Mods & Insurance

[VIICarCare]

Hi guys, what do you declare & not? Im not expecting you to tell me your personal info but whats acceptable (like to get away with?)

My Insurance company want an extra £9 pm just for fitting 40mm springs.

opinions please! cheers

 

[Sir_Dave]

Theoretically you should declare anything that changes the car away from its original specification ...

But i cant imagine people informing their insureers when they fit Toyo T1R's to their 172 Cup instead of the OEM Contisports

£9 a month isnt horrific, i can imagine V6 insurance is fairly abysmal anyway!

 

[mat-nos]

stuff like silvervisions and stubby aerials, colour codeing etc i wouldnt bother with.
obvious stuff like suspension brakes and non oe wheels i would.
the thing is most insurance just list it as suspension changes so doesnt matter if its -40mm springs or £1500 coilovers still around 10 amonth extra for such changes....

 

[Ali]

Theoretically you should declare anything that changes the car away from its original specification ...

But i cant imagine people informing their insureers when they fit Toyo T1R's to their 172 Cup instead of the OEM Contisports

£9 a month isnt horrific, i can imagine V6 insurance is fairly abysmal anyway!

i assume this is on her 1.2 not the V6 Dave. (And insurance is probably cheaper than you think)

I insure some things, but not others thats my choice really.

 

[JD]

I ask before buying and fitting. If it's worth it or no change, I go ahead Dawnie. But I ask about everything, including tiny items.

 

[Addz]

I insured mine this year and declared my seats and exhaust and it came down by £22 :S

 

[Jimbo-Clio]

I will get massivly slated for this but....

I wouldent bother telling them tbh being that the car is not worth huge amounts if you knock it and there is no TP car involved i assume you would repair it anyway and if you hit a TP and your liable your insurer will always pay out anyway. Same as if your hit non fault you will always get payed out regardless of the springs.

99% of Engineers will not care about the springs as its so unoticeable if you decked it on hydros you might have an issue

Only risk that you would run should you hit someone crossing the road etc and kill them your car would get combed as part of the investigation and the mods may get mentioned then and there could be a dispute.

IS ALWAYS WRONG not to tell you insurer about mods as it is in technical breach of the insurance agreement. BUT IMO if i was asked by my insurance company have u modded it over the phone my answer would be no

J

 

[Tunst]

Get black spring they will never know then

 

[Yellow Dave]

I asked priviledge about changing the exhaust and they 1st said only if it will give a performance increase. I assured them it wouldn't so they ran a price and came out at an additional £70/ year so didn't bother at the time.

Problem is if it's a difficult claim they will be looking for ways out of paying, so if it's modded and not declared your insurance is theorectically invalid so they won't pay, also leading to it becomming a criminal act worst case scenario.

On the other hand, 1000's do it and don't declare. A neighbour had his 5 turbo impounded by the police as they saw all the samco hosing and had nothing declared all standard, it wasn't but they somehow missed the hybrid turbo/ charge cooler/ side exit/ koni yellows etc etc and gave his car back

 

[Brett]

Personally if I plan on modding a car, like I did with my 172 I went with a mod friendly insurance company. When I didn't want to mod my car when I had my 1.2 I just went with directline as they were the cheapest.

A non mod friendly everyday insurance company really do know how to charge for mods. Directline don't even allow them for under 25's which I don't agree with, small changes like springs, alloys really don't make you any more likely to crash and age has nothing to do with fire or theft.

 

[Scott™]

Id personally declair every noticable mod like wheels, exhaust etc. Because i wouldnt like to be the person crashing into an M5 for example and my insururers refusing to pay

 

[bigup7]

just signed up with brentacre, declared all mods and also unlimted mods up to 180bhp (on my 172), no admin fees either when adding mods on to the policy, plus they will replace like for like parts incase of accident.

 

[Poopensharten]

All the cool kids try and explain the modifications after a crash TBH

 

[VIICarCare]

all valuable info guys, cheers for your thoughts. All I will do now Is lower her & the black wheels. I think I would feel bad If I didn't declare them as im a wuss tbh! I told them about changing my wheels & the induction kit on the vee.

My mate has a cupra r, lowered so its like a few mm from the ground, induction kits, hoses, etc etc. Hes only insured 3rd party & not declared a dicky bird, that scares me!

 

[Will.]

What if your car is declared as having mods on the insurance but no longer has them on.....

 

[Addz]

I crashed my cooper s and it had thousands spent on it, still insured as standard at the time as i never thought it would happen to me.

Cue 3 months of waiting for them to finally pay out and lots of sleepless night, i was facing having to pay for a car that was in bits and also the car i crashed into which is now i'm all legit, just not worth the worry imo.

 

[Benny06]

I rang up to double check a brake upgrade wouldn't affect my premium and it doesn't. So I then brought the upgraded HC Brembo discs. While I was at it I remembered to inform them that the previous owner had changed the side repeaters to clear. Forgot to mention I have the silvertech bulbs.

Anything which makes your car more attractive to theives, more powerful, handle better, stop quicker etc needs to be declared.

Strangely suspension & brake upgrades cost me nothing though upto a 10bhp power increase will cost £88 with 15 & 20bhp price brackets available too.

I wasn't sure about declaring a remap I'm planning to do as it's 'hidden' within the ECU firmware/software and is only spotted if you go looking for it and also the higher redline. Then I realised I was being an idiot and will deffinatley be declaring it. Void insurance would land me with a massive fine, possible prison sentence, no pay out on my car or any injury to myself but most importantly anybody else I (fingers crossed, hope to God I never do!) injure or kill. For the sake of £90 when I'm paying the best part of £1200pa anyway it's nothing.

I just see an increase in premium part of the modification cost itself.

 

[Benny06]

What if your car is declared as having mods on the insurance but no longer has them on.....

I asked this yesterday when speaking to flux. I didn't really get an answer but basically if you're taking something off just let them know. Insurance companies like to squirm so don't give them any reason.

 

[VIICarCare]

just signed up with brentacre, declared all mods and also unlimted mods up to 180bhp (on my 172), no admin fees either when adding mods on to the policy, plus they will replace like for like parts incase of accident.

cheers mate, i rang these guys up yesterday. With declaring my springs & wheel colour change its like £2 more pm with £170 deposit @ 10 monthly payments. Then anything else i wanna do to her is no extra charge & still covered! Very happy with that, just gotta wait till september till i get 1 yrs ncb for the 2nd car policy.

 

[skyinsurance]

IS ALWAYS WRONG not to tell you insurer about mods as it is in technical breach of the insurance agreement. BUT IMO if i was asked by my insurance company have u modded it over the phone my answer would be no

J

Considering you can insure modified cars with various specialists, quite often for cheaper (with mods included) than a normal insurer, dont you think your approach is a little backward?

 

[Ali]

^ Never heard of that before, usually it's a way for insurance companies to make a buck or two!!

 

[skyinsurance]

^ Never heard of that before, usually it's a way for insurance companies to make a buck or two!!

I'm not saying it is the case everytime but there seems a huge misconception that insuring a modified car is going to hurt your pocket more than a standard car.

An example. I have a Mk1 Mr2 with a 2.0L Turbo conversion. If I run the car through the price comparison sites as a standard car (1.6 engine), I get prices around £600. I insure the car, with every modification declared for just under £400.

 

[jack_davey]

A problem a friend of mine experienced when they declared modifications with their insurance company on a previous car, when they came to renew the policy, they insured the car as standard (as they had removed the modifications) they randomly debited £40 from their account. When they phoned them up and asked why they had debited £40 they said it was for the aftermarket exhaust, when they explained that they removed it before they renewed, they said that they would not refund the money until they provided proof that they had removed it.
Then when they asked what kind of proof they would need, the insurance company said a receipt from a garage, when they explained they removed it themselves they said that there was nothing they could do.