Who's car is truthfully insured?

[Steve Horrocks]

I just hope 50% of you guys dont hit me or my car

from a totally selfish point of view, i hope NOBODY hits me or my car to be honest! lol

[shadowninja]

and what will happen if you have a bad accident which wont enable you to take these parts off?
theyll be going over the car while your in hospital fella......
not only then would insurance be void but you would have to pay for some crazy expenses....public property dmaages, damages to other road users (if you hit anyone).....

not just that. if someone doesnt't declare mods and the insurance is therefore void, that means they were driving around knowingly without proper insurance... which is against the law, isn't it? so when they get out of hospital, be prepared for a hefty fine or imprisonment.

[jimGTS]

and maybe ban......


extreme i know what i just said....but soon as insurance is void, you are in the hands of law......
then take into account if you were speeding at the time, or drunk!

[JohnnyC]

However...just where do you draw the line with regard to informing the insurance company of your mods? Is it down to performance and/or styling mods?

Started a thread about this a while ago: http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25617

Obviously a lot of stuff is minor and won't affect insurance - so do they need to know? but it is a bit blurry regards where to draw the line. I haven't declared my clear side repeators or my din pocket

Then there's mods that you don't know about. When we purchased the wifes FTO, we had no idea it had an aftermarket exhaust on, only found out by asking the previous owner who we traced through an owners club (as the car was bought from a dealer).

[Matty_GTS]

Interesting the whole, if not declared your not insure thing ... i have 2 friends who had accidents with non declared mods.

Friend one ... 2005 Mini Cooper spun on country lane - had 18" OZ wheels, exhaust, hks filter, different lights and a chip none of which decared. When the assesor came to look he said that you have to pay £181 because you have mods on the car that you didn't declare and his claim still went through. (Even though when he phoned to enquire about insuring the £1200 alloys they wanted £600 on the premium!!! )

Friend two ... 2000 Fiesta 1.25 nasty little accident, broke his leg - alloys, air filter and exhaust. He was in hospital and the car was taken to a yard. The assesor came to look at the car, said you haven't declared your mods ... you owe us ~ £300.

Both cases my friends were to blame, although friend one did not envolve anyone else and in neither case was public property damaged.

An even funnier one, my girlfriends KA got rear ended buy an old lady in a fiesta. She has MCR body kit on it thats not declared. The insurance guy came to look at damage, didn't even ask why there was a kit on it and the bumper got replaced with a new MCR one, thought they only replaced with manufacturers standard parts?

Thats 3 times where not declaring hasn't really caused any problems.

Not that i would but makes you think, maybee save the money and in the event of an accident either whip the mods of quick or just caugh up the dow then. Guessin if a mod was the cause of an accident and it wasn't insured then your screwed! (Like a 1ltr fiesta doing 180mph cos it been modded, lol)

[Lauren]

Another story about undeclared mods.

Years ago i bought an Astra 1.3SR Mk1, the boxy shape, first generation astra.

The previous owner had installed GTE running gear albeit running on a carb. Now obviously a 1.8SR on a carb was never made, but the 1.8 engine (SOHC one) looks identical to the 1.6. There was a 1.6SR, so what i did was send the logbook off and change it from 1.3 to 1.6, then simply insured it as a 1.6.

The car was also pretty low too.. having all teh GTE bits plus i suspect some aftermarket springs.

If you looked closely at the engine block you could see 1.8 cast on it.

6 months later some guy in an LT van hit me up the back at 50mph... trashing the car badly. The insurance never noticed and paid up in full, no probs.

On my previous SCs i had a mod friendly policy so i listed absolutely everything i could think of.

On my last NA i just insured it as standard. It had a magnex, K&N and Koni adjustables and springs. Though you could argue that apart from teh air filter everything else is replacement parts.

I really doubt though i'd bother declaring internal engine stuff like cams, pistons, but if i had an 'any' mod policy i'd declare everything.

[Dave Goodhand]

Correctly insured all the time.

Whats the point of forking out loads of money for invalid insurance. Surely its better just to save the £1k and not pay for it!
My insurance started at £2200 and is now down to £900 but its still vastly outrageous considering I've never had a claim and payed over £7k in insurance over 5 years.

[Canopus]

Candidly, I'm shocked at the number of people who have not declared modifications to their cars. You can argue that a different mirror/lights etc are minor but when you come down to items which demonstrably increase the power output of an engine and the performance, those people who do not declare such modifications are behaving in a criminally irresponsible manner.

I work in the insurance industry (not cars) and the issue is not about a few broken bits of metal which can always be straightened out. Its about the catastrophic mistake when someone, TP or passenger is left a paraplegic. How are you going to pay for that - you can't and that doesn't help them one bit.

What are you going to say to the child who has lost their legs, sorry, tough, I don't have insurance.

We all know of the train crash with the landrover where the motorist fell asleep at the wheel - it cost £130,000,000. It was the biggest auto claim ever. If you look at most car policies now they have a property damage limit of about £20,000,000 and no that's not a target.

Sorry for the rant but this attitude is very dangerous and is also offensive to those who tell the truth and pay the right premium....

[SimonPearse]

all mod declared, Ohlins, sparco braces, Mongoose, Apexi,turbo timer, business mileage (and lots of it!)

[tonigmr2]

I always thought that if the insurance was inadequate on the car i.e. mods not declared then the third party was not penalised? The car driver/owner might loose out but third party claims are settled??

T
(always insured to the hilt as I'm paranoid like that, yes I even declare my TRD oil and rad cap )

[firstmk1]

I always thought that if the insurance was inadequate on the car i.e. mods not declared then the third party was not penalised? The car driver/owner might loose out but third party claims are settled??

T
(always insured to the hilt as I'm paranoid like that, yes I even declare my TRD oil and rad cap )

This is my problem with people who reduce their insurance by not declaring mods. The insurance pot that we all pay into pays for the third party damage they do but they've not paid as much into it as someone who insures honestly.

[revturbo]

my insurance is 1437.00 per year

[Andy Champ]

my insurance is 1437.00 per year

Mine's £250 (and 50p). Sometimes it's nice to be old... unmodded car tho' and low milage.

[Sidewinder]

The issue is that people know how much the insurance company is likely to sting them extra, so take the risk about not declaring them. Once they've got away with it for one year's insurance, they'll just rinse and repeat year after year.

Perhaps we should lobby the insurance companies for a 'mods amnesty'?

[Canopus]

The issue with insurance is that its a contract and you cannot decide which part of a contract you decide to comply with. Your proposal form and car details form a part of that contract. If you do not declare performance modifications you are taking a chance that the whole contract may be void.

It is are correct that the compensation board? does provide some compensation for uninsured drivers but it is limited in scope, not really my field car insurance, but contract law is generally the same.

Apart from the fact someone may be critically injured who cannot recieve adequate or timely compensation because the driver lied about his insurance, how would you feel if it was your wife, sister, brother who was injured?

There is also the very simple fact that the absence of insurance does not relieve you of liability. The courts can take your car and your house and everything you have and impose court payments for the rest of your life to meet your legal obligations if the matter is serious enough.

There are frequent bitches on this site about insurance companies who are reluctant to pay out or are otherwise difficult. If the poll shows 50% of people have lied then this is probably reflected accross the country and you can see why insurance companied are sometimes difficult. It is unfortunate that the innocent get caught up in this.

Please Guys and Galls, think about the possible consequences of a serior accident and no insurance. We all hear about the people who got away with it, those who didn't are curiously silent.

Rant over for today.

[sutats]

You guys wanna try living in tottenham then

Hear gunshots every other night. Broadwater farm is round the back of the house bacsically lol.

Yeah Enis, Tottenham is hella dodgy! I should know, I live in the hell hole too.

[steve]

all mods declared

[Al-sw20]

You fellas better look out or they will get you with the 'Hunter' check!

[Caribbean_Blue]

I does curtainly pay off declaring all your mods etc as I did, you can have or are involved in an accident when you least expect it, trust me found out first hand.

Insured everthing and glad did so have car inspected as I insured everything had car fixed with not to much bother, if not insured you can really stich yourself up good-and-proper!!

Not insured on the smallest thing, they can 'rightfully' turn round and say no this isn't delaired therefore insurance invalid so tuff!

Reece.

[Tiamat]

Apart from the fact someone may be critically injured who cannot recieve adequate or timely compensation because the driver lied about his insurance, how would you feel if it was your wife, sister, brother who was injured?

There is also the very simple fact that the absence of insurance does not relieve you of liability. The courts can take your car and your house and everything you have and impose court payments for the rest of your life to meet your legal obligations if the matter is serious enough.

IIRC correctly you cannot negate the third party element of the insurance.
However, if you have lied about your insurance then the insurance company are able to come after you for the money they have paid out for your accident.
If you have paid your insurance and not declared your mods it will mean that the insurance company can refuse to pay out for damage to your car or if it is burnt / stolen.