Changed my car and insurer description of the car specs is wrong

Pat38493

Is it my responsibility to point out to my car insurer if they seem to have the wrong information about my new car?  

I used their online website to declare my new vehicle and I selected the exact model and specification I have purchased, which tied up between the list on their website selector, and the car specification from the manufacturer.  No issue so far.

However in the documentation they have not put on their website, the description of the car I selected is different.  It has the correct model of car, but it then specifies what appears to be the cc of the engine and the bhp of the electric engine (it's a PHEV), but both are wrong according the to the car manufacturer website.

Strange thing is that I doubt most people would even notice this difference after the car they had purchased was clearly selectable in the menus.

What also makes me suspicious is that the surcharge they have charged me is pretty low compared to the difference in the annual price compared to my old car from comparison sites - i.e. pro rata I would expect a higher surcharge.

swingaloo

Of course its your responsibility. They will send you the paperwork and ask if all is correct. Of course you could pretend you hadn't noticed and wait till you try to make a claim which will then probably be refused.

Pat38493

swingaloo said:

Of course its your responsibility. They will send you the paperwork and ask if all is correct. Of course you could pretend you hadn't noticed and wait till you try to make a claim which will then probably be refused.

Yes that's what I thought but it's a bit crazy because a lot of people wouldn't even know what the cc of the car they are buying is, especially if it's not in the description of the car - it's a bit strange of the insurance company to give the exact correct description on their selection tree, but then change it to something wrong after you paid the supplement - I suspect I will have a devil of a job getting the money I paid back if they now say it's a mistake and I have to pay a lot more and want to cancel.

TELLIT01

I think the cc of the car would be on the V5.  To the initial question, Yes, it is up to the person insuring anything to ensure that the description is accurate.

DullGreyGuy

Pat38493 said:

Is it my responsibility to point out to my car insurer if they seem to have the wrong information about my new car?  

I used their online website to declare my new vehicle and I selected the exact model and specification I have purchased, which tied up between the list on their website selector, and the car specification from the manufacturer.  No issue so far.

However in the documentation they have not put on their website, the description of the car I selected is different.  It has the correct model of car, but it then specifies what appears to be the cc of the engine and the bhp of the electric engine (it's a PHEV), but both are wrong according the to the car manufacturer website.

Strange thing is that I doubt most people would even notice this difference after the car they had purchased was clearly selectable in the menus.

What also makes me suspicious is that the surcharge they have charged me is pretty low compared to the difference in the annual price compared to my old car from comparison sites - i.e. pro rata I would expect a higher surcharge.

Why were you selecting the spec? You'd normally just enter the registration and they bring back what the DVLA has recorded. What's on the V5?

Most people won't notice a difference because they dont select it... its only those that dont have a registration plate number that typically get to select and most won't sell the insurance until the reg is supplied and then the make, model and mark are replaced with the DVLA data. 

Pat38493

DullGreyGuy said:

Pat38493 said:

Is it my responsibility to point out to my car insurer if they seem to have the wrong information about my new car?  

I used their online website to declare my new vehicle and I selected the exact model and specification I have purchased, which tied up between the list on their website selector, and the car specification from the manufacturer.  No issue so far.

However in the documentation they have not put on their website, the description of the car I selected is different.  It has the correct model of car, but it then specifies what appears to be the cc of the engine and the bhp of the electric engine (it's a PHEV), but both are wrong according the to the car manufacturer website.

Strange thing is that I doubt most people would even notice this difference after the car they had purchased was clearly selectable in the menus.

What also makes me suspicious is that the surcharge they have charged me is pretty low compared to the difference in the annual price compared to my old car from comparison sites - i.e. pro rata I would expect a higher surcharge.

Why were you selecting the spec? You'd normally just enter the registration and they bring back what the DVLA has recorded. What's on the V5?

Most people won't notice a difference because they dont select it... its only those that dont have a registration plate number that typically get to select and most won't sell the insurance until the reg is supplied and then the make, model and mark are replaced with the DVLA data. 

Because it is a brand new car just delivered to dealer, you cannot yet just put in the reg - there is a box that says that this can happen with new cars and you need to go through the menus to select the car.

In the selection menus, after following the correct path, the exact car I am buying appears in the list.  (I checked this again by doing an anonymous quote later on).  However, once you actually purchase or commit, the description of the vechicle changes to something which contains incorrect information.

I spent about 2 hours on the web chat with my insurer last night after which they were still unable to confirm or deny that they would insure the vehicle.  They offered to change the BHP to 305BHP which is the BHP of the petrol motor.

They seemed to be more concerned whether the documents match the V5 rather than whether it matches the actual vehicle.

I asked on FB about V5 documents for these cars and it seemed like there is inconsistency - some of them quote the BHP of only the petrol motor, and some of them quote the KWH output but still only the petrol motor.  Obviusly I don't have a V5 yet as I have not picked up the car.

In any case, I have written to the insurer this morning including a full copy of the car spec from the official manufacturer, and asking them to confirm whether I will be insured and update the documents so that they don't include clearly incorrect information, or confirm that they are unable to insure the car and refund my upgrade fee.

Meantime I have signed up for the 7 days free drivaway insurance so that I have some time to get it sorted - worst case I will just cancel the policy as I have plenty of quotes from comparison sites which are reasonable.

mills705

Can you post what car you have and what the insurer has it down as? 

My works system quotes BHP usually for Fords, Audi etc where they have same engine sizes but differing maps to provide different power outputs as well as the Specification name. Where it got complicated was often manufacturers provided the PS of the vehicle instead of the BHP. 

For example the 1.0 Ecoboost Ford Fiesta is usally noted as having 100BHP but its something like 99 PS. 

Pat38493

mills705 said:

Can you post what car you have and what the insurer has it down as? 

My works system quotes BHP usually for Fords, Audi etc where they have same engine sizes but differing maps to provide different power outputs as well as the Specification name. Where it got complicated was often manufacturers provided the PS of the vehicle instead of the BHP. 

For example the 1.0 Ecoboost Ford Fiesta is usally noted as having 100BHP but its something like 99 PS. 

The car I am buying is a Volvo XC60 T8 Ultimate AWD 2024 model.

The insurer allows me to select that car during the quoting process, but then after you have completed, when you receive the documents from the insurer, it has changed to:

VOLVO XC60 - ESTATE, 5 doors, AUTOMATIC

Engine 1798 cc, 99 BHP, PETROL/ELECTRIC

The correct figures are that the CC of the car is 2L (1998 or suchlike) and the total BHP is 455 (305 petrol plus 150 electric motor).  I have done some research since and it seems like in some cases the power on the V5 is quoted in KWh, but there doesn't seem to be a common approach as to whether it's the power for just the petrol motor or the entire rig.  Either way the numbers quoted by my insurer are completely wrong.

As far as I know, there has never been any Volvo XC60 of any fuel type with 1798 CC.

You could have a point in that I think that Volvo uses the same physical petrol engine in lower spec models but it is somehow retuned or remapped, but, that wouldn't change the cc size of the engine?

mills705

It sounds like your insurer doesn't have the vehicle listed in their software rather than the wrong vehicle. Which is making them link to a different vehicle. Id keep on at them to sort. 

Usually when you search on an insurer they are linked to Experian traces which bring back the cars data and it will input automatically. Does this happen when you search or do you have to key it manually? 

The BHP is usually only quoted when there are multiple engine maps for the same CC vehicle so that the right vehicle can be rated when pushed onto the quoting screen. 

Pat38493

mills705 said:

It sounds like your insurer doesn't have the vehicle listed in their software rather than the wrong vehicle. Which is making them link to a different vehicle. Id keep on at them to sort. 

Usually when you search on an insurer they are linked to Experian traces which bring back the cars data and it will input automatically. Does this happen when you search or do you have to key it manually? 

The BHP is usually only quoted when there are multiple engine maps for the same CC vehicle so that the right vehicle can be rated when pushed onto the quoting screen. 

As I mentioned above, the weird part is that the exact model and spec of vehicle I am purchasing can be selected in the hierarchy selection tree of the insurer's web site.

After going through the tree it shows a box with the exact correct car and stating 2L is the engine size (no mention of BHP) and I pressed "select" at that point.  So I definitely selected the exact correct car.

It's only after I paid the supplement and received the pdf documents that the description has changed to something incorrect.

Maybe if my insurer logged in as a customer and went through the process themselves they would see what I mean.

Anyway - I have a week or so to wait for them to reply to my email with attached documents - if they don't reply I will just cancel the insurance and go with someone else.