Modified Car Insurance Nightmare

Modified Car Insurance Nightmare

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Discussion

johnny senna

Original Poster:

4,070 posts

279 months

Thursday 4th April 2002
quotequote all
What a nightmare. Tomorrow I'm having a Supersprint catalyst-free exhaust fitted to my 1990 E30 M3 to replace the catalyst equipped standard version which is knackered. The exhaust is setting me back £520, and is miles cheaper than a factory standard one with cats which would have set me back over a grand. So I told the insurance company just now (Privilege) and they have charged me an extra £252 for the modification. The power has only gone up from 215 to 220 bhp (probably) but my premium has increased way out of proprtion to the percentage power increase.
Now brace yourself.....I already pay £1829, but the new charge is £2081.10. A proportional rise in premium would be by just £42.54. In other words, they are making an unnecessary and greedy profit of £210. Like the Huts, these insurance companies are all gangsters.

MattC

266 posts

282 months

Thursday 4th April 2002
quotequote all
Sadly, there seem to be only two answers to this;
1) Say F*ck 'em, and don't change your policy! or
2) Delay your mods until after you've reinsured witha more sensible company.

Maybe
3) Do something to the car to restrict the power again.

MIGHT get you somewhere. But this seems rather complicated...

Overall

NikB

1,834 posts

272 months

Thursday 4th April 2002
quotequote all
That is outragous. My company (Bell direct) are going to charge me £126 for a Zorst (cat back), filter, lowering and bigger alloys on a 200sx. Shop around for quotes, I hear that Greenlight (www.greenlight-insurance.com) are very cheap at the 'mo. I think that they also offer a track cover option as well!

Hope this helps

Nik

johnny senna

Original Poster:

4,070 posts

279 months

Thursday 4th April 2002
quotequote all
I just rang them up (greenlight). Guess what....they don't insure the original LHD E30 M3. Their website makes it look like they're the last word in insuring imported/modified cars as well. I'm just off to shoot myself.

>> Edited by johnny senna on Thursday 4th April 17:27

gnomesmith

2,458 posts

283 months

Thursday 4th April 2002
quotequote all
Patience, once your insurers get to know you well they might stop charging extra for mods, mine has, (it did take 33 years claim free though).

M@H

11,298 posts

279 months

Friday 5th April 2002
quotequote all
Herts Insurance used to cover my Beetle with uprated engine and exhauset, lowered suspension, chassis and transmission mods, at a very reasonalbe cost... might be worth a ring..?

Cheers
Matt.

JonRB

76,078 posts

279 months

Friday 5th April 2002
quotequote all
quote:
...greenlight...
Their website makes it look like they're the last word in insuring imported/modified cars as well.
That's strange, because usually they are. Certainly the "modified car policy" proposal form was very, very comprehensive with questions like 'have you modifed the compression ratio?'. It covered just about every aspect of car modifying, including some I Wasn't even aware of. So I'm surprised they won't touch you.

Regards
Jon

mags

1,138 posts

286 months

Friday 5th April 2002
quotequote all
Johnny, you are being stiched by your insurance comp (round of applause for me being observant)

I was recently paying about £700 fully comp on my E30 M3, import blah blah.
The bloke that I sold it to got a quote for about £600 from elephant.co.uk and I was very suprised, my renewal was quoted at £1200, a bit of shopping got it down to £700.

Unless your 21 and live in the middle of Moss side I can't see why you would pay this?

Am I showing my age here??

mags

1,138 posts

286 months

Friday 5th April 2002
quotequote all
Ahhhh, just looked at your profile and I see you got track day cover as well, that explains a lot.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to have normal insurance and seperate track day cover? I guess it depends on the number of track days you do?

BTW, who is fitting your exhaust? Munich Legends?

Mags

steve harrison

461 posts

274 months

Friday 5th April 2002
quotequote all
Well, if they started charging an extra fify thousand quid for having silly blue LEDs on the screen washer jets I could understand it but...

johnny senna

Original Poster:

4,070 posts

279 months

Friday 5th April 2002
quotequote all
Thanks for your replies. I researched insurance until it came out of my ar*e. I'm 28, a doctor living in Newcastle who parks the car on the street. Only 3 years NCB. The cheapest quote (and I tried loads using advice from these message boards) for fully comp without trackday cover was £1300, my existing insurer, Privilege, wanted £1800 but that was to include trackdays. Thing is, each trackday costs £80 to £100 to cover the worst. I'll do at least 5 this year, so I stuck with Privilege and paid my £1800. Only one other company would cover trackdays at any price.
Mags...Munch Legends...no way. They want £2500 for the timing chain doing, I'll pay under a grand easily. The exhaust was sold to me by a mate who sells M3 parts on the net, and he knocked me 20% off retail. Its actually a fair price when you compare to other suppliers. Car absolutely flies too.
Greenlght said they don't insure LHD E30 M3's. What's all that about?
The point is I suppose that until I get a garage to put the M3 in and insure it on a classic policy (about £300), and a cheap run about to insure as my first car (again, a few hundred quid), I can't see me paying much less than I do now.