The day is fast approaching (I hope, 14 weeks and counting) when I shall have to decide whether or not to go with the dealers invitation to purchase gap insurance and or their version of paint and soft furnishing trestment for my 1.2TSi DSG SE.

What is the general concensus about these add on "necessities"?

Opinions eagerly awaited

Derek

Personally wouldn't bother with either.

If you have comprehensive insurance then most will automatically give you a new car in the first 1 or 2 years anyway, and you can get the paint treatment cheaper on ebay, and it is only succesful if it is applied properly to a VERY clean car.

Plus they are only trtying to sell it to you so they get their commision!

Gap insurance yes, the rest no IMO. The insurance will cover you for the finance length.

GAP is a must if you are doing PCP/lease/loan etc most insurance companies will only give you a new car up to 1 year in my experience.

I personally am having the treatment done, using the Autoglym Lifeshine. Ask your dealer for a deal. The end of the year is near and they might offer you a good deal.

Mike

I usually get the treatment thrown in at the end of the deal but on the Yeti I did it myself (purchased all the stuff from cleanyourcar.com) - worked out better value as the cost was half and I had loads left to recondition the paint further down the line...

GAP is worthwhile imo. BUT dont pay the dealer price! Go online and do a search for a gap dealer iirc something like alagap.co.uk and gapdirect.co.uk amongst others. Mine cost me around £170 for the Yeti for the best cover; again about half what the dealer usually tries to sell it at initially!

Hope that helps.

IMO talk to trading standards about GAP insuranse, basically its not worth the paper its written on. Listening to the sales pater of the dealer you would believe you cant afford not too. But in reality its a total con.

IMO talk to trading standards about GAP insuranse, basically its not worth the paper its written on. Listening to the sales pater of the dealer you would believe you cant afford not too. But in reality its a total con.

Personally I totally disagree with this - only reason I opt for it is I have known of two people previously to get the pay outs which basically allowed them to buy new cars! One of them was with Hitachi Finance Gap (I took it out at the time on my Ford through them also) and it was dealt with very swiftly iirc.

Still, everyone has their own experiences to go on. :yes:

If you go for Gap insurance try a google search for companies...Click4gap.. comes to mind,They will be much cheaper that the stealer.

If you don't want to go that route get a price from a company and get your dealer to match it.There's big markup in gap insurance and Paint treatments.

I tend to do my own as I quite like detailing but use Diamondbrite on my folks car as its easier for them just to add the conserver when its washed.

If you don't want to go that route get a price from a company and get your dealer to match it..

Good call - I have done that with the last two Fords I purchased. :yes:

Thanks for all the responses so far.

I'm leaning towards taking an on-line quote with me and seeing if the dealer will match it. I might try the same tack with the treatment too.

That said it all seems a little sureal at the moment, I daren't start to believe that it's really going to happen. Build week was supposed to be 46 (a brilliant omen for a Rossi fan like me) but we'll see...

Good call - I have done that with the last two Fords I purchased. :yes:

Online Gap Insurance is definately the route IF you feel the need AND you dont have to make your mind up straight away.

I took the GuardX option and they did a very good job, time will tell "how good"....

IMO talk to trading standards about GAP insuranse, basically its not worth the paper its written on. Listening to the sales pater of the dealer you would believe you cant afford not too. But in reality its a total con.

You have direct experience of this?

It covers the shortfall between the lower figure offered by an insurance co in the event of total loss, and your outstanding finance. There will always be a gap between these figures, and as the car enters yr2/3 this only gets bigger. Finance co wont care if the car was written off, they will demand repayment in full - which if your agreement is PCP could mean a figure such as £5k+ still due on top of outstanding payments!

Knowing people that have had total losses due to accidents and thefts, without GAP they'd be financially screwed and unable to replace the lost car!

You have direct experience of this?

It covers the shortfall between the lower figure offered by an insurance co in the event of total loss, and your outstanding finance. There will always be a gap between these figures, and as the car enters yr2/3 this only gets bigger. Finance co wont care if the car was written off, they will demand repayment in full - which if your agreement is PCP could mean a figure such as £5k+ still due on top of outstanding payments!

Knowing people that have had total losses due to accidents and thefts, without GAP they'd be financially screwed and unable to replace the lost car!

What you describe: Finance GAP Insurance, is actually not that popular anymore although Motor Dealer's continue to push it.

Incidentally it also depends on the type of and structure of the finance agreement as to whether there will actually be a gap as you say. Consider that in most cases as you continue to make repayments against the finance agreement the amount of financial liability decreases. At some point in most finance agreements there'll come a time when the vehicle value is greater than the amount oustanding on finance. If your motor insurer pays out more than is outstanding on finance, a Finance GAP Insurance policy wouldn't pay out anything as the "gap" wouldn't exist. This being the case, the longer you have a Finance GAP Insurance policy without a claim, the less you would usually stand to gain in the event of a claim.

On the otherhand, with something like Invoice GAP Insurance which covers back to the original purchase price paid, quite the opposite is true. The longer you have the policy without a claim, the more the vehicle will have depreciated from the original purchase price, therefore the greater the "gap" will become over time.

There are actually a number of different types of GAP Insurance available nowadays. The following are the main three:

• Finance GAP Insurance - Covering the difference between motor insurance payout and amount outstanding on finance at the time of claim.
  
• Invoice GAP Insurance - Covering the difference between motor insurance payout and the original purchase price paid for the vehicle.
  
• Replacement GAP Insurance - Covering the difference between motor insurance payout and the equivalent cost of replacing the vehicle new-for-old at the time of claim, even if the replacement vehicle cost more than you originall bought the vehicle for.
  

More recently, online providers have chosen to merge Finance and Invoice GAP Insurance together to create a policy that will cover up to the higher of either the original purchase price paid or the amount outstanding on finance at the time of claim.

As others have said, if you're buying a brand new vehicle, then it is likely you'll have at least 12 months new-for-old cover from them anyway (you should check), however you wouldn't be able to purchase say Invoice or Replacement GAP Insurance at the end of that 12 month period. Therefore it is possible to purchase GAP Insurance at the outset, but defer the start date of the GAP Insurance policy so that it starts the day after the vehicle is 12 months old and your new-for-old cover from the motor insurer has lapsed.

GAP Insurance is far from a con. Usually such claims/statements arise out of the person either selecting or being sold a policy type which isn't entirely suitable for their purchase circumstances and therefore doesn't subsequently operate as they would have been led to expect. at the point of claim As with any insurance it's a case of choosing the correct policy type for your own circumstances, weighed up against the chances of your vehicle ever being declared a total loss of course.

Question, if you have a gap insurance for say 4 years and get rid of the car after 1 year, do you get a refund? or could you transfer it?

Question, if you have a gap insurance for say 4 years and get rid of the car after 1 year, do you get a refund? or could you transfer it?

If you SOLD the vehicle, invariably the remaining term of the GAP Insurance policy would be declared void. However more recently some companies have started to introduce the ability to transfer the remaining term of the policy to the new vehicle, although in some cases there's a charge for doing so.

If your vehicle was replaced new-for-old by the motor insurer in the first 12 months, in almost all cases the policy would be transferred to the replacement vehicle free of charge.

This is an interesting topic, as some companies market their GAP Insurance policies as being "transferrable" but are actually referring to the latter point above, but they'd be virtually obliged to do this anyway - it's nothing special.