Directline !!!!!!?

Keith

leehal wrote: »

I have some non-standard things on my Touran (park assist, heated seats etc) but I doubt they would make this car more attractive for a thief.

But what if you crashed it? Wouldn't those same options push up the cost of a replacement vehicle, therefore increasing the risk...

thescouselander

raskazz wrote: »

Your OH is either mistaken or works for an insurer who has a substantially different attitude to the rest of the market.

Eg a car has a body kit, alloy wheels, sunroof, leather seats, spoiler all as factory fitted optional extras. As an insurer, to disregard these simply because they were optional and not aftermarket would be insanity and lead to severely underpriced policies.

It is practical - in fact, this case proves that the insurance market takes a sensible approach to such circumstances as it is willing to cover the claim and forgive the insured's lax approach to disclosure, subject to the extra premium - rather than rejecting the claim full stop.

If this is the case then why don't insurers ask specifically what equipment is fitted to your car when they are providing a quote? All they ask is "has the car beem modified?" this is not the same as asking "what optional extras have been fitted". If the car is the same as when it came out of the factory the answer has to be no regardless of which optional extras are fitted.

Im sure the insurers factor in the differences between individual cars regarding the extras fitted so the premiums are probably averaged out in some way.

Also not all extras are available on all specifications of a model. For instance by car has the Sports body kit and suspension but this was only available on the Sports model and not the standard models.

raskazz

thescouselander wrote: »

If this is the case then why don't insurers ask specifically what equipment is fitted to your car when they are providing a quote? All they ask is "has the car beem modified?" this is not the same as asking "what optional extras have been fitted". If the car is the same as when it came out of the factory the answer has to be no regardless of which optional extras are fitted.

Er, they do. Examples:

Confused.com:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif]"What are modifications?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif] These are any changes or factory-fitted optional extras which have been added to the vehicle and is not part of the standard vehicle specification. This would include such things as: alloy wheels / spoilers / engine modifications."[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif]
[/FONT] Admiral:

"Modifications

Please enter if your car is modified.

A modification is any change to the car away from the manufacturer's standard specification including optional extras, such as alloy wheels, body styling kits and exhaust/carburettor upgrades.

If you are uncertain whether your car is modified or not, please check with your local garage."

raskazz

leehal wrote: »

I thought they only wanted to know about the things that may make your car stand out from the crowd and make your car more desirable to a thief e.g. alloys,spoiler etc

I have some non-standard things on my Touran (park assist, heated seats etc) but I doubt they would make this car more attractive for a thief.

No, this is not the case at all. For example, the car could have been chipped and had other changes to the engine that boost performance - none of which would be visible to the naked eye - substantially increasing the performance of the car and therefore also the risk.

pulliptears

The other pitfall is this...

We bought our car direct from dealer, but at the time after paying out £12k for it the cost of the alloys that were an optional extra was just too much.

6 months later we had saved and bought the factory standard alloys. Tesco insurance wanted an additional £80 for this pleasure. I called them and got a quote on our car, from new with alloys and was surprised to find it was exactly the same as the quote without them. I took this up with Tesco's who basically said "Tough, your car is now more of a risk" but they couldnt explain why it was more of a risk when I put the alloys on than the dealer...

In the end I politely told Tesco's where they could stick their policy and transferred over to another Insurer, who was happy that factory standard alloys should not bump up a premium.

Tesco's loss, been insuring with them for years on 2 cars, plus inlaws and other family, none of whom will use them again.

leehal

raskazz wrote: »

No, this is not the case at all. For example, the car could have been chipped and had other changes to the engine that boost performance - none of which would be visible to the naked eye - substantially increasing the performance of the car and therefore also the risk.

I was talking about factory fitted options and the cars increased chances of theft.

An engine modification is not likely to make a car more desirable to a thief that is passing the car on the street.

I was aware of having to declare engine modifications, having owned to chipped cars in the past.

JimmyTheWig

raskazz wrote: »

Er, they do. Examples:


Confused.com:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif]"What are modifications?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif] These are any changes or factory-fitted optional extras which have been added to the vehicle and is not part of the standard vehicle specification. This would include such things as: alloy wheels / spoilers / engine modifications."[/FONT]

Admiral:

"Modifications

Please enter if your car is modified.

A modification is any change to the car away from the manufacturer's standard specification including optional extras, such as alloy wheels, body styling kits and exhaust/carburettor upgrades.

If you are uncertain whether your car is modified or not, please check with your local garage."

I still don't really get how you're supposed to know what's a modification and what's standard.
You can't possibly know the standard options on every car on the market.
Do they really expect you to take a car to a garage to ask them what has been modified from the standard on your car? And they are suggesting that everyone does this every time they buy a second hand car?

Metallic paint is normally an extra (or certainly always used to be). Does that need declaring? Most cars are metallic these days, so do most people have to tick the box?

I totally accept that if you don't say it has alloy wheels and the standard didn't have alloy wheels that if the car gets written off they don't pay out for the alloy wheels - i.e. you only get what the "standard" car would have been worth.
Would the issue in this case have arisen if the OP didn't chalenge the valuation?

raskazz

It might be stating the obvious, but if you don't know the answer to a question you shouldn't answer it - especially when warnings are given at the quotation and incpetion stage that inaccurate answers can potentially invalidate cover.

So when someone is asked if their car has been modified they shouldn't say 'no' unless they know it's the correct answer. If they are unsure they can check. Surely that's not too much to expect?

Futhermore, to return to the OP's situation, the insurer is taking fair steps to resolve the issue - they are only asking for the right amount of premium to be paid, they are not rejecting the claim.

Yes it would have arisen if the OP hadn't challenged the valuation.

It is not the case that omitting modifications should simply be dealt with by not paying for them in the settlement - because the presence of the modifications affects the risk of damage occurring in the first place and the risk of third party liability, not just the amount of a total loss settlement.

leehal

An extra £189 for not declaring alloys seems steep to me, can the OP state what the original premium was ?

raskazz

leehal wrote: »

An extra £189 for not declaring alloys seems steep to me, can the OP state what the original premium was ?

Doesn't seem steep to me. If you read the OP's post the policy was covering a relatively young driver (25) who has only held a full licence for 10 months. Often alloys can add up to add up to 10-15% loading to a premium.