Car Insurance - Car Valuation - Gap Insurance

Bertietommo

Hello all
I've a query around car valuation on my insurance policy and gap insurance. 
If I buy a new car from a dealership for £40k, I know that the value drop the moment I dive off the forecourt - lets say £35k. Normally I would mark the cars value as £40k and get gap insurance. If I don't want gap insurance this time, should I mark the cars value as £35k as that's all I'll get anyway and hope that it at least reduces my monthly insurance premiums?
Many thanks

DullGreyGuy

Are you talking brand new or just new to you?

If the former, most cover a vehicle replacement in the first 12 months of ownership and so should be insured at what you paid for it. 

Bertietommo

Thank you - and good point. It's a near new car reg march 2023, 1 previous owner.

DullGreyGuy

Bertietommo said:

Thank you - and good point. It's a near new car reg march 2023, 1 previous owner.

So it's not brand new and the new car replacement won't apply. 

It's really up to you on how cautious you are... if you were to write it off as you drove off the forecourt then the FOS will say they should settle it at the invoice price. Once a month or two has passed then you are in the wild swings of secondhand car prices. 

Many insurers only use the declared value for deciding if a tracker is required or not or to decide if non-comp is allowed as customers typically are really bad at estimating their vehicles worth and most insurers don't like the idea of someone with a £200,000 car that thinks they only need TPFT. There may be a minority which will fix the max payout at the lower of declared value and market value. 

Bertietommo

Thanks again. I'd like to think I could get by a couple of months without a crash and that being the case, I may as well value it at £35k - no doubt closer to their estimate and hopefully a cheaper premium (will plug both values in to understand any benefit, of course)