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

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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.

[tinman696]

I'm hoping my 2nd year's insurance will drop too on the basis this will be the first really high performance car I'll have owned so that goes against me a bit (a montego turbo and a couple V6's don't really come close !!)

I was thinking of the spectra fx emerald/blue ideally but will have a look at the spectra flair lite thanks

[tinman696]

It sure is, that looks awesome !