a computer.
I had my RX-8 with the RAC, the renewal was due not long before I sold it and then with the MX-5 not due to arrive for several weeks, I had to cancel the policy. The repayment was a direct proportion of the annual premium less and admin charge of (I think) £20, so I should be OK cancelling again, better check first though.
Also thanks to Richard FX, good point about private browsing and cookies.
1 Like
Tesco insurance decided I had transformed from a sixty something retired lawyer to an accident waiting to happen and refused further cover. Admiral were helpful until they told me I had a 5k pa limit ( FFS I drive the car , not keep it as a pet ) . Adrian Flux , often maligned , were affordable and very helpful, and haven’t even increased the premium for some engine upgrade work by Roddisons .
2 Likes
Interesting point.
It seems too common to come back and find a quote has gone up for all sorts of things, for flights to hotels, all sorts, to be coincidence.
I too have long suspected cookies for this
1 Like
Yup they use cookies and sometimes other finger printing methods. Surprisingly using a VPN and purchasing from other locations can get better deals too!
1 Like
Often wondered what would happen if you bought a car second hand without knowing what mods where on so declared standard but then in an accident where they investigated.
1 Like
it is going back a long time but I found that it was cheaper to insure my heavily modified manta (engine, bodykit, suspension, rear axle, 1k sound system) with Adrian flux than it was to insure a standard manta with anyone else!
so the moral of the story is to shop around and to get quotes for both modded and unmodded
1 Like
I had much the same thought particularly with mx5’s where multiple owners may have made all sorts of changes, some obvious other less so.
2 Likes
Well it looks like the springs are back on my Christmas list. I’ve just run some quotes;
LV = £266
Admiral = 272
Flux couldn’t get anywhere near £900+
So its back to the RAC now to check what I’ll get back if I cancel. (I did run a new online quote with them, just in case the person I spoke to before had added some silly modification by mistake - this time it came in at over £2k)
Edit: Flux just came back with a revised quote of £262
2 Likes
Check out Admirals Multi policy, you might be even more surprised.
Part of or could be the main issue is that there is so much inconsistencies between insurance companies and it’s often a postcode lottery as to whether they insure. Another big factor is who is underwriting the policy. I didn’t get much joy from Admiral to be honest I drive a 2007 Sport with lowered springs and stainless steel box and had a struggle to insure. With springs I found a lot depended on how low the setting were set. Anyhow after a wrangle they insured with no great impact on premium. I’m now reluctant to shop around when my next renewal date comes up to avoid more hassle!
Just pretend you are going to have to pay for the sizeable increase in premium, you can then forget the springs and go straight to coilovers.
About £800-£900 +fitting.
Good job though getting it at that price, it pays to talk, who has that as a slogan??