Baffled by insurance !

[tinman696]

Been getting some insurance quotes for a Tuscan so I know exactly what I'll be letting myself in for.

Unfortunately I'm moving from Plymouth to Birmingham, fully comp with no claims protection down here for a standard car is under £200, that more than triples in Brum which is frustrating, but what I really don't get is this - A new TVR was available in 1,500 different colours I believe, so you could have it delivered in any colour you like and regardless of that original colour you'll get a standard insurance quote for a 2nd hand car, yet if you respray it to a different colour it's classed as a modification and increases your premium (in my case) by £360. How is that at all logical ??

I'm 46 with a clean license, no convictions/accidents, 12 years no claims, the car will be kept in a locked garage overnight and I won't be doing more than 4k per year (pleasure use only since I work from home), yet insurance on a Tuscan with a respray and interior re-fit living in Birmingham is about £950 (£178 in Plymouth for a non-resprayed one for comparison)

I'm just wondering how some of you guys manage to get sensible premiums given a lot of the mods you've done ?? (or do you just avoid big cities). I can't imagine what I'd end up paying if I got a 4.3 upgrade. It's not a deal breaker but it does seem astronomically high. (I've tried the usual comparison sites as well as some specialist insurers such as Adrian Flux)

What really made me laugh is one particular company who supposedly specialise in high performance cars quoted £10,450

Can anyone suggest any other potentially more competitive companies I could try ?

Edited by tinman696 on Tuesday 26th August 23:50

Edited by tinman696 on Tuesday 26th August 23:55

[QBee]

Have you tried the companies on the insurance wiki?

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Of those, I have found Mannings ok, but presently use Classic Line and they are excellent. It's a classic policy, so ignores your NCD, but takes account of your driving experience of powerful cars. I have also heard others recommend MSM and RH. Birmingham isn't helping you I guess - are you going to live in the inner city, or some pleasant country location 40 miles out?
Anyway, have a chat with them - they are generally most approachable, but it will be a phone call, not filling in forms on the computer.

[glenrobbo]

Have you tried Classic Line?
When my insurance recently came up for renewal they "quoted me happy" so I went with them.

Worth noting they offer discount for TVRCC members.

No connection, just a happy customer.

[tinman696]

Oops I missed that wiki, no I haven't tried some of those, thanks I'll work through them

Unfortunately it'll be fairly close to inner city (Yardley/Sheldon area) so that's definitely not helping at all but it's the hefty hike that the modifications make that are the worst.

Best quote so far for an unmodified car is £545 which isn't too bad but I'm guessing a low percentage of Tuscans will still be unmodified these days and I'm really keen on putting my own colour scheme to it anyway.

Will try Classic Line first, cheers

[shep1001]

TRY MSM. They specialise in TVR. I have lots of modified bits on my car and it has never increased the premium and they are aware of ALL of them. Used them for the last 4 years prices has been under £450 each year and I will renew with them again at the end of the month.

[TVRJAS]

I think it's the high risk area more than the Mods.

Sheldon/Yardley comes under cat 'E' in the postcode risk list,'F' being the highest and 'E' is the highest that comes in the Birmingham area. I live 9 miles away and am in cat 'B'.

£296 on a standard Chimaera 400 with Classic Line

http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance...

Edited by TVRJAS on Wednesday 27th August 01:42

[tinman696]

That makes a lot of sense in theory, but I've just tried amending the address on 1 quote to Hall Green B28 which according to that website is group C and the quote has actually gone UP by £50 (although it does drop dramatically in Solihull which is group B)

I'm intending on renting for the first 12 months or so and taking my time to find the right house to buy so I think I'm going to have to try running each potential address through a car insurance quote before making any final decisions where to rent, though I think buying a house based on car insurance premium might be taking things a tad too far

[ShiDevil]

Just ring up ClassicLine and Mannings then come back report you have a lower quote, Job done.

[QBee]

ShiDevil said:

Just ring up ClassicLine and Mannings then come back report you have a lower quote, Job done.

Sound advice from the flying satsuma
This is "classic" car insurance territory - normal rules of computerised quotes are out the window.

[Byker28i]

Mannings wanted £433 this year
Privilege wanted £157

Only difference was no track day insurance and unlimited mileage with Privilege

[brownspeed]

I don't see how colour change (unless it's mega expensive spectra flair paint) would affect insurance- or why you'd need to even declare it if the log book states the same colour?!

[tinman696]

brownspeed said:

I don't see how colour change (unless it's mega expensive spectra flair paint) would affect insurance- or why you'd need to even declare it if the log book states the same colour?!

My point precisely, it's daft, they weren't even interested in what colour I was going to be changing it to, didn't ask, it was a case of "colour change ? Ok that's a modification, here's your overly inflated quotation...."
And yes you most definitely do need to declare it, if any changes at all have been made to the car since it rolled off the production line and you haven't declared it they can refuse to pay up if you have an accident.

Thanks guys for the advice, I'll try all the aforementioned companies

Edit: by the way, not sure if you're all aware, but not only do the premiums go up for modified cars, the insurance companies aren't obliged to reinstate those modifications in the event of a claim, so if your nice spectra flair paint job is vandalised they are only obliged to pay up for a standard paint job....

Edited by tinman696 on Wednesday 27th August 13:29

[shep1001]

[quote=shep1001]inman696]

My point precisely, it's daft, they weren't even interested in what colour I was going to be changing it to, didn't ask, it was a case of "colour change ? Ok that's a modification, here's your overly inflated quotation...."
And yes you most definitely do need to declare it, if any changes at all have been made to the car since it rolled off the production line and you haven't declared it they can refuse to pay up if you have an accident.

Thanks guys for the advice, I'll try all the aforementioned companies

Edit: by the way, not sure if you're all aware, but not only do the premiums go up for modified cars, the insurance companies aren't obliged to reinstate those modifications in the event of a claim, so if your nice spectra flair paint job is vandalised they are only obliged to pay up for a standard paint job....



Not sure where you got your info from but the insurance paid out without question on my complete strip & re-spray following it needing what I would have expected to be a small amount of paint due to vandalism. It cost over £5K & my premium went down the following year! Also I have never had a mid term policy increase for any of the modifications to my car performance or aesthetically enhancing. I also have agreed value and that too did not alter the premium price by more than £10 with my current insurer.

[tinman696]

shep1001 said:

Not sure where you got your info from but the insurance paid out without question on my complete strip & re-spray following it needing what I would have expected to be a small amount of paint due to vandalism. It cost over £5K & my premium went down the following year! Also I have never had a mid term policy increase for any of the modifications to my car performance or aesthetically enhancing. I also have agreed value and that too did not alter the premium price by more than £10 with my current insurer.

Many insurers will pay up, all I'm saying is that they're not officially 'obliged' to if they want to be awkward and play it strictly by the book.
Lets just say I fell foul some years back with a smaller less scrupulous company and ended up with a big hole in my pocket...(I sought legal advice and subsequently found I didn't have a leg to stand on)

I've so far had 19 quotes and without exception the mods are increasing the premium by a minimum of £280 so I'm amazed that you've not experienced the same !

Edited by tinman696 on Wednesday 27th August 15:06

[shep1001]

tinman696 said:

Many insurers will pay up, all I'm saying is that they're not officially 'obliged' to if they want to be awkward and play it strictly by the book.
Lets just say I fell foul some years back with a smaller less scrupulous company and ended up with a big hole in my pocket...

I've so far had 19 quotes and without exception the mods are increasing the premium by a minimum of £280 so I'm amazed that you've not experienced the same !

Have you tried MSM? 01279870535 just spoke to them this morning to renew my policy from September £420 with £150xs £21k agreed value 3k miles kept outside on the drive, all mods declared (see my profile for the list)

MSM used to give 5% discount to Pistonheads members or those that were members of the TVR club

Edited by shep1001 on Wednesday 27th August 15:06

[tinman696]

No not yet I'm going to give them a ring this afternoon

Edited by tinman696 on Wednesday 27th August 15:10

[tinman696]

I can see where you're coming from now, just rung MSM and their attitude was completely different to all others I've spoken to so far, very friendly, and laughed when I mentioned the respray and the previous quotes I've had accordingly (although she did say a spectra flair might put it up a little bit but not very much)

Sounds much more promising, they're going to ring me back so fingers crossed

[shep1001]

tinman696 said:

I can see where you're coming from now, just rung MSM and their attitude was completely different to all others I've spoken to so far, very friendly, and laughed when I mentioned the respray and the previous quotes I've had accordingly (although she did say a spectra flair might put it up a little bit but not very much)

Sounds much more promising, they're going to ring me back so fingers crossed

Yep, they have a small office based in Bishops Stortford. Always the same lady called Dawn I deal with. KGM underwrites their policies still I think, whilst it won't be the cheapest you will get what you need for the type of car you have with non of that nonsence of big premium hikes for sensible modifications.

[nfcf]

I moved up to the Birmingham area from the south coast nearly 4 years ago and I ended up picking where I live based on the postcode as it dropped my bike insurance by about £1k (I was 22 at the time). Might be worth looking in B92/Olton (which is where I am now) as it is next to both Sheldon and Yardley with a B rating.

The other big advantage is all houses have wheelie bins so you don't get the mess on collection day you see in some parts of birmingham due to ripped bags.

For insurance I found MSM gave me a decent quote living here consideering my age, 2yrs no claims and a theft claim. Your quote shoud definitely be under £950 because that is about what I'm paying.

[tinman696]

Thanks nfcf I'll check Olton out

Well MSM was a significant improvement on previous quotes - £761 with a spectra flair respray and £666 without, based on living in Yardley (that's with protected no claims and legal cover).

I still have the other 3 companies to try, ran out of time today, and if I'm a bit more careful about location it looks like I should get it down under £650 with the respray, which is a little bit easier to stomach.

Sickening thing is that because my wife's car was hit while parked up in a public carpark earlier this year I can't add her as a named driver unless I go without the no claims protection, which seems a bit harsh given it wasn't in any way her fault

I'm actually starting to have 2nd thoughts about that respray anyway, I was advised it's a pig to match 1 panel if I need any touching up doing, and if I'm honest I really like the Tuscan in a single shade of medium blue, I recon the car below would look just as good with a black/blue interior combination with that colour body.