What's happening with Car Insurance?!

Car_54

Nobbie1967 said:

I read recently that three things were driving insurance increases, cost and availability of part pushing up repair costs, higher residuals pushing up writeoff payouts for vehicles and increase in theft of late plate high end cars for breaking or export overseas. Sounds like the latter is the main factor affecting you and probably more pronounced being in London. Could be worse, you could have a Range Rover

Parts supply delays lead to increased hire car costs, another big factor.

theoretica

I also read that between market fluctuations and expensive electric vehicles, the average cost of a car on the road has gone up - the other cars a driver might damage or write off in an accident.

GadgetGuru

kokolino23 said:

My reply won't make you feel better as our insurance is triple as well. Everything becomes a joke, honestly. They fill up their pockets and we have no option than to pay  these greedy companies. It's the same with supermarkets, energy, council tax, etc.
Inflation 4% ?! Where?! Everything has gone up at least 50-80% and guess what? Record profits for a lot of companies while they complain about the bad time we are all facing?! Really?!

Don't get me started on council tax - just don't!!!
Pay more, and receive less of a service then before! I just don't get it!

Ectophile

GadgetGuru said:

kokolino23 said:

My reply won't make you feel better as our insurance is triple as well. Everything becomes a joke, honestly. They fill up their pockets and we have no option than to pay  these greedy companies. It's the same with supermarkets, energy, council tax, etc.
Inflation 4% ?! Where?! Everything has gone up at least 50-80% and guess what? Record profits for a lot of companies while they complain about the bad time we are all facing?! Really?!

Don't get me started on council tax - just don't!!!
Pay more, and receive less of a service then before! I just don't get it!

When Council Tax was first introduced, councils got money from Council Tax, Business rates, and a big fat grant from the government.  Then year by year, the govenrment cut the grant, until there was none any more.  But the government makes councils obliged by law to provide certain services.  And the cost of those services keeps going up.

The end result is that many councils are on the verge of bankruptcy, as they can't afford all the services they are obliged to provide.  My local council is paying out millions of pounds a year to find homes for people who have been thrown out of private rented accomodation.  The council can't find enough affordable places to put all those people.

So council taxes keep going up, council charges for services keep going up, and every year the council has to cut another service that everyone expects but the council isn't legally obliged to provide.

Hoenir

Car_54 said:

Nobbie1967 said:

I read recently that three things were driving insurance increases, cost and availability of part pushing up repair costs, higher residuals pushing up writeoff payouts for vehicles and increase in theft of late plate high end cars for breaking or export overseas. Sounds like the latter is the main factor affecting you and probably more pronounced being in London. Could be worse, you could have a Range Rover

Parts supply delays lead to increased hire car costs, another big factor.

General standard of driving is deteriorating. The beauty of having a dash cam is that you can submit the footage in ! 

facade

Ectophile said:

GadgetGuru said:

kokolino23 said:

My reply won't make you feel better as our insurance is triple as well. Everything becomes a joke, honestly. They fill up their pockets and we have no option than to pay  these greedy companies. It's the same with supermarkets, energy, council tax, etc.
Inflation 4% ?! Where?! Everything has gone up at least 50-80% and guess what? Record profits for a lot of companies while they complain about the bad time we are all facing?! Really?!

Don't get me started on council tax - just don't!!!
Pay more, and receive less of a service then before! I just don't get it!

When Council Tax was first introduced, councils got money from Council Tax, Business rates, and a big fat grant from the government.  Then year by year, the govenrment cut the grant, until there was none any more.  But the government makes councils obliged by law to provide certain services.  And the cost of those services keeps going up.

The end result is that many councils are on the verge of bankruptcy, as they can't afford all the services they are obliged to provide.  My local council is paying out millions of pounds a year to find homes for people who have been thrown out of private rented accomodation.  The council can't find enough affordable places to put all those people.

So council taxes keep going up, council charges for services keep going up, and every year the council has to cut another service that everyone expects but the council isn't legally obliged to provide.

Plus, even if you actually believe the fantasy that inflation is as low as The Government have manipulated the figures to, (despite all the evidence in your pocket) the maximum increase that Councils can apply is 4%.

Those of us in The Real World know that wages are up more than that, energy increased by more than 100%,  fuel costs are up more, the tax on the council vehicles went up with RPI (luckily they likely self insure, or that is more than double)

So the result is that council income increases way less than their costs go up, and unless you have the only monstrously inefficient bubble living council in the land, they have spent the last 20 years increasing efficiency, reducing waste and cutting inessential services, so now there are only the essential services left to cut to save money.

400ixl

There are many different reasons why some people are seeing big increases. In this case the BMW X5 is one of the most stolen cars in the UK and some insurers have gone as far as refusing to quote for them.

Do they know about the Autowatch Ghost and recognise it as a security improvement?

To put some context to all of those unfortunate to be seeing bigger increases, just done the 3rd of our household cars (which is the young driver one so feared the worst). All 3 now renewed for under a 10% increase on any of them. So it is not always a case of big increases if you shop around (all 3 were 20-40% increases on the initial renewal notice) so decent reductions were achieved.

Shop around, make sure they are taking into account the additional security, failing that sell it and but an SUV which is cheaper to insure.

Car_54

Hoenir said:

Car_54 said:

Nobbie1967 said:

I read recently that three things were driving insurance increases, cost and availability of part pushing up repair costs, higher residuals pushing up writeoff payouts for vehicles and increase in theft of late plate high end cars for breaking or export overseas. Sounds like the latter is the main factor affecting you and probably more pronounced being in London. Could be worse, you could have a Range Rover

Parts supply delays lead to increased hire car costs, another big factor.

General standard of driving is deteriorating. The beauty of having a dash cam is that you can submit the footage in ! 

Possibly true, but I'm struggling to see what any of it has to do with what I posted.

Herzlos

theoretica said:

I also read that between market fluctuations and expensive electric vehicles, the average cost of a car on the road has gone up - the other cars a driver might damage or write off in an accident.

Not just electric vehicles, new cars have gotten much more expensive in the last few years. In about 2019 the Dacia Sandero was the cheapest new car at (I think) £7995, and in 2023 it's now £12935.

Even a lowish spec Corsa or Fiesta is pushing £20k now.

mark5

Just renewed with Aviva for £430 it was about £320 with them last year. The next best price was about £650 for more basic cover,  

A few of the well known companies were quoting £2-3000, not had quotes like that since my mid 20’s.