Chipped turbo cars and insurance

[deskjet640c]

Say you bought a 2nd hand car that had been superchipped but the previous owner did not declare it and therefore you were not aware. I guess something like a 30bhp increase might not be noticeable if it was the first car of the type you had driven and therefore had nothing to compare it to.

I guess it is the new owners responsibility to check they are running std boost before they insure it as a std unmodified car - but how many people are going to do that?

Then you have an accident. Do insurance companies often check for modifications before they pay out?

[stevieb]

In some cases the insurance does check for mods, if it a car that is known to be modded.

[Codswallop]

Something I have often wondered too. Techincally, even factory fitted optional extras need to be declared, but how many people know what the spec on a 5+ year old car was meant to have been when new?

There was a thread on here a couple of weeks back where a PHer had an old Passat written off, and the insurer refused to payout more for the car because it had undeclared factory fit options like leather etc.

I suppose you could argue that you submitted the insurance application as honestly as you knew, but if the insurer can weasel out of paying, I'm sure they will.

[Rude-boy]

Whilst we await someone who knows the correct answer...

When I bought the 968 I knew that there would be non standard items on the car. You just don't find something like that which hasn't. I called the broker and made it specifically clear to them that this was a car I expected to have had modifications made to but I had no idea what these might actually be.

I have since declared all of those which I am aware of and feel that if the worst were to happen and something were found on the car which I have no knowledge of I'd stand a better than average chance of holding them to the contract.

[deskjet640c]

Fair enough, if it the car you were buying had non-standard alloys or an aftermarket bodykit it would be pretty obvious and I'd declare these to the insurance company when I got a quote - before buying the car.

I'm talking specifically a chip modification which to the human eye would look no different. The only way you would find out I guess would be to take the car to a main dealer and ask them to plug it in a test the ecu - which I guess would cost £££'s

[Roger Dodger]

Are you trying to get away with it?

[deskjet640c]

This thread is purely hypothetical you understand

I can see that by the letter of the law it is the new owners responsibility. Theoretically it should have taken it to a dealers and tested before being insured as standard. But nobody does that!

It just seems very harsh to me. How many other 2nd hand cars are out there which have subtle modications which potentialy void their insurance?

[falkster]

I can't see them checking but if they did, insurance companies don't need to anything. You'd have to prove you didn't know.
I had a claim declined because the insurance company said I never told them my car was LHD even though I did and the fact that the car only came in LHD.

[NiceCupOfTea]

I think it's very easy to buy a car and not know it's chipped. There's no way of checking really as it's just software written to an EPROM. Even on older cars, how are you supposed to know if somebody has turned up the boost.

When I bought my MX-5 it had been modified. Girl I bought it from had no idea and would have declared it as standard to insurers. Was she insured? Who knows, but you can't blame the poor girl for not knowing the exact spec that the car should have been from the factory, especially as it was an import. Hell, when I went to insure it they had no "S-Spec" on their books! How the hell are you supposed to get it insured correctly if they don't have the variant on their books!? I have declared all mods, natch.

[davepoth]

Insurance policies normally have "to the best of your knowledge" in them; something like the car being chipped, or different OEM alloys, or similar, should be fine so long as you don't know about it. But as soon as you know it's a problem.