Insuring a standard car as modified
Discussion
You often hear about people getting insurance claims rejected as they didn't declare mods but how does it work the other way round? I was thinking of fitting a free flow intake and exhaust to my car along with a re-map but I won't be doing it all at the same time. I was reading about modified car insurance and read a few people saying they found there was actually a magical number of mods where the insurance was cheaper than only having one mod.
My plan was to wait for my next insurance renewal and take out a policy declaring the mods I have planned and then have them carried out during the term of that policy. What I'm wondering is what would happen if I have to make a claim and the assessor finds the car has say a standard exhaust when I've said it was modified. Do they care or would they try to use it as a reason not to pay out?
My plan was to wait for my next insurance renewal and take out a policy declaring the mods I have planned and then have them carried out during the term of that policy. What I'm wondering is what would happen if I have to make a claim and the assessor finds the car has say a standard exhaust when I've said it was modified. Do they care or would they try to use it as a reason not to pay out?
CloudyNight said:
You often hear about people getting insurance claims rejected as they didn't declare mods but how does it work the other way round? I was thinking of fitting a free flow intake and exhaust to my car along with a re-map but I won't be doing it all at the same time. I was reading about modified car insurance and read a few people saying they found there was actually a magical number of mods where the insurance was cheaper than only having one mod.
My plan was to wait for my next insurance renewal and take out a policy declaring the mods I have planned and then have them carried out during the term of that policy. What I'm wondering is what would happen if I have to make a claim and the assessor finds the car has say a standard exhaust when I've said it was modified. Do they care or would they try to use it as a reason not to pay out?
Insure what you have anything else would be asking for trouble.My plan was to wait for my next insurance renewal and take out a policy declaring the mods I have planned and then have them carried out during the term of that policy. What I'm wondering is what would happen if I have to make a claim and the assessor finds the car has say a standard exhaust when I've said it was modified. Do they care or would they try to use it as a reason not to pay out?
I would find an insurance company that would accept the mods once they are completed and then tell them you have modified it.
Can't answer your specific question .
However lots of companies will allow you to add mods later or declare that you plan to do these mods. And take out a policy that will cover them.
Adrian flux will do this.
You're correct in my experience modified car insurance is cheaper or the same as insuring a standard car. However I've not owned anything standard for quite along time. So it might be different these days.
However lots of companies will allow you to add mods later or declare that you plan to do these mods. And take out a policy that will cover them.
Adrian flux will do this.
You're correct in my experience modified car insurance is cheaper or the same as insuring a standard car. However I've not owned anything standard for quite along time. So it might be different these days.
ARHarh said:
Insure what you have anything else would be asking for trouble.
I would find an insurance company that would accept the mods once they are completed and then tell them you have modified it.
Just be more careful than I was when selecting insurance. I planned to modify my 340i with a stage 1 tune and a change of wheels. I got a good price from a well know provider and called them up. I asked if I could modify the car as I planned to do it in the near future and was told no problem, just contact them when it was done and they would change the policy. I would find an insurance company that would accept the mods once they are completed and then tell them you have modified it.
A month later I decided to book the car in so called the insurance company to let them know. Apparently, my policy doesn't allow modifications at all so I had to keep the car standard. I think come renewal time, I might declare a tune, take out the policy with it declared and then get the modification done.
I guess the answer is ask the insurer but in my experience when I was into modifying cars I used Greenlight regularly and I would call and discuss planned modifications and say for example I want to get them fitted in a weeks time, they just added the mods immediately if I was happy with the price change.
I didn’t have an accident though.
I didn’t have an accident though.
I would declare each mod as it's added. If you have mods on your insurance but not actually on the car then the insurance company can easily void your insurance because your car isn't as stated on your policy. I would think this especially if a number of mods together means your insurance is less than if you didn't have all of them fitted - imagine if you had a crash, declared on your policy that you'd had much better brakes installed yet didn't yet have them on the car. It's all well and good trying to edge around the rules until something goes wrong, which is why you have insurance in the first place - it just isn't worth trying to be clever by being dishonest.
Antony Moxey said:
I would declare each mod as it's added. If you have mods on your insurance but not actually on the car then the insurance company can easily void your insurance because your car isn't as stated on your policy. I would think this especially if a number of mods together means your insurance is less than if you didn't have all of them fitted - imagine if you had a crash, declared on your policy that you'd had much better brakes installed yet didn't yet have them on the car. It's all well and good trying to edge around the rules until something goes wrong, which is why you have insurance in the first place - it just isn't worth trying to be clever by being dishonest.
I'm not disagreeing with your advice, but wondered whether that's what ins co's do...ah 100bhp increase that's an extra £500, but bigger brakes reduces it to £400 or...
ah 100bhp increase that's an extra £500, but bigger brakes, that's another mode for an extra £200 please
Just curious
ARHarh said:
CloudyNight said:
You often hear about people getting insurance claims rejected as they didn't declare mods but how does it work the other way round? I was thinking of fitting a free flow intake and exhaust to my car along with a re-map but I won't be doing it all at the same time. I was reading about modified car insurance and read a few people saying they found there was actually a magical number of mods where the insurance was cheaper than only having one mod.
My plan was to wait for my next insurance renewal and take out a policy declaring the mods I have planned and then have them carried out during the term of that policy. What I'm wondering is what would happen if I have to make a claim and the assessor finds the car has say a standard exhaust when I've said it was modified. Do they care or would they try to use it as a reason not to pay out?
Insure what you have anything else would be asking for trouble.My plan was to wait for my next insurance renewal and take out a policy declaring the mods I have planned and then have them carried out during the term of that policy. What I'm wondering is what would happen if I have to make a claim and the assessor finds the car has say a standard exhaust when I've said it was modified. Do they care or would they try to use it as a reason not to pay out?
I would find an insurance company that would accept the mods once they are completed and then tell them you have modified it.
BertBert said:
Antony Moxey said:
I would declare each mod as it's added. If you have mods on your insurance but not actually on the car then the insurance company can easily void your insurance because your car isn't as stated on your policy. I would think this especially if a number of mods together means your insurance is less than if you didn't have all of them fitted - imagine if you had a crash, declared on your policy that you'd had much better brakes installed yet didn't yet have them on the car. It's all well and good trying to edge around the rules until something goes wrong, which is why you have insurance in the first place - it just isn't worth trying to be clever by being dishonest.
I'm not disagreeing with your advice, but wondered whether that's what ins co's do...ah 100bhp increase that's an extra £500, but bigger brakes reduces it to £400 or...
ah 100bhp increase that's an extra £500, but bigger brakes, that's another mode for an extra £200 please
Just curious
Apart from the risk of voiding the policy, there's also the desire on your part to be able to claim for the work you have had done.
Assume that your car will be a total write off, and you have spent £1000 on modifications, you want to recover at least some of that £1,000.
Back in 1999 I bought a 9 year old, 22,000 mile Saab and converted it to run on LPG at a cost of £1,700.
I declared the mod to the main stream insurers I used, no extra premium.
A year later I got run off the road by a texting driver coming straight at me on a single carriageway A road at 60 mph.
I took to the ditch and the car was a write off.
The insurerd confirmed that the mileage was indeed now only 40,000 on a 10 year old car and paid me market value plus an extra £1,000 for the now second hand LPG system.
These days I have tow bars on two of my cars. I always declare them, because if the car gets rear ended, I will need to replace the tow bar at a cost of around £400
Assume that your car will be a total write off, and you have spent £1000 on modifications, you want to recover at least some of that £1,000.
Back in 1999 I bought a 9 year old, 22,000 mile Saab and converted it to run on LPG at a cost of £1,700.
I declared the mod to the main stream insurers I used, no extra premium.
A year later I got run off the road by a texting driver coming straight at me on a single carriageway A road at 60 mph.
I took to the ditch and the car was a write off.
The insurerd confirmed that the mileage was indeed now only 40,000 on a 10 year old car and paid me market value plus an extra £1,000 for the now second hand LPG system.
These days I have tow bars on two of my cars. I always declare them, because if the car gets rear ended, I will need to replace the tow bar at a cost of around £400
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