Car value for insurance quote

Double_V

Hi

Could any one of you please recommend a good GAP insurance for a brand new car ?
I tried searcing online. But it comes up with some funny company names which I have never heard of.

I need a company which actually pays out in an unfortunate event.

Thanks

flyer22

First off thank you all so much for your very helpful responses!

This is a 2006 car and I've had it for some time. So it looks like consensus is on the dealer price. There about £500 difference between franchise dealer and independent dealer price. I'll check how the values affect the insurance quote as it may be marginal but any views on going with franchise over the independent. Presumably it would give me stronger haggling ground with the insurance company if I ever had to claim?

rudekid48

flyer22 wrote: »

First off thank you all so much for your very helpful responses!

This is a 2006 car and I've had it for some time. So it looks like consensus is on the dealer price. There about £500 difference between franchise dealer and independent dealer price. I'll check how the values affect the insurance quote as it may be marginal but any views on going with franchise over the independent. Presumably it would give me stronger haggling ground with the insurance company if I ever had to claim?

Some of the comparison sites pre-populate the value for you now - compare the market for one - this gives you a guide as to the sort of valuation that they are using, but the key is that - it's just a guide as there are lots of assumptions made regarding condition etc. As long as you don't wildly under estimate the value e.g. you know it's worth at least £15k but enter the value as £3k to reduce premium, then you've nothing to worry about. If a claim happens, the insurer will offer what they believe to be the market rate for the car - which you can then challenge if you can provide evidence that they are wrong.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that the value you enter is the value that your car is insured for as unless you have a specific "agreed value" policy then it's not the case.

dacouch

Richard53 wrote: »

But they won't pay out more than the insured value, so the value you set needs to be at least a reasonable replacement cost. No?

They will pay more than the insured value if the value of the car is more than the value declared as the value of the car may have increased.

Providing you don't have an agreed value policy

dacouch

Double_V wrote: »

Hi

Could any one of you please recommend a good GAP insurance for a brand new car ?
I tried searcing online. But it comes up with some funny company names which I have never heard of.

I need a company which actually pays out in an unfortunate event.

Thanks

Most motor policies will replace the car with a brand new car if you write it off in the first year of ownership from new. There are a few variations eg some allow the first two years.

Here's a guide on buying GAP from Which.

http://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/guides/gap-insurance/

If you buy from your Car Dealer you'll pay at least double for the premium, the cover is generally not that great and they'll add the inflated premium to your finance so once you add the interest over the period of your car finance you pay even more.

ALA have a good reputation

Aretnap

Richard53 wrote: »

But they won't pay out more than the insured value, so the value you set needs to be at least a reasonable replacement cost. No?

No - if you undervalue the car, they'll still pay out the market value. See here, section 2.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

"We are likely to award the consumer the full retail value – even if they inadvertently underestimated the value of the vehicle when filling in the proposal form or luckily bought the vehicle for less than it was worth."

Richard53

dacouch wrote: »

They will pay more than the insured value if the value of the car is more than the value declared as the value of the car may have increased.

Aretnap wrote: »

No - if you undervalue the car, they'll still pay out the market value. See here, section 2.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

"We are likely to award the consumer the full retail value – even if they inadvertently underestimated the value of the vehicle when filling in the proposal form or luckily bought the vehicle for less than it was worth."

Well thanks chaps - completely new to me. I thought the 'insured value' was a ceiling, and any settlement would be that value or less, to prevent people claiming a car was worth £1000 to get a cheap quote and then £10,000 when they made a claim. Good to know.


Yes, 'agreed value' policies are completely different.

InsideInsurance

Richard53 wrote: »

But they won't pay out more than the insured value, so the value you set needs to be at least a reasonable replacement cost. No?

Depends on the insurer.

Back in my claims days the insured's own valuation of their vehicle didnt appear on our (claims) screens nor on the job sheet that was sent to the engineer so there'd be no way for those settling the claim to know the policyholder had undervalued their car by £20k. In practice the vast majority of people over value their vehicles anyway.

With them the actual valuation was not used in the pricing of the insurance. It was a simple £5k cap on TPFT and £50k plus needed a tracker. There were other triggers for both so declaring your new ferrari as £49k wouldnt avoid the need for a tracker but you may get away with it on a few years old S class merc.

I have certainly known other insurers who will pay out the lower of market value and declared valuation but its not universal and not liked by the FOS

Rambosmum

They pay market value for the car if written off - I had estimated the value to be £500 (it was banger) but was paid £750 when it was written off. The value you provide is just a guide and has very little (if any) bearing on the pay out.

I usually have a look at autotrader and pick a value based on similar cars, with my old one I took some off for previous damage.