Because I like to know things waaaay in advance, and because I'm thinking of Jabba next summer, I just rattled through Admiral's online quote system (my current insurer) with some, errm, "adjusted" personal details (because they insist on recalling my current details if I tell them I'm me).

There's a little box you fill in with a "yes" if your car is modified. And if you say "yes" there's a whole new page full of tickboxes with types of mod next to them. This filled me with great confidence. So, of the three important ones that say "Engine Chip 0-10% inc power", "Engine Chip 11-25% inc power" and "Engine Chip 26%+ inc power" I ticked the latter as that's the section my 150bhp Estate would fit into if Jabba turned it into a 230bhp monster.

And when I got to the end of the process a little "Sorry" message appeared. Admiral won't cover you if you have that modification. They'll cover me anywhere from 0% to 25% extra power (the 11-25% option yielding somewhere in the region of

Elephant offered to cover me for the princeley (additional) sum of

* Other tuners are available, but frankly i don't care

Sorry to hijack but ignore my last PM.

Direct Line put on an extra

Sorry to hijack but ignore my last PM.

Too late, YHPM

Another vote for LV here.

Frizzell http://www.frizzell.co.uk own Liverpool Victoria. If you are a member of one of Frizzell's "partner" organisations (Civil Service Motoring Association, some of the public sector unions, etc.) you may be able to get a discount on LV's price.

Regarding LV (whilst trying not to hijack my own thread here) - and I suppose any insurance company - what are the "magic words" to say to them regarding a remap?

Do you tell them you've had the engine remapped? Had the engine chipped? Had the car chipped (a subtle distinction on the phone, as most numpties at the insurance place might hear "engine" and reply that they won't cover engine changes..) or ... erm ... something else ... ?

Regarding LV (whilst trying not to hijack my own thread here) - and I suppose any insurance company - what are the "magic words" to say to them regarding a remap?

Do you tell them you've had the engine remapped? Had the engine chipped? Had the car chipped (a subtle distinction on the phone' date=' as most numpties at the insurance place might hear "engine" and reply that they won't cover engine changes..) or ... erm ... something else ... ?[/quote']I believe as long as you don't mention "change in cubic capacity" over the phone, they'll happily insure you at no extra cost.

Regarding remaps and all, they'll ask you to keep receipts of all the work and that will be it. I think they even refund the value of third party work if ever something nasty were to happen to the car

I changed from NU Direct (no mods allowed) to LiverpoolVictoria (mod friendly) so that I could enjoy a 53% increase in power without any extra loading.

elephant will insure mine as its not as big an increase, 180 to hopefully 220bhp

Re: what do you call it?

I used the term "engine management upgrade"... sounds so much better than "chipped"

Sooo - only one volunteer with an approximate price then?

elephant will insure mine as its not as big an increase, 180 to hopefully 220bhp

I suggest you read the small print...

Particularly the part that used to say they will only make payment based on a standard car in the event of a claim.

Jabba'd 2002 Octavia 4X4 Estate

Declared mods: Jabba remap, Bailey DV, cruise control

LV -

as long as they pay out ill be happy. if the base their payment on a standard car that will be ok, not ideal but least im insured!!!

afterall i guess

I know there's the "don't use the online quote" rule, and I've not actually had an LV quote online .. but .. to quote the quote system (errm, and I quote ...)

There are a small number of circumstances where we can not provide a quotation, to save you time, please read through and confirm that you agree with the following:

You are the owner, main user and registered keeper of the vehicle

You and any other driver are under 80 years of age

You are resident in the UK

You or any other drivers of your vehicle have not been banned from driving in the last 5 years for any reason except for a single speeding offence

Your vehicle is classed as a private car (not a van, Pickup or Minibus) and is registered and normally driven in the UK

Your vehicle has been manufactured for the UK market, e.g. it is not a Japanese import

Your vehicle does not have any performance enhancing modifications.

My emphasis added, obviously ...

Speak with LV direct. I have lost count of the number of members who have asked them to confirm that they really don't charge extra for mods - and have been given the same answer. Increase in engine capacity is a problem though, as is age if you are under 25.

I've just read through the "notifying LV of mods" thread and the whole thing sounds very dodgy to me. No way of recording the mods on their system? No written notification that they've been told of the mods and that they've accepted the liability? That would worry me greatly, not from a "getting my money if the car was wrecked" point of view, but more from a "i have valid insurance and wouldn't be prosecuted for driving without if there was an accident" one ...

Right...once again (deja vu..)

LV have paid out on 2 Briskoda members cars that i know of. 1 was a total loss, the other a front end shunt. Both were modified, with mods declared.

What else can i say?

I've already read about the LV situation and I'm not for a minute suggesting that LV wouldn't pay up, haven't paid up, or that people AREN'T correctly covered. I guess suggesting that it sounded "very dodgy" was a bit dramatic. It just feels a bit ... well ... you know what I mean ... not as "transparent" as it really ought to be, knowing how finnicky other insurance companies can be.

I will be ringing them tomorrow to see what they quote me - mines due in August anyway - and I'll be asking the typical "what if I mod" questions with hopes of hearing the right noises from their end. Whilst I'm not quite in Denis's league when it comes to age I do live in quite a low risk area so provided they come up with a sensible quote for the basic car I should think that they'll be the right people...

I heard from someone who was thinking about buying my car the other week (Jabba'd, with L&V) that L&V have now changed their opinion with mods for new policies.

The guy seemed genuine, so perhaps L&V have started asking questions of themselves because so many Skoda owners have modded !?

I shall report back on the morrow, good sir ...

I insured mine a couple of weeks ago with them, all mods declared for no extra fee, if they try to get out of paying should something happen then the whole conversation is on tape.

Only negative I can find with L&V is they limit their pay out to Market value & there is no way you can pay extra for anything you add to the car, hense if its a total loss you will only ever get market value, those with thousands of pounds worth of extras be warned. I guess a lot of other firms are probably the same