But of a disappointment from Adrian Flux

[v82fas]

Let me start by saying for 4 years they looked after my insurance for all my yanks including a Dodge Viper, and more to the point, a Bmw 645ci. 2 years ago they quoted £560 for a 645ci with 3 yrs no claims, I was 31. Not bad at all. 2 years pass and I buy the same car again, 5 years no claims, including if you mention pistonheads, they quote me £1200.

Absolute joke. I thought they were high performance car specialists? It was cheaper to insure the viper at 6000 miles a year, it came out at £900!

Anyway, admiral gave me a great quote. Better than what I paid the first time. Perhaps admiral should have their own thread too...

[WG]

I have never had a competitive quote from any of the so called specialists for my Porsche's or BMW,s. I always find much better deals via the comparison web sites. I think they rely on people assuming they are going to get free the best deals because they say they specialise in specific marques

[Matt97]

Not a BMW but i've just insured a Ginetta G20 through adrian flux, the main reason being the main comparison sites didn't list the car. Now i've only just turned 19 so i was expecting a ridiculous quote even though it's only a 1.8 on limited miles a year, however i was pleasantly surprised with the premium i was offered.

[Sheepshanks]

v82fas said:

Anyway, admiral gave me a great quote. Better than what I paid the first time. Perhaps admiral should have their own thread too...

There's plenty of content about Admiral. I advise you not to read it though.

[Monkeylegend]

You never know how good your insurance cover and Company is until you need to make a claim, or have a claim made against you.

Caveat emptor as they say.

[jayemm89]

I had a funny phone conversation with one of the specialists, can't remember if it was flux or one of their competitors

I had just bought a Z4 M Coupe, conversation went along the lines of:

"How much experience of this vehicle do you have sir?"

"Excuse me?"

"How long have you been driving the car for?"

"I've never driven it, I'm collecting it next week"

"Oh, it's just our underwriters require that you have some experience of driving this type of vehicle considering your age (25)"

"Well, it's replacing a BMW 645, I also had a 911, I was a named driver on another 911, and on a Ferrari..."

"Oh, well we'd need experience of this vehicle specifically. I'm sorry, I don't think we can insure you."

"No, you won't be."

[rockford22]

jayemm89 said:

I had a funny phone conversation with one of the specialists, can't remember if it was flux or one of their competitors

I had just bought a Z4 M Coupe, conversation went along the lines of:

"How much experience of this vehicle do you have sir?"

"Excuse me?"

"How long have you been driving the car for?"

"I've never driven it, I'm collecting it next week"

"Oh, it's just our underwriters require that you have some experience of driving this type of vehicle considering your age (25)"

"Well, it's replacing a BMW 645, I also had a 911, I was a named driver on another 911, and on a Ferrari..."

"Oh, well we'd need experience of this vehicle specifically. I'm sorry, I don't think we can insure you."

"No, you won't be."

Funny you mentioned that as I had exactly the same (it was for a Z435i at the time but recently a 645Ci, 27 years old). We talked at length about my car history and I eventually convinced the operator I had "enough experience of rear wheel drive" to be a considered acceptable. Shame the quote was double that of the company I ended I going with.

What is the point in questioning my car history? Another provider asked when trying to insure an Elise 111R what cars I had previously owned, seems a little odd given insurance is typically statistics based and I could have ultimately made everything up.

[mudster]

It's been that way in motorcycle insurance for years. Don't expect to get insurance on a Honda Fireblade if you only have 5 years no claims against a 50cc scooter. Guess it's filtering through to car insurance now.

[clarkmagpie]

Never had a remotely competitive quote from them.
Tvr
Lotus
Rs6
SL500
Nothing in the same ballpark.

[marting]

mudster said:

It's been that way in motorcycle insurance for years. Don't expect to get insurance on a Honda Fireblade if you only have 5 years no claims against a 50cc scooter. Guess it's filtering through to car insurance now.

Really? I went out and bought a 600cc sports bike straight after passing my bike test when I was 21. Albeit not a litre bike, I had no such issues.

[Shaoxter]

Adrian Flux have always given me ridiculous quotes for BMWs, as in consistently double or triple Admiral's quotes. However they are easily the most competitive for my MR2 Turbo and Flexdrive is great so won't complain about them too much. Can't win them all!

[Ady555]

In my experience, all these so called specialists that sponsor all these sites offering good discounts to members including Adrian Flux, talk a load of bo11ox. None of them can compete with none specialists insurance companies. After all, someone has to pay for all these events they sponsor throughout the year. Typical example, A Plan offer BMW owners "special discount" to BMW club forum members over on the Bimmerpost site. Plummed in all my details for my pending new 335d Touring. They came back with a price of £900. Excellent driving record, very good postcode, Maximum NCD, car garaged in an alarmed garaged with CCTV. Age 49. 9000 miles per year. What planet are they on, and how do they get customers with quotes like that? Got a quote off Hastings for £370. Now that is more like it. I would say forget all the specialists insurance companies and go on Money supermarket.com. Buy far the cheapest of all the comparison sites for me anyway, and always have been.

[H4r1s]

rockford22 said:

Funny you mentioned that as I had exactly the same (it was for a Z435i at the time but recently a 645Ci, 27 years old). We talked at length about my car history and I eventually convinced the operator I had "enough experience of rear wheel drive" to be a considered acceptable. Shame the quote was double that of the company I ended I going with.

What is the point in questioning my car history? Another provider asked when trying to insure an Elise 111R what cars I had previously owned, seems a little odd given insurance is typically statistics based and I could have ultimately made everything up.

I've had this previously when trying to insure my 190E, "I'm sorry sir, we can't insure you because it's a RWD car and you are under 25" I was insured on a Mercedes 500SEC previously with a different insurer at 23.

Did not understand this at all. Didn't bother me though, other insurers were plenty cheap.

[The Livster]

Insured my M5 with Admiral £400

[Patrick Bateman]

They've never been competitive for me until now.

Aviva were initially wanting £529 for the M5 this year, up from £350. Got it down to £474 but they wouldn't go any lower. Everywhere else was high 400's and up. Flux were £320.

[Sheepshanks]

Ady555 said:

What planet are they on, and how do they get customers with quotes like that?

Presumably they must be competitive for some people - there surely can't be enough totally thick people around who will shower them with money whatever the price?

I always think it's weird the way insurance varies so much from company to company - you'd think they'd all use broadly the same methods. I often recommend LV= to people and they're either very good or absolutely miles out and I've never been able to figure out why.

[Ady555]

I've found with LV, they usually give better quotes in the first year, as most insurance companies do, then the second year they sting you. Is there an internal battle with insurance companies that we are not aware of? Who can get the most "New business" in a year? Perhaps the figures should be publised, how many customes we lost last year. That might make them be a bit more loyal to the customers they already have, and know, to some degree. This new driving licence number submission on all new policies will filter out all these people claiming they have a clean licence when they haven't. Trying to save themself some money....

[mybrainhurts]

Not happy with them last February. I mistaken thought renewal for an extra car was March but it was Feb. They renewed without even contacting me, just took £500 from my bank account. Cover is in place, I checked ASKMID, but I've received no documents from them regarding renewal, no email, nothing.

Been waiting to see what might happen for a year now, and nothing has turned up. I'll be having words sometime soon.

Edit...

They've sent me renewal papers for the current renewal now. Baffled about last year.

Edited by mybrainhurts on Friday 12th February 20:43

[Sheepshanks]

Ady555 said:

I've found with LV, they usually give better quotes in the first year, as most insurance companies do, then the second year they sting you.

That's weird - the thing I like most about LV is they don't do that. I've run new quotes at renewal time (even with odd little details changed) and the new quote is dearer. Renewed both our cars in the last couple of months and the premiums barely changed since last year (and I'm hardly paying anything as is).

Admiral, OTOH, are legendary for whacking up the price, but call them and they'll cave in. They were good on price with my kids for a few years, but the annual battle got very wearing.

[Spuffington]

Never had a competitive Quote from Adrian Flux either.

But equally had bad experiences with Admiral. Cheap enough quotes to start with, but try and make a claim and have been fobbed off with cheap repairs and lots of backwards and forwards to get it resolved properly.

Now insure my BMWs through A-Plan (who are both good, competitive quotes and decent underwriters). Only my rubbish station car gets insured through Admiral, given I take the view that most things are likely to write it off, so insurance is really only to fulfill the mandatory requirements rather than fix my car to a standard I expect rather than down to a cost to make an insurance company a decent margin.