Monday 5th March 2007

Insurers gouge SUV owners

Weight is now a factor, they say

---

2007 Land Rover Discovery: it'll cost more

Insurers plan to penalise SUVs by adding a vehicle's weight to the factors they use to calculate motoring insurance premiums.

It means for example that the premiums for SUVs such as the VW Touareg and Land Rover Discovery will be pushed into an even higher price bracket.

According to the FT, the Association of British Insurers sees weight as a contributing factor to the risk of a payout, because of the higher likelihood of injury to third parties.

Admiral's underwriting director David Stephens said that he expected "a substantial increase" in premiums, with rises as high as 15 to 20 per cent for the heaviest motors.

It's all part of the ABI's increase in insurance categories from today's 20 up to 50.

Maybe the risks are higher -- unless you're an underwriter it's hard to know. But while pressure to reduce the weight of today's increasingly bulky cars is welcome, it's hard not to be cynical about a move that doesn't reduce premiums for lighter cars such as the Lotus Elise.

It's also hard to wonder just how much difference it'll make. In its latest financial newsletter, out today, Porsche said it was expecting runaway sales of the new Cayenne. And one SUV dealer, Wimbledon 4x4, has just reported its best sales month ever, with the group saying that it didn't expect an extra £50 a month on insurance to affect the sales of a £30,000-plus SUV.

As ever, you'd have to suspect that the main winners will be the insurance companies.

[jimbro1000]

! Just what I need...

[anonymous-user]

Must admit the thought of being hit in my punto my a Range Rover is a bit scarry, it would write my car off, I can see where they are coming from.
But I bet they wont offset the people with small safe cars!
Bloodsucking insurers!

[oagent]

Great news. Lets hope they apply it to people carriers too and help rid our roads of these small lorries.

[fatboy b]

Excellent news if it stops them being driven by the wankers who sit 6 foot from my arse trying to intimidate me.

Edited by fatboy b on Monday 5th March 12:13

[jimbro1000]

fatboy b said:

Excellent news if it stops them being driven by the wankers who sit 6 foot from my arse trying to intimidate me.

Edited by fatboy b on Monday 5th March 12:13

No it makes them more likely to be driven by such idiots. Putting the idiots into smaller cars isn't going to make them drive any further away either...

[PhantomPH]

fatboy b said:

Excellent news if it stops them being driven by the wankers who sit 6 foot from my arse trying to intimidate me.

Go faster, then.

Edited by PhantomPH on Monday 5th March 12:17

[victormeldrew]

MonkeyMatt said:

Must admit the thought of being hit in my punto my a Range Rover is a bit scarry, it would write my car off, I can see where they are coming from.
But I bet they wont offset the people with small safe cars!
Bloodsucking insurers!

Being hit by anything isn't pleasant. The damage inflicted by a heavy car may be greater to yours, but presumably less to theirs, and a heavier car will (hopefully) have more scope for impact absorption.

The pertinent questions are
1/ is an accident any more likely if you are driving a 4x4
2/ is the overall cost greater if an accident happens
3/ is that overall cost already reflected in the higher premiums of the 4x4 already.

My take would be
1/ no (better visibilty trumps worse manoeverability)
2/ probably not (small cheap car cheaper to repair than large expensive one)
3/ almost certainly

Bottom line is this is just insurance companies jumping on a passing bandwagon. They know luxury car owners are not going to trade down so they are ripe to be fleeced.

[Oddball RS]

Lets be 100% honest here its just a way of penalising one particular group, for a very superficial reason.

Do light weight cars get a premium reduction? what you mean no............

Does commercial insurance go on weight too?

Whats next? colour of car? middle name of driver?

[hayesey]

just another excuse for insurance companies to charge more. Are they going to start reducing premiums for small, light cars then? I very much doubt it.

[PhantomPH]

To quote absolute reality - my mother-in-law is one of the Chelsea tractor brigade. She drives a horrible, mean, evil, death-bringing Range Rover Sport TDV6. I guarantee right now, she is hardly likely to tailgate a single soul and any damage from a bump will be tiny...as she drives at 30mph everywhere.

Seriously, she is the most careful driver I have ever encountered. It's not about the car being too big either - she bought it so she could get the grand kids in with all the toys and feel safe and able to get out of her estate in the winter. So she bought the one she liked. Good for her.

To institute a belief that these cars are evil and the folks who drive them the worst kind of eco-terrorist, bad-driving bastards, is complete ing wank IMHO. Get a life, a better job and a car you ing like.

/rant

[s6boy]

I seem to remember a Gordon Murray article in Evo about 6 months ago putting this forward as an idea- can't remember if it was for cutting polution or congestion- must dig it out, maybe he secretly works for Admiral!

[Nostrils]

ABI - WHO ARE THEY, THATS RIGHT A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO ARE ONLY THERE AND ARE SUPPORTED AND PAID FOR BY THE INSURANCE COMPANIES

ABI = LICENCE TO PRINT MONEY.

A catagory increased to more than double. This means that not just SUV's are going to be more expensive, all our insurances will be more expensive. In my 20yrs + driving, my insurance has never gone down from 1 year to the next at renewal.

Its all a CON

[v8dnw]

Seems very strange, as surely all premiums are based on the frequency of accidents/theft per vehicle model, driver history, location and cost of repairs. Is weight really a factor that can be isolated? SUVs haven't suddenly got heavier, but have been getting heavier along with all other vehicles as all the safety equipment expected is piled on.

Of course, the prices we pay for anything are subject to "what the market will take" - and it seems that, like road pricing, certain engine-sized parking permits, etc, insurers have climbed on the "squeeze the SUV driver bandwagon" to extract as much money as possible from drivers who seem to not be very price sensitive, regardless of the underlying factors.

Bless the free market.

[alfanatic]

fatboy b said:

Excellent news if it stops them being driven by the wankers who sit 6 foot from my arse trying to intimidate me.

Edited by fatboy b on Monday 5th March 12:13

Yeah I've been followed by a few of those, but then again I've been followed equally closely by other cars too, and trucks. It's not the vehicle that's the problem but the driver.

I always increase following distance when being tailgated, and if I'm really lucky and find myself approaching a traffic light that turns orange, I stand on the brakes briefly while downshifting,(trying not to get rear ended of course) then accelerate across the intersection. If timed well, it leaves the muppet stranded at the lights, hopefully with a raised heart rate...

When done wrong, the tailgater just gets more aggressive, but when done right, it's really satisfying

[andym31]

This news is not good for many of us who have SUV's. I can tell from personal experience that in the UK it is still cheaper to have a SUV than in other parts of continetal Europe.

I shall share my example of the Netherlands where the government will tax vehicles by weight and type of fuel. In essence if you have a diesel, you pay more than petrol and if your car is an SUV, you can expct a bit more to be added to your quartely road tax bill. Suffice to say that if I look at the roadtax here in the UK 195 GBP PA as last I paid, I am now paying upon average 5 time more that in road tax but not in Insurance.

All I see is that some day SUV's will be priced out of the market in Europe and their popularity will drop. This would be quite unfortunate for large families and people in rural communities who rely on these vehicles.

[SLACKER]

My partner drives a Mercedes ML320 and I would say she has a much better chance of avoiding an accident because she is higher up she can see over other cars. She doesn't tailgate as the V6 is so powerful we just overtake if we want to in fact I would say that since having this car our driving has become more relaxed and the stress is greatly reduced which leads to better concentration.

How about higher insurance for cars with no steering wheel controls for the stereo or ones without auto dimm rear view mirrors. Both of these features allow your concentration to stay on the road.

It's just another way of demonising the 4x4 drivers so all the other car drivers have someone of their own to hate rather than directing their anger to the politicians who are screwing motorists over. We don't live in the SE and the roads around here are rural and liable to flooding and are rather crap so we run a 4x4.

I drive an AMG SLK which is small light and goes like stink and produces more CO2 than the ML so am I also a demon driver? The other thing is that both cars have awesome brakes and can stop a lot quicker than your average joe mobile so maybe we could have a reduction in premium for the better braking performance.

[fwdracer]

Newton's 2nd Law F = MA (Force = Mass x Acceleration).

The amount of force in any collision is equal to vehicle mass x its acceleration (constant). Time to face some facts. That 30mph bump in your Disco/Rangie/Cayenne is going to f*ck much more up (damage + risk to human life etc) than the chap having the same accident in his Fiat Seicento. The energy to be dissapated is far greater - It is a f*cking law of Physics.

That damage that can be inflicted is now being viewed as variable in car insurance and one as a Heavy car/4x4 owner you'll have to pay for

My insurance group has just gone down on pro-rata bassis in the new rating system
However the premium will doubtless go up/unaffected - the insurance companies won't ever lose out....

Edited by fwdracer on Monday 5th March 12:50

Edited by fwdracer on Monday 5th March 12:52

[JR]

Oddball RS said:

Lets be 100% honest here its just a way of penalising one particular group, for a very superficial reason.

Do light weight cars get a premium reduction? what you mean no............

...

Whats next? colour of car? middle name of driver?

Nail, head.

[knowley]

This is fantastic news as I assume my 500kg car will start costing less to insure

SLACKER said:

My partner drives a Mercedes ML320 and I would say she has a much better chance of avoiding an accident because she is higher up she can see over other cars.

Yeah right, so high up you can't see small cars and kids on push bikes! 4x4s are an obstruction on the roads and therefore only farmers and boat tow'ers should be allowed them

Edited by knowley on Monday 5th March 12:49

[ingrowtn]

MonkeyMatt said:

Must admit the thought of being hit in my punto my a Range Rover is a bit scarry

Then buy a Range Rover, like I did, and have no such worries.

Seriously, though, I can't see light cars getting lower premiums either, because when a big car hits it (or it hits a big car), the damage is worse - so premiums increase. Solely a method to increase money to the insurance company.