Elephant car insurance

[brendonj]

I've heard rumours but are they really that bad?

I have spent hours ringing around 14 insurance companies reccommended on PH and so far for a 355 spider elephant are lightyears cheaper (at £900) vs the next best offer of £1700.
It just sounds a little bit too good to be true.

Any/all comments appreciated.

Cheers,
Brendon

[Mr_C]

they've always been good for me (on my Elise) but I've never had to claim.

[chim_knee]

Have you tried SwiftCover? - I was with Elephant and moved to SwiftCover when I got the X5 (not in the league of your car, admittedly!!). They were significantly cheaper than Elephant.

[spidermanUK]

TBH particularly with "specialist" cars you do "get what you pay for"! Your first question should be whether or not you, the policyholder get to choose the repairer. If you were unlucky enough to have a crash would you want it repaired by just any old body shop?

The best insurance is provided by Chubb, Zurich Private Clients, and AIG in that order. They needn't be the most expensive either, I pay £725 per year for 2 drivers on my 355

[Jonny5]

yes they are aweful, take clives advice. Chubb or Zurich are the only insurers i'd entertain after making a claim with Elephant

[muzzer79]

Jonny5 said:

yes they are aweful, take clives advice. Chubb or Zurich are the only insurers i'd entertain after making a claim with Elephant

AVOID AVOID AVOID.

They're all very well and good until you have to make a claim.

I had a no-fault accident in Jan 2004 and didn't get my Audi back until May 2004. And the tin-pot repairer they used I wouldn't have trusted them to put together a Duplo set.
Basically, they've got all the customer service skills of a gnu.

[Jonny5]

To clarify , I'm talking about Chubb Fleet and Zurich Private Clients policies. Bespoke, customer service driven policies where they insure all your risk

On the chubb policy , you choose the repairer.....

Edited by Jonny5 on Tuesday 6th June 17:22

[brendonj]

Thanks all, I have been having a look at topics with elephant in the topic from general gassing and the opinion appears to be stay away from them with a higher value car.

Jonny5, do you have the phone numbers for chubb and zurich (and do you know if they'll wrap home contents insurance in?)

Many thanks,
Brendon

[spidermanUK]

brendonj said:

Thanks all, I have been having a look at topics with elephant in the topic from general gassing and the opinion appears to be stay away from them with a higher value car.

Jonny5, do you have the phone numbers for chubb and zurich (and do you know if they'll wrap home contents insurance in?)

Many thanks,
Brendon

That's the real trick to getting the best from any insurer...give them ALL your risks, cars, buildings, contents,boat, holiday home,travel etc.etc.

Chubb and Zurich both specialise in covering everything , and there are NO forms to fill in, they actually visit you and do their own valuations so that there's never a risk of being under-insured. I've used both Co.s, Chubb's cover is slightly better, but much more expensive than Zurich. Chubb for instance gave Comp motor cover on ANY of my cars for ANY driver regardless of age!

When I had a windscreen claim on my 360, Zurich sent a transporter to collect the car and got Maranello to replace the screen, and transportered it back, all because I didn't want to drive 10 miles to Luton to have RAC do it. That's the service you pay for.

The only thing that matters with insurance is the premium........until you have a claim, then it sorts out the good Co.s from the rest!

If you want to pm me, I'll pass on my Broker's details.

[guymarks]

Jonny5 pointed me in the direction of Nowell and Richards for insurance on our Bentley and they have been excellent (tel [phone]). They found a good chubb policy for me...

[lambojim]

Agree with Jonny5 - Chubb are the daddy when it comes to actually claiming.#

I've been quoted £2000 for my forthcoming F430 which isn't that much more than some of the Micky Mouse policies out there.

You don't want to be claiming through Elephant - I waited for 4 months for my 993 to come back from a real Phil Mitchell, 'under the arches' type of gaff...

[Jonny5]

lambojim said:

Agree with Jonny5 - Chubb are the daddy when it comes to actually claiming.#

I've been quoted £2000 for my forthcoming F430 which isn't that much more than some of the Micky Mouse policies out there.

The other features of the Chubb policy which sold it for me are, like for like courtesy car in event of a claim (was offered a Micra with Elephant when new GT3 got nicked!)

All the cars are covered for ANY driver, so that's the daily driver, the Lamborghini etc

I am insured Fully comp to drive *any* car - no need to inform them, so could borrow an Enzo if I was friends with Frank Mountain

[BCA]

Do chubb specialise in just Ferraris/Masers or will they cover TVR's too??

I only ask as I cannot get added as a named driver on dads policy (which would be awesome for weekends at lemans etc) by normal insurance companies. I have no trouble getting cover on track though?!?!

Madness...

[Jonny5]

I don't think they restrict to Ferrari's etc

Feel free to PM me and i'll send you the name of my broker. Clive's broker is excellent too

[traxx]

Jonny5 said:

I don't think they restrict to Ferrari's etc

Feel free to PM me and i'll send you the name of my broker. Clive's broker is excellent too

I thought both Chubb & Zurich wanted the first car to be over 70,000 in value?

[porschedriver]

Elephant insure my 360 £2,900 cheaper than any other policy I could find. I tried to get others to match the quote and no one would, even Privilege with their "guarantee to beat your renewal quote" marketing refused to match the policy.

£2,900 was a big enough saving for me to jump in and take a risk with them, afterall the chances of a smash are reletively small. Just not looking forward to ever claiming.

I asked a similar question a few months back....you might want to take a look at that thread through my profile to see if there's any advice not above.

[Jonny5]

porschedriver - exactly what I thought, then I claimed for total loss (theft). I really do hope you never have to claim

doug - maybe so, never asked what their minimum £ was...

Edited by Jonny5 on Wednesday 7th June 08:49

[ahaughton]

traxx said:

Jonny5 said:

I don't think they restrict to Ferrari's etc

Feel free to PM me and i'll send you the name of my broker. Clive's broker is excellent too

I thought both Chubb & Zurich wanted the first car to be over 70,000 in value?

Chubb insured my old Noble M400 and that was only about £62k.

[chim_knee]

ahaughton said:

traxx said:

Jonny5 said:

I don't think they restrict to Ferrari's etc

Feel free to PM me and i'll send you the name of my broker. Clive's broker is excellent too

I thought both Chubb & Zurich wanted the first car to be over 70,000 in value?

Chubb insured my old Noble M400 and that was only about £62k.

Surely only should be in quotes! "Only" £62k!

[spidermanUK]

One other "little" difference with both Chubb & Zurich...agreed values! ALL 5 of my cars are on an agreed value basis, including my 355 which is insured for £70,000!!!! They've agreed this on the basis that if I was to suffer a total loss, I would need to pay "over usual market price" to persuade someone to sell me "the best of the best"!!!

My 430 is agreed at "over list" because again, that's the replacement cost today. Small elements like this become major factors in the event of a claim.

As Johnny has said, the usual cover is "any driver", I've restricted use to named drivers and the premium has come down a lot. I still have Comp cover (not 3rd party like most other policies) on any car not belonging to me!

I have 5 group 20 cars, with about 1800 bhp between them, with a combined agreed value of £360k and I pay circa £4500, which I think is reasonable.