Insurance experience

[Gebbly]

I wasnt sure whether to put this info in the Insurance Scheme section as that seemed to be Chris Knott specific. Since it is to do with a Z4M I thought I would try here. Please let me know if it needs moving.

In case this helps anyone else, I tried shopping around for insurance and the quotes were quite wide ranging in price. For all of them I specified a Z4M with modified suspension doing 5k miles as my second car. Some key quotes :
Adrian Flux £650
Chris Knott (including the forum discount code) £593
Performance Direct £499
Howden (Previously APlan) £430

I ended up going with Howden because when I added the alloys and eventuri air box it didnt change the quote. Both Howden and Performance Direct are backed by KGM.

Note : I dont know if this is specific to Howden or an insurance industry thing but when talking with Howden they said if there is only 1 or 2 modifications then its a limited number of insurance plans available to choose from. Once you have 3 or more modifications there is a greater range of policies available.

 

[mmm-five]

Unfortunately, what works for one combination of car, mods, location, driver does not work for all - hence the annual slog of comparing/phoning insurers/brokers - and of course personal experiences with insurers may limit your options :x

I think they're all much of a muchness nowadays, but the only one I don't even bother calling is Adrian Flux as they were known to be dodgy and arseholes in the past, and that's from personal experience of them. They might have changed, but they left a very bad taste in the mouth so have never been back to them.

 

[plenty]

Unfortunately, what works for one combination of car, mods, location, driver does not work for all - hence the annual slog of comparing/phoning insurers/brokers - and of course personal experiences with insurers may limit your options :x

+1. Other than being a new/younger driver, postcode makes the biggest difference of all and different underwriters will price the same postcode quite differently.

 

[Gebbly]

I don't even bother calling is Adrian Flux

Thanks for the tip mmm-five, I'll bear that in mind for future. I wonder if they can afford to be a bit slack as they are such a big name. Prior to the Z4M the only insurer I had heard of that specialised in modified cars was Adrian Flux.

postcode makes the biggest difference of all

Well that would be interesting to get info on.

 

[Rockhopper]

I thought that was well understood. An address in central London is going to much higher risk than one in the Welsh hills.

 

[Mr Tidy]

That's interesting. Howdens quoted £419 for my MC in April with the mods declared.

Adrian Flux couldn't get close, but Chris Knott agreed to match it so I stayed with them.

 

[Gebbly]

Other more general peculiarities, my Z4M insurance (a modified sports car) Is almost half (£430) my insurance for my BMW 330e (a stock hybrid sensible car) (£780). Admittedly the Z4M was covered for 5k miles and the 330e for 10k miles but even so.

And lastly it really does pay to try every possible variant of policy. Up until yesterday my 330e insurance was for leisure only. However I will need to drive to a customer site for my work. So I changed the policy to include 1k miles of business travel. Rather than put my premium up as I expected it lowered it by £30. A nice surprise

 

[Worcester_spoon]

+1 Howdens here - the mods will always have a impact, but Howdens seem to be the most consistent and competitive. Mine's 21 years old, so only another 4 years and it'll qualify for classic car insurance

 

[Gebbly]

qualify for classic car insurance

I hadnt really thought about that being a unique category but of course that makes sense. Looking online it seems there is no definitive definition of what makes a car classic. For example Aviva says it must be a secondary car and...

drive less than 5,000 miles a year (or 3,000 miles a year for cars made after 1990)
be worth at least £1,000
be over 15 years old

By those definitions my new Z4M (2006) could maybe classify for Aviva's classic car insurance?

 

[coldel]

Ah the insurance game. What fun.
Weirdly before I sold my Z4 E86 recently I actually went with RAC insurance. They allowed a few mods and gave me a great price.
It is a moving beast though and as others have said, hat works for one doesn't for another.
Get on that phone and start ringing around!

 

[Rockhopper]

Annual mileage makes a huge difference. Mine did less than 5k between MOT's last time few times so thats what i declare. I also have business use as work need that so I can claim mileage (usually only 40 miles a month but better in my pocket than theirs). I think my renewal recently was £190 (£10 more than last year.

 

[Zowen]

postcode makes the biggest difference of all

Well that would be interesting to get info on.

I can actually show some personal experience with this! Im 21 and live in a good postcode! been driving since 17 mever had a quote over a 1k. I did a bit of asking round my friends around insurance time due to there being a month or so and similar cars (3 of us have the same fiesta in same spec) and theres have always been considerably more. The worse I seen is my friend in Preston since the "no insurance scandal".