My car will be three years old next month (that went quick!), and I've just had an invitation to renew the GAP insurance for a further 36 months.

 

It's a 2015 vRS TSI DSG Estate, so is worth maybe £13k or thereabouts (finger in the air type valuation).

 

Renewing the GAP does, it seem, fix the price as at now-ish, so I suppose it seems a logical move to renew it.  I'm presuming that'll mean if it was a total loss in two years time I'll get £13k-ish for it rather than a valuation of it in two years time, so on that basis it'd seem almost silly not to.

 

Any thoughts?

 

My doubt comes from totalling a Saab 9-5 six years ago.  Settlement was £2,200 IIRC, but I've a feeling if I hadn't claimed, I might have been better off over the following five years of having a total loss declared.  My thoughts are that maybe the 'Gap' would now no longer make it worthwhile, but I really don't know, hence asking your thoughts chaps.

 

TIA

 

Gaz

On 09/07/2018 at 22:42, V6TDI said:

My car will be three years old next month (that went quick!), and I've just had an invitation to renew the GAP insurance for a further 36 months.

 

It's a 2015 vRS TSI DSG Estate, so is worth maybe £13k or thereabouts (finger in the air type valuation).

 

Renewing the GAP does, it seem, fix the price as at now-ish, so I suppose it seems a logical move to renew it.  I'm presuming that'll mean if it was a total loss in two years time I'll get £13k-ish for it rather than a valuation of it in two years time, so on that basis it'd seem almost silly not to.

 

Any thoughts?

 

My doubt comes from totalling a Saab 9-5 six years ago.  Settlement was £2,200 IIRC, but I've a feeling if I hadn't claimed, I might have been better off over the following five years of having a total loss declared.  My thoughts are that maybe the 'Gap' would now no longer make it worthwhile, but I really don't know, hence asking your thoughts chaps.

 

TIA

 

Gaz

 

I sell GAP insurance for a living so clearly I'm biased - I think having GAP insurance in place is always a good idea but, this should obviously be weighed up against your attitude to the risk (which if you've had a vehicle previously written off, I'm guessing you're more concerned that others who haven't experienced it may be) and ultimately what price you're prepared to put on the peace of mind that GAP insurance affords you.  Further, you also need to consider by how much more your car is likely to depreciate.  E.g. if the car is now 3yrs old and worth £13k, the value of the vehicle won't drop away from that £13k anything like as much/fast as it dropped away from its original list/purchase price when you first bought it.

 

How much have you been quoted for the further 3-year cover and what value have they placed on the vehicle? (I don't mind checking the value out for you if you want to PM me the registration number and a mileage reading).

 

HTH

Hi.

Just to let you know that we offer a product called Total Loss Protection. Whilst it's not exactly the same as your traditional GAP insurance we feel for some customers it can make a cost effective alternative. Please feel free to take a look if you wish.

https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/extras/total-loss/

Regards,

Dan.

On 11/07/2018 at 11:40, David@GAPInsurance said:

How much have you been quoted for the further 3-year cover and what value have they placed on the vehicle?

 

Hello David

 

Quote is £161, based on a car value of £17,250, max payout £10,000 plus excess refund (max.£500).

 

Gaz

On 12/07/2018 at 09:55, DAN@ADRIAN FLUX said:

Hi.

Just to let you know that we offer a product called Total Loss Protection. Whilst it's not exactly the same as your traditional GAP insurance we feel for some customers it can make a cost effective alternative. Please feel free to take a look if you wish.

https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/extras/total-loss/

Regards,

Dan.

 

Not a personal attack by any means Dan (I promise you) or a dig at Adrian Flux as I know they're one of the better insurers out there but perhaps if the insurance industry as a whole offered customers the actual value of their vehicle i.e. the retail cost of replacement rather than the lowest trade in price, gap insurance or total loss protection wouldn't be needed.

I get that a brand new car is different and there's a big different in price/value when a car's driven off a forecourt is dramatically different but there certainly shouldn't be any need for it once a car reaches 3 years old?

16 hours ago, V6TDI said:

 

Hello David

 

Quote is £161, based on a car value of £17,250, max payout £10,000 plus excess refund (max.£500).

 

Gaz

 

Gaz,

 

It's not enormously excessive but, I think £161 is expensive.  Consider that if you'd have just bought that car for £17,250 and wanted 3yr Invoice GAP insurance for it, we'd be charging you £113.84 for a policy with a £10k claim limit (albeit only covering up to £250 of your motor insurance excess payable in the event of a total loss claim).  Sadly I can't offer you a policy for a vehicle you've owned for more than a year but, I can say that you should definitely press whoever the provider is, for a better price.

 

 

16 hours ago, Russ77 said:

 

Not a personal attack by any means Dan (I promise you) or a dig at Adrian Flux as I know they're one of the better insurers out there but perhaps if the insurance industry as a whole offered customers the actual value of their vehicle i.e. the retail cost of replacement rather than the lowest trade in price, gap insurance or total loss protection wouldn't be needed.

I get that a brand new car is different and there's a big different in price/value when a car's driven off a forecourt is dramatically different but there certainly shouldn't be any need for it once a car reaches 3 years old?

 

In the event of a Total Loss, the motor insurer's job is supposed to be, to put the policyholder back in to the position they were in immediately before the incident that led to the vehicle being declared a Total Loss.  That is to say that if the PH had a 3yr old vehicle with 40,000 miles on the clock, in theory the market value payout from the motor insurer *should* allow the PH to buy a 3yr old version of the same vehicle with circa 40,000 miles on the clock.

 

Now, we all accept that a motor insurer may low-ball their initial offer and that there may well be some effort required on the part of the PH to get them to raise their offer but that's another tale altogether.

 

The GAP insurance is insuring a different, albeit related, risk - that being the difference ("gap") between the decreasing market value of the covered vehicle and (in the case of Invoice GAP insurance) the original invoice price paid.... one (the motor insurer) is covering a risk which usually diminishes with time whilst the other (the gap insurance) is covering a risk which increases with time.

 

Agreed Value motor insurance policies do exist but, they're usually the territory of specialist/custom/classic vehicles only.  You are correct of course that if a motor insurer was to protect the full original vehicle purchase price or, even better the full retail price of the "new" equivalent at the time of claim then yes, GAP insurance wouldn't be necessary however... I think it would be a very brave motor insurer who elected to write policies in this manner because they'd only be able to do so with a substantial price increase and as we also all know, the car-insurance market is incredibly price-sensitive as it is.

 

In the defence of motor insurers though... for brand new vehicles, lots of motor insurers do cover them on a new-for-old basis within the first year - although this in itself isn't without its potential pitfalls.

 

 

 

 

The insurer tells me they're unable to reduce the quote.  So I'll not be renewing with them anyway.  Bit of a shame, but c'est la vie 

 

Gaz

9 minutes ago, V6TDI said:

The insurer tells me they're unable to reduce the quote.  So I'll not be renewing with them anyway.  Bit of a shame, but c'est la vie 

 

Gaz

 

That surprises me Gaz - perhaps it's a case of "unwilling" more than "unable". 

 

It's a shame though, I'd have thought they'd want your business.