I’m on my way to ownership, but the question of insurance needs addressing, especially for a modified car.
Insurance threads seem to be pretty old here, and a lot has changed with the world since the most popular threads of 2021 / 22, costs seem to have gone crazy. I know everyone is different and what is good for one may not be for another given all our individual circumstances.
Some of the previous insurers mentioned in older threads now have appalling feedback online. While I’m hopefully never going to claim, it’s better to know up front how they are likely to drag the process out, and how they are at stealth charges for in-policy updates.
So far I’ve tried the following
A Plan - 2nd best price so far, very professional, everything well detailed.
Sterling insurance - Best price, with all mods detailed, but quite pushy with extras that aren’t needed
Adrian Flux - double the best price, very good service. They have never been competitive for me.
Footman James - Triple the best price
Performance Direct - so cheap I’m not sure they really understood what the mods are plus they have an appalling feedback online. I’ve discounted them on that basis.
Greenlight - when pressed wanted more than is practical
REIS - Way too much, but extremely helpful, suggested next year they would be more competitive
David Auden - Really helpful, sensible conversation and a very reasonable price, joint 2nd. A good feeling they really know what they are going to insure.
I used Go Compare and Lancaster Insurance beat my renewal quotation by £60, for the same schedule.
I’ve not taken it up yet, but I had a call from one of their team the next day to see if I was interested.
He wasn’t pushy and more than happy to add or remove things to suit my requirements.
Admiral will provide modified insurance.
Up until 18 months ago my MX-5 ownership had consisted of a standard car without any power mods, just lowered suspension and stainless exhaust blingy stuff really. I then bought an NC with an engine map, I then wondered about insurance costs. No worries there, they were pleased to cover me and not that expensive to cover. I think it added around £40 at renewal over a non tuned engine.
Must add I’ve got multi cover, 2 cars and home insurance with them, I’m pushing 69 yrs old.
Thats interesting about Admiral accepting mods, it might well be worth going multi-car, I’ve had good results with that with the household cars before.
Unfortunately there are mods and then complete overhalls
I might try a comparison site, but even a call to a specialist takes an hour detailing everything so not sure I’ve that much patience given who I’ve already been through.
Sadly my existing vehicle (not an MX-5) has just been written off. LV have provided really good customer service, albeit the whole process is lengthy (3 weeks) and bureaucratic broker>insurer>repairer>insurer>assessor>insurer>salvager (Salvager=synetiq>awful customer service!)
Not the cheapest but given their service I plan to stick with LV
Broker=The AA have been good BUT the gotcha is the hire vehicle clause: as soon as the insurer issues the cheque for the write off, the hire period drops from 21 days to 7. Hmmmm
Thanks for all the suggestions, and especially the details of what happens during a claim.
It’s worrying when speaking with some of these agents how clueless they appear, yet give surprisingly good prices. Really makes me worry what they would be like during a claim for a modified car.
Others are the complete opposite, they actually listen AND ask sensible questions to make sure everything is documented.
Decision time soon, but I’m defiantly thinking along the lines of “you get what you pay for” especially for peace of mind!
For me Lancaster were more then triple the cost of Adrian Flux, and i’ve got few mods so didn’t bother going through the pain of a comparison website and putting all of them in, so went with Adrian flux they’ve been fine for 3 years.
They weren’t the cheapest but did seem sensible on the details, some nice includes (90 day euro cover) and very mod friendly.
If money was no object at all I think I would have gone with somebody else to really nail down every last nice to have. Who knows how friendly next years polices will be!
We had serious problems with Admiral when my daughter had an accident that was her fault. Admiral admitted her fault but consistently failed to pay out to the other party. My daughter was facing court action for the money from the other driver and still Admiral said they’d pay the claim, but never did. I only solved it by writing to the Guardian Newspaper consumer page who published the saga. Only then did Admiral pay up. I wouldn’t touch Admiral with 20 foot disinfected barge pole.
Vinny just a FYI on this one should the same happen again - don’t worry. Even if it did go to court and it went against you, your insurers would have to deal with the cost. You would never have to pay it yourself. Sometimes, it isn’t down to fault but due to a dispute over cost. So the other side commences proceedings. It would then be handed back to your insurers for them to deal with it. Sadly, this does happen time to time but in my experience it never actually becomes a court case where you have to personally attend. But in your case I agree that the insurers should have taken it out of your hands sooner to avoid the worry and stress and you should not have had to take it as far as you did. But the court action is simply a formality to drive the claim forward when there is a dispute between the 2 parties.
My brother had a similar thing and it was the other guy’s fault. The at fault driver played for time and my brother’s insurers said he had to go to court to argue the case.
It took nearly 2 years before he got a letter saying it had been settled. He was expected to spend hours filling out statements for the benefit of his insurer, not him.
Thanks Dan,
Your colleague was friendly enough - just found it amusing when he came back and said he had found me a great deal… given that he was already aware of my low DL quote
No doubt will be back if I ever bother with a BBR upgrade.
Cheers
In my mind you have to get a quote for an insurance that would cover the vehicle costs, and thats an agreed price insurance.
Thats what i did with mine. I asked for an agreed price insurance for what i wanted my car to be insured against. I got quotes from a few companies. I decided to go with Adrian Flux and paid the premium, i sent the pictures and list of mods, then they come back and said you know what, were not insuring the car for X we will insure it for Y and if you don’t like that you can go and get another valuation.
So guess what company I’m never going to ask for a quote ever again…
I was very surprised this was the attitude of a good deal of the insurers I have spoken with.
There appears no way to insure for what real world replacement costs vs agreed value as that value is always so close to the market price.
Will these people accept an independent valuation for something? Despite being willing to pay a higher premium for peace of mind, insurers just don’t want that business.
Normal insurance will cover market value
Agreed value insurance is effectively what it implies and is a specialist insurance.
You can declare mods on both (to calculate risk) but normal insurance will not cover those mods.
Most people when getting a quote for a normal and fill the box whatever the car is worth think they “agree” a value. You don’t, you just tell them a number and the computer spits out a premium. If you need to claim 100% they will give you a lowball market offer for a vehicle to the same standard you own.
