My insurance renewal is due very soon, and currently it includes for a dragon tuning box and PD160 intake pipe upgrade. I also have a RARB sitting in the garage which I might refit - but didn't really get on with it.

After various searches the best quote I've got is £495 (not too bad for a 26yr old, with 3 years no claims, business miles... and mods declared). However, a standard car is just £315.

Is it worth keeping the mods on and paying the extra, or selling them all and saving the money? Money is not particularly tight, but I'm moving out in the new year and looking to buy a house at the bottom of the market next year... . The extra £4-500 might be the difference between buying a sofa or sitting on the floor for a couple of months...

I'm guessing I'll know the answer I'll get on this forum, but what the heck :P

Thanks

Tim

Take the dragon off and drive without it for a week.

If you don't miss it at the end of that week then stay with it off, don't fit the RARB and save the £300. You can always add it again at a later date and your ins company will charge you for the months left.

Almost doubling the price due to a dragon box is IMHO not worth it, so if it was me I'd take it off.

Thanks. Was planning on removing the dragon box this weekend, then I'll have a week or so of driving around without it on. I went a couple of weeks without it on in the summer, when the car went to be serviced, can't say I really missed it, and only really put it back on because I was already paying for it...

It doesn't double the premium but does add over 50% to it - which is quite a bit :(

My bad i could have sworn I saw 300ish. and 600ish

Even at 50% and with the current environment, I still maintain the same advice of keep it off.

it depends how you drive your car too, i can save that amount by changing the way i drive. if you were to purchase dragon (or any other remap/chip) and it was purely for economy i would say not bother (i know you already got the dragon) as a full tank each week at best would only save you about £200 a year if lucky and with the increase in insurance etc (and buying it if you havent got it) basically cancels each other out. I would also reckon by looking at fuel efficent driving you could save the £200 worth of fuel a year without having to spend anything in the first place

What are you saying sms? Had you been drinking?

According to sprtimonitor I've averaged 45.2mpg since Feb this year running with the dragon box, and never was I driving particularly conservatively. Saying that I find mpg of diesels engines to be pretty consistent no matter how they're driven.

I don't tend to do many miles now, certainly less than 10k so there is not much scope for trying to offset the cost of the insurance.

On the whole £200 isn't a great deal of money and its easy to fritter away without realising, its just I don't want to give it to the insurance company for a little bit more power... hmmmm... I'll take the box off and see how I get on this weekend, knowing me I'll probably end up driving to Jabba and getting it remapped properly

what im basically saying is you see often on here people chipping/tuning their car cos they want more mpg, yet they think immediatley they have it done they gonna save all this money and not take into account the money they just spent and the insurance hike. All i was pointing out is if mpg is so important that there are other ways of achieving it without spending a load of cash that you wont actually see a saving on unless you doing 30k+ a year.

Thanks sms!

I'm not to worried about mpg and more than happy with 45mpg with the dragon box, I've no idea what I would be getting if it was standard. Sitting above the the speed limit on the motorway is what brings the mpg down - good old brick shaped fabia.

In an ideal world, I would probably sell the fabia and buy a faster petrol engined car but its worth so little at the moment even through its only two years old. Never mind through, it wasn't bought as an investment

Back to the original question, is 25 extra horses worth £170 a year?

I found the real drop in economy only to happen at speeds well in excess of NSL, and although potentially it may be possible to hit those speeds 'safely' on empty roads, it's not usually the case during the day I find

Whether it is worth the money - that totally depends on what you are looking for in a car. The stock performance of the vRS is not that bad, and perfectly fine to make decent progress.

If you do not 'use' or 'enjoy using' the extra power/torque on tap, then I would personally sell the gear and save your money.

If on the other hand you love the extra grunt it gives, and you use that regularly, then it may be worth the extra cash for you.

I guess what I'm saying is, the choice whether it is worth it depends totally on your personal priorities and preferences

Yeh, I use and enjoying using the extra go. What I do miss is the smoothness of running without the box on. Anyway, I've pulled it off for the weekend and I'll see what difference it actually makes, and whether I could live a year without it on. I could always upgrade the insurance later on if I miss it too much, we'll see....

Thanks!

My car very really gets "used" now. In fact this year its been "used" more on track than the road.

I'd take the dragon off. As for the RARB. Thats never getting removed. Even in normal driving its so much better.

Managed to get the quote down to £270 for a standard car

Tuning box is off. Had a quick drive this morning and tbh I'm not sure if I'll miss it. Had a run on my favourite lanes I don't believe I was going much slower, but I was certainly having to work the gears a lot more, which actually increased the enjoyment.

Noticed it was down on power on the dual carriageway, particularly when nearing license losing speeds, but very rarely do I travel at those speeds anyway.

Think I'll spend the £200 saved on a few bits and bobs for the mountain bike...

Most insurance companies only really hike the premiums if you increase the power - for many companies, bigger brakes and a rear anti-roll bar don't put your premium up at all. And I actually feel that better handling and brakes makes for the better drive, not the extra power.