Jon Melson

Hi Dan, I appreciate you getting back to me 'in public'. The cancellation would've been due to a missing mileage decleration form, which I posted but was never found! I ended up receiving a second and faxing it.. Believe me, I know how unreliable the post is currently (many unhappy clients!) but I suppose it just struck a chord that AF write in their T&C's that they can renew the policy without any correspondance and create their own DD mandate.. ..yet after taking your money WITHOUT WRITTEN OR SPOKEN CONSENT will then cancel the policy and keep your money if you don't receive the mileage declaration form. I struggle to see where the responsibiliy lies here? In 2007 I went to Asia for 3 months and left my bank account empty. According to the law's of Flux I could've come home with 4 bounced direct debits and no idea what on earth would be going on as I didn't have my mail forwarded to me? I'd be in default with you and the bank for something I didn't actually agree to. I can't see how this is just, and certainly not ethical. I don't think we're in the realms of not Treating Customers Fairly but looking back I guess I was lucky I'd renewed my policy just one month before I travelled??! Perhaps this is common practice, although my motorbike is insured with CIA and they do not automotically renew.... In your favour though, I have always found all the members of your team to be excpetionally helpful and have never been put on hold longer than a few minutes. Generally your customer service is excellent, and if it were not for being £300 more expensive than my best quote I would have continued to business with AF. I hope anyone reading this takes away that: 1.) Premiums vary wildly, and unfortunately this seems to be down to the underwriter rather than the broker 2.) Read the small print in your contract or else you could find yourself either getting re-insured automatically, or un-insured automatically a month after! 3.) AF are good guys that aren't afraid to put themselves in the pubic domain, and whilst they might not always be the cheapest (and hold on to all their pennies if you have to cancel...) their knowledge and customer service is exemplary. Best regards, Jon

I've just bought my first Skoda, an Octavia vRS, and I'm afraid to say AF were miles away from a competetive rate. I've been with AF for nearly 5 years on/off and have full NCD. Whilst the customer service was excellent, the pricing was shocking. Very best quote was from Aviva, and in excess of £700. I went with More Than (trading name of RSA) and it was £426. Sorry guys, just not good enough this time, although to be fair, they have been more competetive in the past. PS Don't like the way AF renew your policy automatically, even continuing the DD without a signature... ..yet threaten to cancel your policy (without refund) if you don't return docs in time. Doesn't seem very just to me.

Buy a bike mate! My car is for getting to places, my bike is for fun. My Aprilia is 120.5bhp @ rear wheel, or at least it was before new chip, airbox, collector box and race can. I'll have nearly any car up to about 110mph and it pulls to a GPS certified 170mph... And you can't get your knee down in a car either! In all seriousness, I've bought the Skoda as sensible day-to-day transport which is quick enough for a bit of fun; think I'll do a track day or two as well for the hell of it. (Does this forum do them?) Yeah, 230bhp is fine for me. Maybe I'll change my mind one day but we'll see! One thing's for sure though, you guys know your cars... Many thanks!!!

Guys, you're all top boys- thanks for this. I've looked at the options and followed the 'angel' route. They have an approved fitter near me in deepest, darkest Basildon. I'm booked in for 1pm this Saturday. I don't think I'd ever do any real modifications; I threw loads of money at my R6 and now have an Aprilia Mille for when I really want to go quickly! If I come out of this with a smooth, reliable 230bhp I'll be very happy. Many thanks, Jon

That's really helpful, thank you. £500 does seem very steep but I took the 2 dyno runs to be worth £80 or so. I come from a motorbike background and a typical full power run is £40-£50. Where can you get a bluefin at £380? If it's that easy and I can do it myself I may as well order one. I'm not looking at doing any future tuning so don't want to spend a fortune, just want to liberate a bit more power. I'd be very happy with a smooth, linear 230bhp. Also, what are stage 1, 2, and 3 Bluefins? Sorry, my only experience of remapping is from motorbike Power Commanders which I have fitted myself but downloaded the maps from via USB. All help greatly appreciated.

Hi guys, I live very close to Lakeside and have had AMD Technik reccomended to me for a remap of my recently purchased 3 yr old Octavia vRs petrol (2.0 model) They seem to have a lot of experience with VAG engines, including many race cars. The rate is £500 for the remap including before and after runs, which seems a little steep. Has anybody had any experience of these guys and are they worth the money? Cheers, jon

Hi Guys, I tried searching for this but had no luck but hope it's not a common question... I've just bought an 06 Octavia VRS and get terrible static/inteferance when I use the multichanger. The level of static is worse if the car is running with lights and other electrical systems on, but dies away when the engine is off (although does remain). My mechanical and electrical knowledge is non-existant, but is this a bad earth? Cheers!