New insurance policy for lightly modded Z4

[cps26]

Hello all,

As some of you might know from reading the for sale thread, I'm going to be buying Bing's 3.0si auto - picking it up this weekend and can't wait! However, this does unfortunately mean that I'm going to have to hand over some more money to the insurance industry...

Having read various threads on here, it seems like often when you modify from OEM spec and then tell your insurers about it, they either don't really care or charge some fairly low admin fee to make the change - which is fine. However, when searching for a new policy (using Confused.com in this case), ticking the "modified" box seems to result in a number of the best quotes disappearing - I assume because certain insurers don't want to cover modified cars (for example, eSure give an excellent price for the standard car, but then seemingly nothing at all for the modified one...) So I wondered whether anyone had any experience of buying a "ready modified" car and insuring it and what the best approach was?

Secondly, it would be great to have some views on which mods need to be declared:

- Eibach springs - certainly I assume?
- 224 style wheels - not the wheels in came out of the factory with, but a genuine BMW Z4 option I think - so not truly "aftermarket"?
- Purely cosmetic changes to badges etc?
- Internal electrical tweaks - Intravee, Gaptech etc?

Any thoughts gratefully received!

 

[Stuart Truman]

Tell the insurer everything, none of what you have done alters the performance so you should be OK.

Direct line are a little odd to deal with. My old Golf was remapped to over 300bhp and they were fine with it, minimal additional premium, but would they touch a zed with a strut brace? Nope!

Adrian Flux are very good and I'm sure there'll be a few more recommendations from others on here. It might make sense to find out who Bing had it insured with.

Edit - I'm still with direct line. Avoid RAC like the plague, I had nothing but grief from them when I wanted to change a car part way through a year.

 

[srhutch]

Best bet is to speak to the insurance company. Bing's car isn't that modified so shouldn't be a problem.

Declare sell mods then there can be no is sure if you have to claim.

One you have missed is the removal of non runflats. The wheels also need declaring even though they are BMW as they weren't std fit on non ///M's.

 

[Bing]

I'm with a Direct Line - have to confess in all the excitement recently I've not told them about the wheels. When I told them about non-runflats they were fine, and no admin fee when I changed to winters and back. The springs and spacers added £30 a year to the policy IIRC. The rest I didn't tell them about.

 

[Mark-Z4]

I'm with Elephant, I've declared everything, wheels, springs, bumper etc. I pay £420 and it was the first time a company had give me a renewal price that no one else could beat. Normally I have to play them off against each other.

 

[srhutch]

I'm with a Direct Line - have to confess in all the excitement recently I've not told them about the wheels. When I told them about non-runflats they were fine, and no admin fee when I changed to winters and back. The springs and spacers added £30 a year to the policy IIRC. The rest I didn't tell them about.

Iirc there should be no charges for swapping between winter and summers.

 

[aquazi]

I am with elephant, and all my mods didnt really add much to the premium... (The biggest hit was my exhaust) I think most mods you have an option of genuine non standard... Which would work for your wheels.... You should also mention non runflats (they prob wont care) tires too.


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[stupot67]

Hi,

Another vote for Adrian Flux - Especially if your using the Zed as a 2nd car, they will give a good proportion of your main policies NCB as a discount (Not NCB transfer). I used them for years when I had my Seven, thru various engine,wheels and transmission changes, with very little or no increase in premium. And again when I informed them of the changes I had made to the Zed (Wheels, tyres and Eibachs) no change to the premium. .

Stu.

 

[Adamski]

I'm with Adrian Flux, once you're on a modified car policy, you can keep modding (power mods excluded) and the premium won't go up.

I declared all my mods and the premium stayed the same.


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[tomscott]

Im with Admiral, all my mods added up to £50 you should be ok but depends on your area.

 

[GP06Roadster]

Im another with admiral. They charged me around £30 to add aftermarket wheels but most of that was an admin fee for "making a change to the policy". If you flag mods when you take out the policy in theory it shouldn't add that much.

Personally I'm not going to flag non performance changes - things like badges, stubby etc, otherwise where does it end? - just becomes a licence for insurers to keep unfairly charging fees for the hell of it.