Insurance for Griff test drive ?

[lordofthewings]

I am looking for temporary Fully Comp insurance to cover me during a Griff test drive (vendor's insistence, but sensible). The insurance for my S3 would only cover me Third Party, and having phoned around and Googled lots of insurers, I get replies like unavailable due to the specialist nature of the vehicle, and/or my age (I'm retired). I tried the PH link but that just takes me to price comparison websites, which is not what I require in this instance. I would add that this has not been an issue at dealers, but currently I am also considering private sellers. Any suggestions on insurance please ?

[steve-V8s]

Can you purchase an extension to your existing policy? Or try one of the brokers rather than the companies themselves, people like Manning uk or Footman James.

[lordofthewings]

Tried that already thanks, same outcome as above

[FFMan]

i tried to get my best man insured on my Griff for my wedding day, but gave up.

Unless he held an F1 super license it wasn't going to happen,

[lordofthewings]

So how the heck does this work then ? Not test-driving a prospective new acquisition before parting with your cash is a non-starter, so making an assumption that say 50 (one a week-ish) Griffs change hands a year in the UK, and estimate that half of those are private sales -- and multiply that by all the types of performance cars out there -- that makes hundreds of similar situations each year. So don't some sellers care about A.N.Other potentially wrecking their pride and joy ? Or do the prospective buyers already have a multi-car performance car policy ? Or is there some other insurance wangle that I haven't spotted yet ? Are there any statistics from within the trade as to how many test-drives end with an accident ? There must be an opportunity for an underwriter/broker to come up with an innovative insurance product that gives a potential buyer the chance to test drive up to say five cars for say an hour each, and price it accordingly.

[phillpot]

A ride in the passenger seat was good enough for me.

[lordofthewings]

Surely a smiley was missing ? Perhaps I'm odd but when I buy a car (by which I mean a TVR) I need to feel and experience the clutch, brakes, gear-change, throttle response, suspension, rattles, floppy mirrors etc....... And for a £25K+ car in the segment I'm considering, I will just walk away if the chassis, body, interior and engine bay don't do it for me.

[Jurgen Schmidt]

I bought from a dealer, and so was able to drive it, as well as being a passenger in it for half the journey.

I would have bought it anyway based on just the passenger experience, that did it for me...

Good luck though, they're wonderful cars!

[MRichards99]

Would something like tempcover.com be what you're looking for? I used it to test drive a Yaris and then to bring another one home after buying it privately. Similar uses, very different cars

[anonymous-user]

I didn't test drive most of my recent cars - mostly because I'd done my research and they were all bargains, and I trusted the sellers.

Westfield - bought on sight - great deal . Insured it and drove home. (there really isn't much to these type of cars!) - No problems at all.

Westfield V8 - owner let me go round the block on my 3rd party insurance - trusting older gent. Bought it. Bargain. - Only problem was overheating at traffic lights - he warned me about this. Had new water pump pulley made to make it spin at the right speed (had a "racing" water pump pulley on it)

Westfield Cosworth - owner took me round the block as passenger, bought it. Drove home. No problems at all.

TVR Griffith - spoke to last servicing garage (Agger), all sounded perfect. Saw car, checked it over roughly, bought it, drove home. Bargain again (mostly as the prev owner didn't have the motivation to finish minor finishing touches). - Only problem was heater fan failed after 1 day.

I think with a lot of these things, a test drive isn't going to tell you much more than a passenger ride will tell you, unless you genuinely have no idea what it is like to drive one and am not sure if you want one - in which case I'd 100% want you FC insured in mine :-).

Sold many cars and not once did the buyer test drive them

[phillpot]

RogerDodger said:

I think with a lot of these things, a test drive isn't going to tell you much more than a passenger ride will tell you

lordofthewings said:

floppy mirrors

phillpot said:

[mart 63]

I'm on my 7th tvr and never had a test drive. Though Quinny had test drives in both Griffs i went to look at. I bought the one he didnt like

[jay-kay-em]

I would never let any tyre kicker drive my car - and likewise, I wouldn't expect to drive anyone else's.

Even if he waved some piece of paper in front of me with "cheapo-day-insure.com" written on it... erm no thanks.

As long as the driver/seller responds to your commands - go flat out (clutch slip), brake hard, with you keeping an eye on the temp gauge/oil pressure etc. then you cover most bases.

There's an argument you can concentrate more on noises and sounds, instead of being occupied/consumed with the process of driving someone else's alien-to-you car.

[lordofthewings]

lordofthewings said:

I will just walk away if the chassis, body, interior and engine bay don't do it for me.

Thanks for all those perspectives. I just walked away from today's viewing....I shall be patient.

[ray von]

If you turn up at mine with your piece of paper stating you have insurance for a test drive in my £30k car and you crash it and cause £10k worth of damage what would happen? The insurance would pay to fix the car but would you buy it at £30k I would suggest you'd run a mile.
So I'm left trying to sell my car, is it still worth £30k? is it bks and that's why nobody would be driving my car on a test drive unless the £30k was in my bank, then if you drive it,don't crash it and don't like it you can have it back.