Mercedes benz minor damage insurance

shazkhan111

I am looking at the above insurance product online. Can anyone share their experience of it/cost?

Worth it?

gilbert_and_sullivan

This is the second thread i've read recently (first one elsewhere) asking about insurance for minor damage...the other thread mentioned scuffs scratches and minor parking dings.

Firstly i've never heard of this until now which makes me think its just another money grabbing wheeze by some wide boys.

For years i've been using a small body shop, a couple of blokes and a younger lad.
Every couple of years i pop the car in there and they sort my dings and scratches out for a good price.

No managers with company cars, no receptionists, no carpets, no costapacket coffee, no courtesy cars etc to pay for, so the charges reflect this.

As soon as you use an insurer you are immediately paying into the unecessary layers of admin world again, only another layer of money skimmers added to ones i listed, plus the insurance company profit.

InsideInsurance

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Every couple of years i pop the car in there and they sort my dings and scratches out for a good price.

A good price makes it hard to judge value

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

As soon as you use an insurer you are immediately paying into the unecessary layers of admin world again, only another layer of money skimmers added to ones i listed, plus the insurance company profit.

I've no idea of Mercedes relationship with AmTrust, the underwriters of the policy, but insurance can be a much more complex (or simple depending on your perspective) relationship between companies than the public believe. AmTrust could be paid pennies per policy (or less) with Mercedes actually being the one carrying the risk and so whilst there is a "profit" for the insurer from an individual perspective it may not be notable.

Now, evidently there is something in it for Mercedes, is that because its a very over priced product? Is it really because most people forget they have it so dont claim? Is it because most people go to your back street garages and so by selling this you actually keep them in network, at a fraction of the price but still more than you are paying the grease monkey to fix it? Is it that most people with new Mercs actually predominately look after them and so claims rates are actually fairly low?


Arguably it comes down to economics, I see from another forum that someone was charged £350 for 2 years cover/ £3,000 of repairs on an E class. How much would your garage charge for repairs that a Mercedes garage would charge £3,000? Are they really a tenth the price? Secondly, whats the changes of you having £3ks worth of minor damage (at merc prices) in 2 years? Given its "unlimited claims" how much would you local garage charge to do a dozen door opening dinks individually -v- saving them up to do them as a batch?

shazkhan111

Are there any other companies that offer this type of insurance?

forgotmyname

Repairs upto £3000 inc VAT (so thats 20% lost) over multiple claims. chips should not exceed 1.5mm diameter. And 15cm for scratches.

At MB prices £3000 wont do a lot of repairing.