Does Fitting an OEM Hard Top Constitute a 'Modification'?

[GC8]

I believe that the answer is no, no more than fitting a roof rack, but I suspect that someone in an insurance call/admin centre would rush to disagree.

I cant find any FOS decisions about original hard tops particularly, although they do seem to dismiss frivilous attempts at claim avoidance.

[Dog Star]

But surely the car was supplied with said removeable hard top? Wasn't it?

[Matbmx1]

It's a funny one isn't it because sometimes the car would be modified and sometimes it wouldn't be.

Probably muddied further if it was an official hardtop but you bought it secondhand or at a laterdate.

[GC8]

Yes its an original hard top, manufactured and supplied by Mazda. Whether it was supplied in the UK as a hard top optioned car is a route that some insurers have tried to go down in the past...

With some firms (Admiral/Elephant?) stupidly insisting that optional floor mats constitute a 'modification' , I fear that a common sense approach can no longer be relied upon.

[MX7]

Why don't you ask your insurance company? No one here can give you a definitive answer about what they'll say.

[cptsideways]

Ask the insurance co if removing the hardtop is a modification first


I should damn well hope not!

[Superhoop]

With a hard top being somewhere north of a grand, I wouldn't necessarily call it a modification, but I would say that it should be declared to the insurance company

If your car was stolen, surely you'd want he cost of said hard top reimbursed in he insurance payout? If you've never tod them the car has one fitted, why should they pay out?

[Mr Dave]

If you fit it it will put up your insurance. It is a modification after all.

If you dont fit it it will put up your insurance. It is harder to break into the car with it fitted after all.

[GC8]

Ive heard about people being chraged when they fit bigger brakes, then charged again for removing them..... Its a lark, at best.

Im renewing, so 'ask your insurance company' isnt really practical advice, in this instance.

[bazking69]

I'd say no. It's an OEM accessory, not a modification.
If anything, it offers greater security and is a bonus.

[Nedzilla]

I would say an OE hard top is just an optional extra.I have never been ask when insuring a car what optional extras have been fitted.

This is a bit of a strange one really as with something like a £50k audi or BMW you could easily add at least £10k or more to the car if you ticked all the options from one car over another yet this is never seen an issue when getting insurance.Yet if you added a £20 'extra' or modification to the car yourself and didn't declare it,it could nullify your insurance.

[Fastdruid]

bazking69 said:

I'd say no. It's an OEM accessory, not a modification.
If anything, it offers greater security and is a bonus.

But people have been charged extra for example for different OEM wheels offered as an option.

Lets face it insurance companies will charge extra for anything they can get away with.

[GC8]

My thinking too.

[Platinum]

No charge when I bought and fitted one. But that is only because the car came with one from the factory (and then someone must have sold it on.)

I do have to inform them when I swap back to the softtop.

[Durzel]

Had a S2000 with an OEM hard top (the S2000 GT was the same car supplied from the factory with hard-top), declared as a hard-topped model on insurance, never had any issues. The V5 didn't differentiate between models though ("S2000" was the only model, "GT" didn't seem to be an official designation)

[poing]

2 hours on a Sunday afternoon trying to get my insurance company to understand what a hard top was and in the end for £10 we settled on it being called an external cosmetic modification. It just wasn't worth the effort, even after speaking to his supervisor and describing what it does 20 times over.
I got it changed once I got to speak to a UK call centre.