First of all, let me state quite categorically that neither I nor any relative or friend are employed by or have any financial interest whatsoever in NFU Mutual Insurance!

OK ... so I've ordered a new VRS Octy to be picked up from Rainworth on 1 March. With whom should I get it insured? Fortunately Auto Express have recently done a reader satisfaction survey on car insurance companies, so I'm guided by that. Also they include several companies I've never heard of!

So I try getting quotes over the internet from some of the leading contenders in the survey. Problem number one is that I've ordered my VRS with the CR TDi engine and the DSG box - but the insurance company databases don't seem to have yet caught up with the fact that the DSG box is available with that engine. So on several websites I'm just going round in circles since I can't get the correct derivative from the scrolldown menus.

Anyway, at the top of the Auto Express list are two companies .... RIAS and NFU (National Farmers' Union) Mutual. RIAS give me a very acceptable quote (way lower than Cornhill direct, whom I've been with for twelve years!) and are very helpful over the phone - sound a very good outfit. NFU callcentre also impressive over the phone (based in Scotland somewhere), and they agree to accept my engine/gearbox combination after they've spoken to their underwriters. The package of benefits is quite good, they're a bit more expensive than RIAS, but what finally swung it for me was that the cover includes their replacing my car with a brand new equivalent car if my current Octy is a write-off during the first two years of its life (RIAS would do the same, but only for the first year, after which they give you 'market value'). So that feature did it for me in the end.

But the even better news (and I hadn't thought about this at the time) was that, when I came to pick up my new car and Jeremy was going throught the usual financial gumf that they are obliged to do, we came to GAP insurance (I'm getting the Octy on a PCP). Of course it then turns out that I absolutely don't need it because NFU will give me a new car if need be over the first 24 months, at the end of which time I won't have a gap anyway! Jeremy confessed that this was the first time he'd heard of a company offering this cover and had to write: 'Not needed' in the appropriate box. The amount saved on GAP insurance premiums more than made up for the slightly higher premium with NFU.

Anyway - thought I'd pass on that little gem for anyone else who's searching the insurance market - presumably also NFU didn't come top of the Auto Express survey three years running by providing cr*p service? In the light of all that, very agreeably surprised with the rate they quoted me.

Edited 3 March, 200917 yr by youngbaz
Modified heading

Quite an impressive insurance product by the sounds of it...

I'm guessing this extends only to brand new cars though?

Louis

I have both of my cars with nfu.

/they get my vote everytime

Still waiting for my call back. 5 weeks and counting.

Guess you're the lucky ones.

Hedge phone them up directly coz i sent an email to get a call back and after 2 days i phoned them .i gave my postcode and she told me over the phone that only range rovers were being insured by them in manchester. i phoned up the office in Ramsbottom to find this out and saved myself a 5 week wait by the sounds of things. i was also told this straight away without going through the rigmarole of giving my details and then getting told.

OP what was your quote and what age etc are you? best i have had for my car this year is more than for £240 awaiting direct crime to give me my renewal figure soon.