When I purchased my Z4 last year, I decided to pay a little extra and go with BMW Insurance. I am currently considering p/exing my car for a new 35is, so I telephoned BMW for a quote. One of the questions I was asked was whether the car had any optional extras. Well, I'm sure we all know that to get a decent spec from BMW, you often need to add plenty of options. Not only did BMW Insurance want to know details and prices of each and every option (even down to cost of metallic paint), but they told me that because I hadn't individually specified each option on my existing Z4, I had effectively been driving uninsured for the past 8 months! Although adding the list of options to my policy did not affect the premium, BMW told me that failure to declare them when taking out a policy will completely invalidate that policy. Now I wasn't asked to provide a complete breakdown when I took out my policy, so I was was somewhat alarmed when I was told I had been uninsured. I thought I would point this out to forum members who might be insured through BMW, but have also neglected to inform them of their options list. Most insurance companies are only interested in performance enhancing modifications, so I think BMW's approach to this is a total farce. After all, they have access to BMW car data, and can see the spec of the car at the time it left the factory. I'm cancelling my policy and going with More Than. £200 cheaper, and with identical cover. BMW Insurance can get stuffed!!
BMW INSURANCE -BEWARE!
- Thread starter lee789
- Start date
Liverpool
I'm not sure they will have access to all your details, especially given the remit of the data protection act, after all BMW Insurance is not BMW, it's run by the RBS Group and underwritten by UK Insurance Limited.
They were also 3 times the price of my chosen insurer (£2400 vs £800).
They were also 3 times the price of my chosen insurer (£2400 vs £800).
Hi mmm-five,
Lady at BMW Ins told me they could see the spec of the car from the chassis number. If they can see this, they should auto-add the details to your policy, not expect customers to reel off pages of spec and prices from the options brochure. If I'd known it was part of RBS I wouldn't have gone with them in the first place. Spending enough bailing out those buggers already!!
Lady at BMW Ins told me they could see the spec of the car from the chassis number. If they can see this, they should auto-add the details to your policy, not expect customers to reel off pages of spec and prices from the options brochure. If I'd known it was part of RBS I wouldn't have gone with them in the first place. Spending enough bailing out those buggers already!!
lacroupade
Veteran
mmm-five said:
How else are they supposed to afford the kickback to BMW? :?
Might be out of line here .......... but I believe that once a policy has been paid for/issued no insurance company can withdraw minimum cover - ie telling you that you were driving around legally uninsured is shite ....... they can dispute theft and other things but you always have 3rd party cover
and ........ once again I could be wrong, but all factory fitted options are not classified as optional extras for insurance purposes ...........
One thing I have seen in the UK since I've been back here is that insurance sales people say just about anything they like - they seem to forget that the insurance business is governed by EU law .....
and ........ once again I could be wrong, but all factory fitted options are not classified as optional extras for insurance purposes ...........
One thing I have seen in the UK since I've been back here is that insurance sales people say just about anything they like - they seem to forget that the insurance business is governed by EU law .....