Will my roof box void my car insurance claim?

Aretnap

user1977 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

According to Confused.com roof racks should be declared. I never did in the past but luckily my current and next care have factory fitted hitched for my bike carrier which don't need to be declared.

https://www.confused.com/car-insurance/guides/modified-car-insurance

Blimey. Bit of a faff if you have to amend your policy every weekend you put the roof rack on!

And having to pay a £25 admin fee every time you putt it on or take it off!

(Shouldn't say that too loudly, Admiral might hear and decide to incorporate it into their business model) 

Sandtree

Aretnap said:

user1977 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

According to Confused.com roof racks should be declared. I never did in the past but luckily my current and next care have factory fitted hitched for my bike carrier which don't need to be declared.

https://www.confused.com/car-insurance/guides/modified-car-insurance

Blimey. Bit of a faff if you have to amend your policy every weekend you put the roof rack on!

And having to pay a £25 admin fee every time you putt it on or take it off!

(Shouldn't say that too loudly, Admiral might hear and decide to incorporate it into their business model) 

Given Admiral are the only insurer that I know of that asks for factory made modifications from base variant spec I'm sure its already part of their model.

Having the "AMG Kit" on my last car added about 10% to the premiums, whats annoying is that 3 months later what was the AMG Kit became a standard feature but doing an Admiral quote on a theoretical car 3 months newer than mine resulted in the same base premium rather than the 10% uplifted. The car I bought was a prebuilt model and not a single one of those on offer didnt come with the kit so its not as if I'd had a real choice.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Sandtree said:

Aretnap said:

user1977 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

According to Confused.com roof racks should be declared. I never did in the past but luckily my current and next care have factory fitted hitched for my bike carrier which don't need to be declared.

https://www.confused.com/car-insurance/guides/modified-car-insurance

Blimey. Bit of a faff if you have to amend your policy every weekend you put the roof rack on!

And having to pay a £25 admin fee every time you putt it on or take it off!

(Shouldn't say that too loudly, Admiral might hear and decide to incorporate it into their business model) 

Given Admiral are the only insurer that I know of that asks for factory made modifications from base variant spec I'm sure its already part of their model.

Having the "AMG Kit" on my last car added about 10% to the premiums, whats annoying is that 3 months later what was the AMG Kit became a standard feature but doing an Admiral quote on a theoretical car 3 months newer than mine resulted in the same base premium rather than the 10% uplifted. The car I bought was a prebuilt model and not a single one of those on offer didnt come with the kit so its not as if I'd had a real choice.

Seems to be a rather absurd position on Admiral's part.  My car, being old, doesn't have the factory fitted tyres, oil, floormats or screen wash any more.  I've also put a non-factory issue air freshener in there, as well as further modifications such as placing a road atlas in the seat back pocket and an umbrella in the boot.  I have even wrapped a scrunchie round the gear lever.  Admiral, it seems, would treat the car as equivalent to a Max Power fibreglass special.  

Sandtree

Ditzy_Mitzy said:
Seems to be a rather absurd position on Admiral's part.  My car, being old, doesn't have the factory fitted tyres, oil, floormats or screen wash any more.  I've also put a non-factory issue air freshener in there, as well as further modifications such as placing a road atlas in the seat back pocket and an umbrella in the boot.  I have even wrapped a scrunchie round the gear lever.  Admiral, it seems, would treat the car as equivalent to a Max Power fibreglass special.  

Outside of the absurdity of their position the real challenge is when you buy your kid their first wreck to drive knowing if those 16" alloys on a 15 year old car were the standard for that model then or an upgrade, same as the leatherette seats etc. 

In my car's example all 30 odd items were added to the insurance but only the lowered suspension and different alloys attracted a fee but as I say in the following months those became standard for new cars so they paid less than I did for the identical car but then with a normal insurer approach buying 20" alloys to be factory fit on your new cr doesnt have to be declared but getting the dealer to upgrade them after a couple of days does and likely will impact premium... hard to know which is the fairer/more sensible approach.

TELLIT01

I have seen posts in the past from people saying they made simple changes to bodywork such as changing door mirror covers and bumpers from black to colour coded and their insurer viewed that as a modification.  The insurer wasn't named but I wonder if that was also Admiral.  Just looks like a money making scheme to me.

Sandtree

TELLIT01 said:

I have seen posts in the past from people saying they made simple changes to bodywork such as changing door mirror covers and bumpers from black to colour coded and their insurer viewed that as a modification.  The insurer wasn't named but I wonder if that was also Admiral.  Just looks like a money making scheme to me.

After market virtually all insurers would want to know, there is a certain amount of reality to the fact too though... just as you'd have to know that the "new to you" car had the upgraded rims so would the engineer that looks at the damage and so I am sure a lot of modifications that should have been mentioned to all insurers slide by. 

I was buying my car from new and whilst I wanted the AMG pack as I was wanting a deal on a prebuilt car it turns out I didnt have a choice. It was only when Admiral asked its content that I noticed that it included a small lowering of the suspension. Given its no longer an optional extra but standard spec it'd be fairly difficult for whoever the knew owner is to sus out it'd been lowered.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Sandtree said:

TELLIT01 said:

I have seen posts in the past from people saying they made simple changes to bodywork such as changing door mirror covers and bumpers from black to colour coded and their insurer viewed that as a modification.  The insurer wasn't named but I wonder if that was also Admiral.  Just looks like a money making scheme to me.

After market virtually all insurers would want to know, there is a certain amount of reality to the fact too though... just as you'd have to know that the "new to you" car had the upgraded rims so would the engineer that looks at the damage and so I am sure a lot of modifications that should have been mentioned to all insurers slide by. 

I was buying my car from new and whilst I wanted the AMG pack as I was wanting a deal on a prebuilt car it turns out I didnt have a choice. It was only when Admiral asked its content that I noticed that it included a small lowering of the suspension. Given its no longer an optional extra but standard spec it'd be fairly difficult for whoever the knew owner is to sus out it'd been lowered.

This also brings into question the various unofficial dealer specials that are presumably still rolling around.  Do non-standard but manufacturer or main dealer fitted extras count as modifications?  

Sandtree

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

Sandtree said:

TELLIT01 said:

I have seen posts in the past from people saying they made simple changes to bodywork such as changing door mirror covers and bumpers from black to colour coded and their insurer viewed that as a modification.  The insurer wasn't named but I wonder if that was also Admiral.  Just looks like a money making scheme to me.

After market virtually all insurers would want to know, there is a certain amount of reality to the fact too though... just as you'd have to know that the "new to you" car had the upgraded rims so would the engineer that looks at the damage and so I am sure a lot of modifications that should have been mentioned to all insurers slide by. 

I was buying my car from new and whilst I wanted the AMG pack as I was wanting a deal on a prebuilt car it turns out I didnt have a choice. It was only when Admiral asked its content that I noticed that it included a small lowering of the suspension. Given its no longer an optional extra but standard spec it'd be fairly difficult for whoever the knew owner is to sus out it'd been lowered.

This also brings into question the various unofficial dealer specials that are presumably still rolling around.  Do non-standard but manufacturer or main dealer fitted extras count as modifications?  

Normal insurer - anything fitted when the car was made - not a modification. Anything fitted after it leaves the factory is a mod (excluding consumables)

Admiral - Anything that was selected from the options list even if factory fitted is a mod (plus anything after). 

So if its a officially a Ford Focus "Mexico" and thats what the DVLA etc report it as then anything thats in the Mexico is not a mod in anyone's books. Dealer does their own "Chick Magnet" model but its reported as a Ford Fiesta GL on the DVLA then anything that a deviation from the GL would be a mod according to Admiral but only a mod to other insurers it the dealer changed anything post production (eg the bean can exhaust they fitted themselves)

Penelopa.Pitstop

I would never think of informing insurer that I'm using temporary bike rack, roof bars, or roof box.