Car insurance

aManHe

We are looking to part-exchange later on this week and I wante'd to evaluate the cost of the vehicle change on my car insurance. I thought it was just a matter of changing the vehicle details and paying admin fees, but to my surprise it is not. They asked me if there are any modifications on the new car and I dutifully answered yes, because the car has fancy, black car maker badges fitted on the back, aparently (according to the dealer) changed by the previous owner. Immediately I was informed that they will not provide cover for this car. Shocked. Started talking to assistant on the web-chat - it was surreal. Apparently wind deflectors were fine, but black car badges come up under 'cosmetic alterations', because these were not factory fitted and car insurance company claim they are not up to specification of the car. When pressured what specification - no answer. When asked how will they know if these were not factory fitted (as some brands release limitted version cars with colour variations on them) - the answer was - you just told us. Basically, if I knew that these were not factory fitted and I lied on my form when getting the insurance, they can invalidate my car insurance. And now, becasue they know about it, if I made a claim, they most likely will invalidate my car insurance.

Now I am basically stucked - cant move with the part-exchange because new insurance would cost us additional £800.

Later in the chat it was clarified that any changes made to the car badge by the owner of the car, after my insurance company first insured the vehicle, would be considered as modifications and void the policy. When I explained that I am buying the car with these modifications and asking them to cover under my current policy - they said that they cant do it, due to the car not being up to specification. I asked if other drivers, for example those with a plastic lawn stuck on their cars or those with fake eyelashes, have their cars insurred - the answer was - they might, with different insurer and if they are with the one I am with, their policy will be invalidated when they claim and it comes out.

There is another route - if the dealer confirmed that this car badge was factory fitted - which they wont do, becasue they already told me that the previous owner changed the badge.
How on earth are insurance companies allowed to do that? How can they invalidate car insurance because of different colour badge?

Perhaps someone can help me here, becasue I cannot comprehend how on earth can car insurance be voided bacause of changed car badge? With the difference being only the colour!

With all these parts being sold online I feel that people are not aware of the remifications changes like this can bring on them.
As far as I know it is not illegal to drive with changed car badge - so car insurance companies are basically using this as a technicality for getting out of paying out.

BTW - no way of escalating my chat to a supervisor because this company is a 'self service' company what apparently means that there is noone to assist in situations like mine. I wonder, where is the money going when there are no people to oversee customer services…

Isthisforreal99

Nobody said it was illegal but some insurers will not cover any 'cosmetic' mods, which is their perogative. Not sure what you want to escalate for - it won't be up for negotiatiom.

If people are buying tat online and sticking it on their car and not aware of the consequences, that's on them .

jimjames

Perhaps someone can help me here, becasue I cannot comprehend how on earth can car insurance be voided bacause of changed car badge? With the difference being only the colour!

Fix it by putting the original badges back on?

aManHe

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81971240#Comment_81971240

I wanted to escalate so someone can help me make sense of it.

What are they protecting us from by penalizing drivers for swapping original badge for an identical one, except in different colour? Is this why in the US they are sticking black film to their factory fitted badges? Anyway, I am pretty sure here it would be penalized too.

Isn't what this portal and TV programme is on about - making people aware of the potential pitfalls?!

aManHe

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81971259#Comment_81971259

Regardless of my situation, does a badge change endanger other road users?

And what if there are other mods I am not aware of? Perhaps, when taking out another policy, I should select yes to modifications and choose 'others' to try and cover any other eventuality? This is mad. Isn't car insurance about ensuring safety of the people on the roads? Because it looks more ane more like it is about making money for the insurance industry.

Ectophile

It's down to correlation, not causation.

Changing the badges on a car doesn't cause the car to be any less safe, or more likely to be in an accident.

But the insurance company has worked out that the sort of people who make cosmetic modifications to their cars are also the sort of people who are more likely to be involved in accidents. Probably because they are the sort of people who like showing off.

As @jimjames suggests, the solution would be to source a set of original badges, and stick them on. Then it's not modified any more.

paul_c123

Ask the dealer to revert the car to standard specification.

Car_54

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81971363#Comment_81971363

Also, cosmetic changes are (usually) designed to make the car more desirable, and so more likelt to be stolen.

WellKnownSid

But the insurance company has worked out that the sort of people who make cosmetic modifications to their cars are also the sort of people who are more likely to be involved in accidents. Probably because they are the sort of people who like showing off.

Or the insurance company has no idea how much extra risk these things involve, doesn't care, and focuses on the 99% of unmodified cars on the road because it's simpler, more straightforward business (with the added advantage that they are less likely to be dealing with 'those sorts of people'.

OP… As others have said, just get the car back to factory spec.

MyRealNameToo

The easy solution is to return the vehicle to factory spec.

Adding film would also need to be declared so that isnt why people are doing it.

The FOS gets a lot of complaints about people having claims declined because the car has undeclared modifications. In many cases the owner says they bought the car secondhand and had no idea if something was an after construction modification or standard spec.

I'd argue that most the time the ombudsman is fairly generous and being a cynical person I do really question some people's honesty - there was one case where their BMW car had Mercedes badged alloys and yet they were still claiming they thought that was what the car came with. There are many others that sit in the grey area and its a bit of a luck of the draw if the ombudsman thinks you should have known that a whale tail on a Ford Fiesta 1.1L isnt standard fit but we dont have the luxury of seeing the photos they make their judgement on so maybe its less random.

Bit of a moot point here though as they have you on record declaring you know it's an after market mod so can't claim ignorance.

Mass market consumer insurance is priced purely on statistics not logic. They charge more or refuse to insure because their experience demonstrates that those with such mods have a worse claims experience (frequency x severity). We can speculate why that is… people with a habit of showing off, higher theft rate (esp if you're putting a ST200 badge on the aforementioned 1.1L) … but that isnt how pricing works.

Penelopa.Pitstop

As above, ask dealer to change badges to original and then offer to send pictures to company or proof of that. Or just look for another car or another insurance company.

And don't forget to name the company to warn other users to be more careful about any possible modifications.

Sometimes there are cases when insurance company don't want to insure the car, because it's not modified enough. Had such issue with imported vehicle and specialist insurer.