Flux Insurance
Discussion
Interesting, just done the usual year renewal with Adrian Flux. Been with them for over ten years with the Cerb. This years quote much higher, so I went to confused .com and pretty much every company was giving lower quotes.
Went back to Adrian flux to show them all the lower quotes. Normally at this point they would just price match, but this year they just said no can do, goodbye.
Even mentioning I have four cars and a motorcycle with them did nothing. Anyone else had any problem with flux seemingly pulling out of the TVR market. Usually very good company. No recent changes in circumstances
Went back to Adrian flux to show them all the lower quotes. Normally at this point they would just price match, but this year they just said no can do, goodbye.
Even mentioning I have four cars and a motorcycle with them did nothing. Anyone else had any problem with flux seemingly pulling out of the TVR market. Usually very good company. No recent changes in circumstances
julian64 said:
£210 fully comp, protected no claims for a TVR Cerbera 4.5. Another happy year of motoring
That's more like it - I'm with them too in central London and £242 fully comp with 17 years no claims bonusInterestingly it was cheaper if I added my wife to the policy, so I can never find the keys these days...
robsco said:
Flux were always ludicrously priced when I’ve approached them. Also rude! So I gave up a few years back, MSM have been fantastic to me over the years.
I've never understood peoples animosity to a company. Every time you ring you are coloured by who you speak to. You undoubtedly won't be speaking to the same person twice In your life, so why colour a company depending on who you last talked to. They may not even be employed by the company anymore.I'm not sure who MSM is but I'd be impressed if they consider £210 fully comp protected claim parked on a driveway, with commuting is ludicrous for a Sevenoaks Kent postcode?
I'm not particularly loyal to flux, or any other company for that matter, but I do have to say I've owned my TVR since 2003. And since that time they've matched the lowest quote on confused dot com every single year. I can't tell you what they would be like in the event of an accident on the claims side but I think the above is pretty damned impressive.
Whilst your point is valid Julian, when you speak with three different people on three different occasions and find each one to be difficult, then one does begin to form a general opinion. On the flip side, each time I've dealt with MSM I've found all of the guys there to be pleasant, personable as well as competitively priced. I think I paid £300 or so this year for the Cerb, at 27 years old not a bad shout in my opinion (breakdown inclusive).
robsco said:
Whilst your point is valid Julian, when you speak with three different people on three different occasions and find each one to be difficult, then one does begin to form a general opinion. On the flip side, each time I've dealt with MSM I've found all of the guys there to be pleasant, personable as well as competitively priced. I think I paid £300 or so this year for the Cerb, at 27 years old not a bad shout in my opinion (breakdown inclusive).
Ill give em a try next year . Who are MSM, forgive my ignorance 
julian64 said:
Ill give em a try next year . Who are MSM, forgive my ignorance
Here you go sir:http://msminsurance.co.uk/personal-insurance/motor...
Excellent service for years now.
I switched from Mannings to Footman James 2 years ago. Currently paying £168 for garaged Cerb in Sunny Sussex, 5000 mile limit. UK trackdays are now £60/TD, but seeing as I havent been on track for a few years Im not overly fussed.
Stayed with Mannings for the Euro TD cover for bi annual trips to Spa, but as they dont cover that for free any more couldnt see the point in paying the extra (premium was about £550 iirc)
Stayed with Mannings for the Euro TD cover for bi annual trips to Spa, but as they dont cover that for free any more couldnt see the point in paying the extra (premium was about £550 iirc)
I seriously cringe when people measure insurance companies on price and how nice they are on the phone when they're getting their quote, it seems these individuals have completely forgotten what they are buying and why they are buying it, such naivety never ceases to amaze me... 
The product is insurance chaps! as such you can only measure how good it is (& if it genuinely was good value for money) when you come to make a claim, pretty much everything else about your insurance purchase will quickly become very irrelevant at this point. Cheap has nothing to do with good value, and how a company treats you when you're giving them a shot at your business also has nothing to do with how they treat you when you're making a claim.
Also keep in mind all the companies discussed are brokers not insurers.
Brokers are just selling you a product, and despite their BS marketing claims typically they are not car enthusiasts so don't get sucked in by that either, brokers are sales organisations pure and simple, sales people that could be selling anything and probably are under the cloak of a different Website. In most cases brokers will offer little or no support at the time of the claim other than giving you the telephone number of the company you're actually insured with.
Make no mistake most brokers are really just interested in the sale part of the process, and because they do not actually provide the product they are making their commission from.... their after sales service can often leave a lot to be desired.
If buying solely on price is your thing then go right ahead and take the cheapest quote, after all insurance is a product we all like to think we'll never actually need to test, so lets forget all about what the experience might be if we have need to make a claim. We can now go on forums to brag about how cheap we're insuring our rare and very expensive to (correctly) crash repair fiberglass bodied TVRs.
But a word of warning before you do..... In life, cheap is seldom best!
NB: In my well tested experience, there are exceptions to the commission hungry pish poor after sales business model adopted by most brokers, a better experience can be found with a small friendly family owned business that seem to care about their customers and will definitely look after you when you come to test the product they sold you. I'm referring to MSM, an excellent company already mentioned above by the more savvy contributors on this post
The product is insurance chaps! as such you can only measure how good it is (& if it genuinely was good value for money) when you come to make a claim, pretty much everything else about your insurance purchase will quickly become very irrelevant at this point. Cheap has nothing to do with good value, and how a company treats you when you're giving them a shot at your business also has nothing to do with how they treat you when you're making a claim.
Also keep in mind all the companies discussed are brokers not insurers.
Brokers are just selling you a product, and despite their BS marketing claims typically they are not car enthusiasts so don't get sucked in by that either, brokers are sales organisations pure and simple, sales people that could be selling anything and probably are under the cloak of a different Website. In most cases brokers will offer little or no support at the time of the claim other than giving you the telephone number of the company you're actually insured with.
Make no mistake most brokers are really just interested in the sale part of the process, and because they do not actually provide the product they are making their commission from.... their after sales service can often leave a lot to be desired.
If buying solely on price is your thing then go right ahead and take the cheapest quote, after all insurance is a product we all like to think we'll never actually need to test, so lets forget all about what the experience might be if we have need to make a claim. We can now go on forums to brag about how cheap we're insuring our rare and very expensive to (correctly) crash repair fiberglass bodied TVRs.
But a word of warning before you do..... In life, cheap is seldom best!
NB: In my well tested experience, there are exceptions to the commission hungry pish poor after sales business model adopted by most brokers, a better experience can be found with a small friendly family owned business that seem to care about their customers and will definitely look after you when you come to test the product they sold you. I'm referring to MSM, an excellent company already mentioned above by the more savvy contributors on this post
Dave, without meaning to sound rude, you really can come across as a patronising tool at times.
We are all perfectly aware how brokers work, how insurance works, how a sales department works and that typically a company's behaviour in the event of a claim will likely be different to their behaviour at point of sale - but thank you for the life lesson. I suspect the majority of the contributors to this forum have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of how their insurance company behaves in the event of a claim. I know I don't, and I strongly hope I never find out. Therefore, when arranging my insurance I will make a decision principally on the following:
Level of service/rapport at point of sale (people buy from people)
Level of cover
Agreed value
Price
How can anybody make a decision to purchase car insurance based on their level of service in the event of a claim? Without being put in a position to claim, it's impossible to answer. A low insurance price doesn't equal poor quality of service; nor does paying a higher price guarantee you a higher level of service. If you choose to arrange your cover by some algebraic expression that us mere mortals wouldn't understand, then hats off to you.
We are all perfectly aware how brokers work, how insurance works, how a sales department works and that typically a company's behaviour in the event of a claim will likely be different to their behaviour at point of sale - but thank you for the life lesson. I suspect the majority of the contributors to this forum have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of how their insurance company behaves in the event of a claim. I know I don't, and I strongly hope I never find out. Therefore, when arranging my insurance I will make a decision principally on the following:
Level of service/rapport at point of sale (people buy from people)
Level of cover
Agreed value
Price
How can anybody make a decision to purchase car insurance based on their level of service in the event of a claim? Without being put in a position to claim, it's impossible to answer. A low insurance price doesn't equal poor quality of service; nor does paying a higher price guarantee you a higher level of service. If you choose to arrange your cover by some algebraic expression that us mere mortals wouldn't understand, then hats off to you.
Firstly, all I'm doing is respectfully helping to highlight the clear lack of thought some people demonstrate when buying an insurance product, you may think I'm stating the obvious.... but the only obvious thing about these insurance related posts on PH is many people are clearly just buying on price!
Stating the obvious to those who clearly haven't seen it isn't patronsising... its helpful.
There are may people sharing claim experiences online and even some websites that specialise in providing a platform for such feedback, using this freely available information can quickly reveal the truth and protect you from a bad experience without the need to have that bad experience yourself. Obviously (as with forums) people are more likely to share a bad experience than good, customers are not always right and some may even have an axe to grind.
But anyone gifted with a modicum of common sense will be aware of this, and so be well equipped to filter accordingly.
What we are looking for in such insurance user reviews is not the ranting of one dissatisfied customer, but a pattern, a pattern of repeatable dissatisfaction across a range of individuals. Using this common sense method of looking for patterns is proven very reliable, because typically a business (like a criminal) will repeat their chosen sharp business practices across their entire customer base.
For example if you read three, four or more reviews from different AF customers saying they have all suffered the same criminally high charges to cancel their policy after selling their car mid term, you can be pretty sure AF might try to pull the same stunt on you if you also need to cancel your policy mid term. This is exactly the the type of repeated pattern of sharp business practice you need to look for, and user reviews can genuinely help you avoid them.
In our world of TVR insurance the two companies that regularly review badly with consistently similar stories of repeated sharp practice are Adrian Flux (see above) and Classic Line, well actually in the case of Classic Line it's the underwriter they use (Equity Red Star) that are the issue. It does seem many have had a bad experience making a claim with Equity Red Star and once again the exact same pattern of specific sharp practice is reported, even using our common sense filters its clear an unusually high number of customers have suffered payout avoidance strategies from this underwriter. Often the same excuses for not honoring a claim are being quoted by ERS in very different cases, even the same language is used so its almost like they've been trained that way and they're working from a crib sheet.
See.... there's that pattern of sharp practice I was talking about again! I'm sure there are people out there who've has a good ERS or AF experience, but it's hard to ignore a consistent pattern of sharp practice repeated verbatim by a good number of their customers, assuming that is you've had the foresight to do your due diligence before buying their product.
Clearly from your above statement you weren't aware of all this or you wouldn't have made your rather naive comment, so please don't accuse me of being patronising again, I'm actually being helpful. So you see, these days you don't need to crash to find out the hard way, just like you don't buy a specific car that has a know gearbox design fault... or a mobile phone that the manufacturer will make run slow with software updates.
Seriously, the internet is an amazing thing
Stating the obvious to those who clearly haven't seen it isn't patronsising... its helpful.
robsco said:
How can anybody make a decision to purchase car insurance based on their level of service in the event of a claim? Without being put in a position to claim.
Secondly, and with respect, the above statement is preposterous, embarrassingly so too..... seriously, have you never heard of Google?There are may people sharing claim experiences online and even some websites that specialise in providing a platform for such feedback, using this freely available information can quickly reveal the truth and protect you from a bad experience without the need to have that bad experience yourself. Obviously (as with forums) people are more likely to share a bad experience than good, customers are not always right and some may even have an axe to grind.
But anyone gifted with a modicum of common sense will be aware of this, and so be well equipped to filter accordingly.
What we are looking for in such insurance user reviews is not the ranting of one dissatisfied customer, but a pattern, a pattern of repeatable dissatisfaction across a range of individuals. Using this common sense method of looking for patterns is proven very reliable, because typically a business (like a criminal) will repeat their chosen sharp business practices across their entire customer base.
For example if you read three, four or more reviews from different AF customers saying they have all suffered the same criminally high charges to cancel their policy after selling their car mid term, you can be pretty sure AF might try to pull the same stunt on you if you also need to cancel your policy mid term. This is exactly the the type of repeated pattern of sharp business practice you need to look for, and user reviews can genuinely help you avoid them.
In our world of TVR insurance the two companies that regularly review badly with consistently similar stories of repeated sharp practice are Adrian Flux (see above) and Classic Line, well actually in the case of Classic Line it's the underwriter they use (Equity Red Star) that are the issue. It does seem many have had a bad experience making a claim with Equity Red Star and once again the exact same pattern of specific sharp practice is reported, even using our common sense filters its clear an unusually high number of customers have suffered payout avoidance strategies from this underwriter. Often the same excuses for not honoring a claim are being quoted by ERS in very different cases, even the same language is used so its almost like they've been trained that way and they're working from a crib sheet.
See.... there's that pattern of sharp practice I was talking about again! I'm sure there are people out there who've has a good ERS or AF experience, but it's hard to ignore a consistent pattern of sharp practice repeated verbatim by a good number of their customers, assuming that is you've had the foresight to do your due diligence before buying their product.
Clearly from your above statement you weren't aware of all this or you wouldn't have made your rather naive comment, so please don't accuse me of being patronising again, I'm actually being helpful. So you see, these days you don't need to crash to find out the hard way, just like you don't buy a specific car that has a know gearbox design fault... or a mobile phone that the manufacturer will make run slow with software updates.
Seriously, the internet is an amazing thing
Chimp, I think you need to step back from the keyboard as you haven't understood why some people have insurance.
I don't have insurance to make a claim. I have insurance as the CHEAPEST possible to comply with the law. I don't need to know what the service would be like in an accident because I don't claim. Its there to stay legal and I assume the company is competent under law to do that.
There is a reason I have multiple vehicles all with over twenty years of legal motoring and no claims, and its not to find out who provides the best service in times of a crash. I don't need a like for like car, legal insurance or a key finding service. I don't need anyone to patch up a wing, or remove a dent because I am a car enthusiast who over the years has spent money on tools and educating myself to be able to cope with anything other than catastrophe, and the road sense to avoid catastrophe 'touch wood'.
As we speak a car in my garage has a wing being replaced and a new headlight cluster going in because I like to keep my cars pristine.
If I had an accident I would be paying probably an £800 excess followed by a substantive increase in insurances for all the other cars I own over the following five years. That would have to be a fairly reasonable accident even on purely financial grounds.
So its worth remembering we aren't all the same on here and we do things in different ways. Coming on here telling us what you think is stupid or ignorant doesn't necessarily make you look smart.
I don't have insurance to make a claim. I have insurance as the CHEAPEST possible to comply with the law. I don't need to know what the service would be like in an accident because I don't claim. Its there to stay legal and I assume the company is competent under law to do that.
There is a reason I have multiple vehicles all with over twenty years of legal motoring and no claims, and its not to find out who provides the best service in times of a crash. I don't need a like for like car, legal insurance or a key finding service. I don't need anyone to patch up a wing, or remove a dent because I am a car enthusiast who over the years has spent money on tools and educating myself to be able to cope with anything other than catastrophe, and the road sense to avoid catastrophe 'touch wood'.
As we speak a car in my garage has a wing being replaced and a new headlight cluster going in because I like to keep my cars pristine.
If I had an accident I would be paying probably an £800 excess followed by a substantive increase in insurances for all the other cars I own over the following five years. That would have to be a fairly reasonable accident even on purely financial grounds.
So its worth remembering we aren't all the same on here and we do things in different ways. Coming on here telling us what you think is stupid or ignorant doesn't necessarily make you look smart.
The internet is indeed an amazing thing, you are right. It would appear from the internet that you have purchased insurance previously through MSM, based rather hypocritically on communication and competitive price, the two points you pulled me up on during your earlier essay.
If I based my own decisions on the experiences of others and allowed myself to be shied away based on the feedback of customers who are more likely to report negative experiences than positive ones (such is the way with reviews), then I never would have bought a TVR, or an Alfa Romeo. I'd have run to the hills and bought a Porsche. As it happens, life doesn't work this way and we all make our own decisions, not all of them correct. If you want to spend hour after hour poring over page after page of internet feedback before ever making a decision, then that is your prerogative - but please don't state the way I purchase anything as "naive".
Take a look at the above posts, posted by our own fellow, naive TVR drivers. What are the two biggest factors present in any post? Price, and communication.
If I based my own decisions on the experiences of others and allowed myself to be shied away based on the feedback of customers who are more likely to report negative experiences than positive ones (such is the way with reviews), then I never would have bought a TVR, or an Alfa Romeo. I'd have run to the hills and bought a Porsche. As it happens, life doesn't work this way and we all make our own decisions, not all of them correct. If you want to spend hour after hour poring over page after page of internet feedback before ever making a decision, then that is your prerogative - but please don't state the way I purchase anything as "naive".
Take a look at the above posts, posted by our own fellow, naive TVR drivers. What are the two biggest factors present in any post? Price, and communication.
julian64 said:
Chimp, I think you need to step back from the keyboard as you haven't understood why some people have insurance, I don't have insurance to make a claim.
Seriously, did you really say that? No body in their right mind wants to make a claim, clearly people buy insurance to cover themselves against the high potential cost of situations that are neither of their planning or making.julian64 said:
I have insurance as the CHEAPEST possible to comply with the law. I don't need to know what the service would be like in an accident because I don't claim. Its there to stay legal and I assume the company is competent under law to do that.
Great stuff, insurance companies most love you, you are very profitable business for them, but have you ever considered what happens if your car is stolen and you find your CHEAPEST insurer refuses to replace the car at it's true value (very common), or worse still you end up in a wrangle over small print when your CHEAPEST insurer tries every stunt in the book to avoid paying out at all? What happens if they write the car off because they value it low in the market and so beyond economical repair? These things go on all the time, there are good insurance companies and those who are verging on being crooks. Some slide off the salvage to their pet salvage partner and take a nice back hander, while at the same time leave you holding a cheque that could never buy you a TVR in the same condition as yours was before the accident. There are many such profiteering schemes in the world of insurance, these are what I refer to as sharp practice, you can however avoid the bad guys with a bit of research, but if you just buy on price you may just find you've fallen in their arms!julian64 said:
There is a reason I have multiple vehicles all with over twenty years of legal motoring and no claims, and its not to find out who provides the best service in times of a crash. I don't need a like for like car, legal insurance or a key finding service. I don't need anyone to patch up a wing, or remove a dent because I am a car enthusiast who over the years has spent money on tools and educating myself to be able to cope with anything other than catastrophe, and the road sense to avoid catastrophe 'touch wood'.
I think you'll find most would choose a quality insurance policy over 'touching wood'. I and most others aren't interested in car hire or key finding, this is why I didn't mention it, people really just want their TVR repaired properly by someone who knows and understands TVRs.julian64 said:
As we speak a car in my garage has a wing being replaced and a new headlight cluster going in because I like to keep my cars pristine. If I had an accident I would be paying probably an £800 excess followed by a substantive increase in insurances for all the other cars I own over the following five years. That would have to be a fairly reasonable accident even on purely financial grounds.
An £800 excess 
, that's strong! no wonder you're not keen on claiming. As we all should know you can always reduce your premium by taking a higher excess because that's one way insurance companies discourage claims. Even with the far more common £100-£200 excess we see on TVR policies this and the fear of premium increases are definitely designed to stop smaller claims, and it works. But what if the average TVR owner had an accident that required a new half front end (very common), the bill can easily exceed £5k with paint, so in this case only the retarded would choose not to claim on their policy.... because that's what insurance is for.julian64 said:
So its worth remembering we aren't all the same on here and we do things in different ways. Coming on here telling us what you think is stupid or ignorant doesn't necessarily make you look smart.
Absolutely, but you must accept you're hardly representative of the majority are you? My message is clearly not for the very few people who repair their own TVR bodywork, my message is intended for the majority who read these pages. I think you'll find most people who have insurance would want to be reassured the product they are buying will actually work as advertised if they did have an accident. I'll also stick my neck out here by making the very reasonable assumption most people reading this post neither have access to a professional body shop, or the skills, or the time to repair their own TVR themselves in the event of a collision, which lets face it takes specialist paint and composite skills that can take years to learn.My point is clear, true, and very logical... so I have no idea why some should choose to attack it? The truth is many of us just look at price when buying insurance and fail to research what they're actually getting for their money, I'm just highlighting this. Of course you only really find learn the quality of your policy for yourself should you be unfortunate enough to make a claim... unless that is you follow my advice and do some basic research to canvas the experiences of others. This often overlooked and simple bit of due diligence can save people a lot of frustration should the worse happen, sadly it's something many overlook as they become fixated with securing the cheapest quote.
It's a sound logical point eloquently made and offered in good faith in the hope it might help certain people think and reconsider their 'Buy on Price' approach to obtaining car insurance, as such it makes little sense why some have chosen to attack the point
Rest assured unlike others I'm not attacking anyone here, all I'm doing is highlighting something that for some strange reason gets overlooked when buying insurance, ie the claim experience. This forum is great for sharing our experiences both good (& if done skillfully) the bad too, so rather than attacking our fellow enthusiasts wouldn't it make more sense and be way more helpful to share our feedback and experiences of the usual suspect TVR brokers and insurers? Wouldn't that be more meaningful and helpful than just coming on and saying, I insured my TVR for £225 this year, which lets face it is meaningless information without also sharing post code, age and claim history too.
These are all the reasons I made my point and also why I was careful to end my first comment with praise for MSM, what happened after that was the typical aggressive and unnecessary key board warrior nonsense that sadly so often pollutes and dilutes the positive contributions made on this forum, such negativity is both sad and laughable in equal measure, especially when you stop and consider we all share the same passion.
I’d not claimed in nearly 30 years of driving.
I chose Manning as they advertised in Sprint
Very nice people to deal with, Tvr knowledgeable and recognise our specialists.
unbelievable as I’m a driving god
but I bumped my Tvr 18 months into ownership on a Saturday. Contacted Manning on Monday, car was at Central Tvr within a day and no problems at all in having the car completely repainted.
Premium went up very little the next year.
I've since looked and indeed some are a bit cheaper but Manning were great and relieved a lot of stress when going though this cock up.
I’d recommend them highly having had a claim.
I’m also of the mind price is important as I’d never expect to claim but you just never know.
I chose Manning as they advertised in Sprint
Very nice people to deal with, Tvr knowledgeable and recognise our specialists.
unbelievable as I’m a driving god
but I bumped my Tvr 18 months into ownership on a Saturday. Contacted Manning on Monday, car was at Central Tvr within a day and no problems at all in having the car completely repainted. Premium went up very little the next year.
I've since looked and indeed some are a bit cheaper but Manning were great and relieved a lot of stress when going though this cock up.
I’d recommend them highly having had a claim.
I’m also of the mind price is important as I’d never expect to claim but you just never know.
Classic Chim said:
I’d not claimed in nearly 30 years of driving.
I chose Manning as they advertised in Sprint
Very nice people to deal with, Tvr knowledgeable and recognise our specialists.
unbelievable as I’m a driving god but I bumped my Tvr 18 months into ownership on a Saturday. Contacted Manning on Monday, car was at Central Tvr within a day and no problems at all in having the car completely repainted.
Premium went up very little the next year.
I've since looked and indeed some are a bit cheaper but Manning were great and relieved a lot of stress when going though this cock up.
I’d recommend them highly having had a claim.
I’m also of the mind price is important as I’d never expect to claim but you just never know.
Good feedback mate, ship happens.... that's why we have insurance I chose Manning as they advertised in Sprint
Very nice people to deal with, Tvr knowledgeable and recognise our specialists.
unbelievable as I’m a driving god
but I bumped my Tvr 18 months into ownership on a Saturday. Contacted Manning on Monday, car was at Central Tvr within a day and no problems at all in having the car completely repainted. Premium went up very little the next year.
I've since looked and indeed some are a bit cheaper but Manning were great and relieved a lot of stress when going though this cock up.
I’d recommend them highly having had a claim.
I’m also of the mind price is important as I’d never expect to claim but you just never know.
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