A nice surprise

R

Roundozo

Senior member
 Hampshire
I've just got off the phone with my insurance company and I'm a happy man.

In the past when I was a youngin i may not have fully disclosed all modifications to my car :oops: (don't worry, I know this is a cardinal sin) as i couldn't afford the insurance hike.

now that I'm of the sensible type i thought I'd give them a call to tell them about all the mods I'd done to the zed.

Bilstein B12 Pro Kit
Pollybushed virtually all underside bushes
non run flat tyres
upgraded wishbones and drop links
Black alloys (i thought they might want to know)

There was no admin charge, no change to my excesses and not a single penny more to be added to my premium. Its my birthday next week so this has been a good start :D
 
Result! That's good to know.
I might have forgotten to mention the fact that I don't have non run flats on my car... perhaps I shall call and just double check :)

Here's to a Happy Birthday!
 
I always think this is somewhat of a grey area. Whenever asked the question about modifications i ALWAYS reply with a list, and follow up with, "that i know about". Since i have never been lucky enough to own a car from new, and it is impossible to see a map or get under and check all bushes etc, then how am i to know if the previous owner has done work that i am unaware of? So theoretically you could buy a car that has had internals uprated, maps and all manor of other mods that you could never know about, only to find out in the unlucky event should ever you have an accident or something?!
 
Wow, you have to list all these things to your insurance company? Here in the US, with Progressive (that's all I've used so far) just asks if your engine has been nitrous kitted, or turboed i think. What happens if you get in an accident and they find a mod they didn't know about? Is it like warranty where if the mod had to do with the failure, they're not liable?
 
If you mod your car away from factory oem and you have an accident then they will claim that you have told them false information about the car and your insurance will be void. Basically you're fu*ked.

There is some give however. Like the above poster, you couldn't possibly know what some previous owners have done so it's a bit hit and miss. Better to declare what you do know either way.
 
Insurance companies are odd, to say the least. I recently had to fill in an insurance claim for my work vehicle (rear ended at a stop sign. The guy behind me just assumed I would run the stop sign like everyone else...) and they wanted to know if I had ANY traffic (or criminal) convictions including speeding tickets for the past 5 years. Now remember, I was the one rear ended for stopping at a stop sign, but that doesn't stop the Spanish Inquisition from strip searching my life story. Anyway, it got me thinking, so I called my insurance company and asked them about declaring traffic infringements (I had a speeding ticket from last year - didn't see the temporary speed reduction sign outside the school - no excuses, paid up and thanked the officer for doing her job looking out for the kids). My insurance company basically said they don't care about traffic infringements unless you were summonsed to court, or were going so fast it was an instant loss of license (I think it's 40 or 50 km/h over the limit for that). So it really seems there's a great deal of inconsistency between the insurance companies - at least here anyway.
 
Roundozo said:
If you mod your car away from factory oem and you have an accident then they will claim that you have told them false information about the car and your insurance will be void. Basically you're fu*ked.

There is some give however. Like the above poster, you couldn't possibly know what some previous owners have done so it's a bit hit and miss. Better to declare what you do know either way.
Click to expand...

With MOT and insurance like this.. plus gas prices the way they are, you guys must be really well off to own a car like this in Europe. Here in the US, I'm not well off by any means yet I can afford to have one of these cars. Sorry if I am misinformed.. just seems that way from being on this forum the past two years.
 
I think that this whole area is a minefield. Mine has a boot spoiler, which I know must be non-standard because even I can see that not all have them. However,I'm was genuinely shocked to discover that not all have a strut brace.

I do wonder how far this goes.For example, if you selected a non-standard paint colour at additional cost on anew car, should you dclare that? How about removing the badges? How about removing all of the interior trim? Etc etc.

Anyway, good result for you Roundozo. I was surprised that you're with Direct Line. When I bought a 328i C about 15 years ago, Direct Line told me that they don't insure that type of car. Since then I have never bothered trying them. The Meerkats are my friends!

Happy birthday for next week!
 
I don't know how Direct Line work with mods as I haven't used them for a long time, so they may be perfectly happy to insure the extra value for nothing, but...

It sounds too good to be true, so I'd be checking the small print to see if the 'declared mods' is just that...i.e. they're just noting them down so that if you have an accident, they won't void your claim because of the mods (as they're declared) BUT they won't pay out any extra for the modified parts.

However, the normal upside is that it usually also means that if you're in a non-fault accident, you can recover the costs of the mods from the 3rd party as they were declared.
 
Just think about the amount of people who dont know anything about their car, have bought it second hand already modded and they dont know that bits bolted to it are not standard.
Insurance companies cannot expect everybody to notify them of any mods or upgrades as a lot of people will not know.
For instance when I bought my bike it had thousands already spent on improvements, mainly to the suspension like Ohlins shock and steering damper and Ktech rebuilt front end, but for someone not in the know they could have been standard.
If you have modded and not told your insurance company just do not mention it in the event you need to make a claim.
 
Don't worry Taz, they're sending me all the paperwork in the post covering what we discussed. I've fallen short of that in the past and won't be stung again. I'll have a double check of the small print anyway. I'm not overly worried about recovering the cost of the parts and I have done most of the work myself but I'd be more worried about them voiding my insurance if it wasn't declared.

I am also surprised by direct line. I only went with them as they were the cheapest. Even brokers couldn't match them. I thought "here we go" after declaring the mods but even more surprised that they haven't added more to my premium.

A satisfying win me thinks
 
My declared mods with Admiral don't say a lot on the paperwork, just "declared external and internal mods such as satnav, pdc, bluetooth etc).

The etc bit makes me smile - what does that mean?
 
The policy I had with my previous insurer (and the reason I left for another) has a £10 extra premium to include my current/planned mods (suspension, brakes, exhaust, intake).

It was only when I read the 'small print' that I realised it only covered a max of £250 of mods if it was an at fault/fire/theft claim :headbang:
 
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