GAP insurance and tyre insurance for new car

ultracheapskate

Hi,

I have recently purchased a new Mercedez and was offered GAP insurance by the dealership but declined (due to the high cost). I have been told that it is much cheaper to get it independently.

Does anyone know where to get cheap GAP insurance?

Secondly Mercedez said they did not offer tyre insurance when I enquired about it. For my last car (BMW) I did not take out the insurance and regretted it as I had to replace 4 tyres in the space of 2 years!

Does anyone have any recommendation for tyre insurance (and alloy cover if possible)?

Hintza

Tyre Insurance will probably be best done by putting away £10-£20/month into a bank account. Tyre insurance won't cover you when the tyre wears out.

force_ten

www.which.co.uk/money/gap-insurance/review

have a look at that for suggestions, also check them out for your wheel and tyre insurance as some of the gap insurers also offer policies to cover wheels and tyres

cajef

ultracheapskate wrote: »

Hi,

Does anyone know where to get cheap GAP insurance?

Plenty companies doing Gap Insurance, try and Google it.

whatmichaelsays

Hintza wrote: »

Tyre Insurance will probably be best done by putting away £10-£20/month into a bank account. Tyre insurance won't cover you when the tyre wears out.

Agreed. It just sounds like money for old rope.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

GAP insurance is typically very poor value for money if you look at value actually covered compared with premium and then factor in the likelihood of a claim (how many friends with cars do you know who have written off a car, for example).

I tend to think of it in terms of washing machine insurance and so on. Once you make the decision not to have these covers, you can work out how many hundreds of pounds are in the virtual rainy day pot. I don't think I've ever been able to claim on one (aside from a weird situation where I bought one in retrospect to cover a repair that would have cost me more than the premium).

So, having fallen for the sales pitch, sit down and decide whether this insurance, which people never used to have but is the current in thing, provides sufficient value for money to be worth getting.

JustinR1979

Parents have insurance for everything.
I could have to replace something every year and still pay out less.
Got to draw the line somewhere, could end up spending half your wages on insurance.

flashg67

IanMSpencer - bit of a difference between a £300 washing machine with no cover, and several £000s possible finance shortfall on a Mercedes. In principle you're right, but the reality may some back to haunt the OP.

I took it out and considered £300 against a possible £5k + shortfall as good value - horses for courses I suppose.

My FIL had 'return to invoice' GAP which paid out on a 3 year old car that was written off, so he was very glad he bought it!

I used EasyGap who had several different options available.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

flashg67 wrote: »

IanMSpencer - bit of a difference between a £300 washing machine with no cover, and several £000s possible finance shortfall on a Mercedes. In principle you're right, but the reality may some back to haunt the OP.

I took it out and considered £300 against a possible £5k + shortfall as good value - horses for courses I suppose.

My FIL had 'return to invoice' GAP which paid out on a 3 year old car that was written off, so he was very glad he bought it!

I used EasyGap who had several different options available.

Yes, no problem, that's why I said have a good think about it rather than don't do it away from the salesman.

What you need to factor in is things like:

1) Does your insurance cover give you a replacement new car in the first year when the gap is highest? (If so you have 1 year useless GAP insurance out of 3). Though the big names seem less likely to offer this cover now (perhaps in recognition of creating a market for more GAP policies to be sold).

2) What gap is being covered - to finance or to entirely cover replacement cost with like for like?

3) What is the gap across the time covered? Clearly on a new/nearly new car the gap is biggest when the depreciation has exceeded the payments, i.e. in the first year, the remaining time how big is the real gap?

4) If the gap is unaffordable, does this suggest that the finances are too stretched?

Didn't go for GAP on a Mercedes myself. We have three vehicles of various ages and over 80 odd years combined driving we had one write-off back in 1984 - that was my few hundred pounds worth of first car which was bought and paid for which I replaced with a car worth £300, keeping the balance of the £600 paid out.

I'm old and curmudgeonly and don't see the point in risking overspending on a car to the point I could not afford to deal with unforeseen problems. But, it is nice at least once in a lifetime at least to have a dream car and if you are stretched to do it then having insurance cover to avoid stress and misery is certainly something to consider. I would not do what a lad at work did many years ago when he bought an Opel Manta as his dream car, but he couldn't really afford it so he only covered it 3rd party fire and theft, but wrote it off in less than a year with his own "spirited" driving.

jimjames

flashg67 wrote: »

IanMSpencer - bit of a difference between a £300 washing machine with no cover, and several £000s possible finance shortfall on a Mercedes. In principle you're right, but the reality may some back to haunt the OP.

I took it out and considered £300 against a possible £5k + shortfall as good value - horses for courses I suppose.

My FIL had 'return to invoice' GAP which paid out on a 3 year old car that was written off, so he was very glad he bought it!

I used EasyGap who had several different options available.

But it only pays out if you have an accident and if your car is written off and if the payout is less.

Yet after 3 years when you come to change your car the value is less due to depreciation. Why not just put the money aside?

Seems like there is insurance for everything playing on everyone's perception of risk.

kev25v6

I've got a friend who needed the gap insurance within a week due to a crash for cash idiot who ran into her. It payed out enough that she could upgrade from a fiesta to a better spec focus. Sometimes it is worth it, just don't spend too much getting the cover.