Hi guys,

I am curious how many had disclosed their car modifications to your insurer. Anyone had any problems with their claim when the inevitable happened? I would not want to have my claim refused because I didn’t mention suspension upgrade , front spoiler or ECU  upgrade; for the sake of 15-20% bigger payments you could lose thousands if you have to pay for your car..

What is your opinion about it?

 

my car mods now:

- engine power upgrade- stage 1-  245bhp from 200

- suspension upgraded, bilstein b8 plus h&r springs 

- new alloys

Looking into:

- stage 2 - 270-280bhp

- air intake

- full exhaust upgrade - Miltek 

 

Anyone has any ideas how much more would I pay ?

Thanks

 

Are none of these declared now?

You can lose more than the value of your car, the insurer will have to cover others 3rd party claims and still come after you for that costs as your insurance will be void.

 

You are almost certainly driving illegally without valid cover now if your Stage 1 is undeclared.

If Declared how much extra did the Stage 1 , not OEM suspension & wheels cost extra on your insurance?

Edited 25 July, 20187 yr by Offski

I've declared everything I've done even though none are performance related.

 

I don't think a remap typically increases costs much but it'll depend on the insurer and your circumstances.

It is not unheard of the police impounding cars that have been modified and the mods not declared on the insurance. There was a video a while ago that was doing the rounds on social media that was released by the police of some young lad getting his car towed away due to this very reason - car in question was a corsa that had been lowered, wheels, tints etc and was still insured as a standard car under his mum's name!!!

Always declare...   it's not worth the risk and whilst some insurers will sting you others won't.

 

Also worth noting that most insurers only ask for a declaration on changes made subsequent to delivery from the factory.  So any 'extras' added as a part of a new purchase order would appear to fall outside of this.

 

However, I still question how the insurers can reasonably expect a normal 'non-car person' to know if they buy a second hand car what is and isn't (or what was and wasn't) standard or present on delivery from the factory.  At the end of the day it is the way people drive that influences their risk level and that cannot be quantified on an individual basis without something like a tracker.

I've mine declared, but is more pricier, but you do have the peace of mind, knowing that you'll be covered in an accident.  You may be a careful driver, but there's others out there who aren't!  Some insurers won't provide a quote, if it's got over 40% gain in power and the insurance companies are very few.  They will also pass it to their underwriters for a quotation.  You can try pricing with Adrian Flux, which is mentioned in this forum and is where I went to for cover after modifications.

Without sounding like a "grown up", imagine if you'd injured someone or, heaven forbid, wiped someone out in an accident and your mods weren't declared to your insurer. You would be in a whole heap of trouble in the likely scenario where your insurer tells you to jog on. It's just not worth the risk.

 

I've been insured with Brentacre since I first bought an Octavia vRS. They may not be the cheapest but are very mods friendly. You can do anything to your car (as long as you declare it of course) and the premium only goes up when you reach certain horsepower brackets. They are actual real people you can talk to in Wales who are car enthusiasts and not just a computer jacking up the cost of insurance when you start ticking the modifications box.

Hi,

If you need any help with modified insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.

Go with modified insurance for sure. Also a stage 1 remap IS performance related and will add to your premium.

I would say: if you can afford the extra insurance premium incurred by having the mod, declare it. 

 

And if you cant/don't want to pay then don't get the mod. 

 

In all honesty I've no idea what it would cost to declare any of that... The few times I have ran comparisons with some slight mods (just stage 1, just coil overs, just springs) the premium has more than doubled. Hell, when I looked at declaring the towbar my car came with (2nd hand so not sure if this was from factory or not) the insurance shot up from £1200 to £4000...

 

On a different note: I was late in updating my address to my last insurer (had been moved 4 months) and was hit by a driver at a roundabout, the insurance company told me that the wrong address wasn't an issue as the car hadn't been stolen! Seems they pick and choose what is important and what isn't 

I was with standard insurance, started asking about costs of mods that may get added and there was either an increase or a £25 "admin fee" for each mod I tell them about going forward...

 

I moved to modified insurance, all cosmetic additions can be added to the policy for free, you only pay extra premium if you increase BHP and it has to be by a certain percentage before any extra premium. Also I managed to get the modified insurance for cheaper than the original insurance premium I had!

I know people don't declare mods but I just can't work out the mentality behind it......

 

You may save a few quid short term if you never have a claim but you stand to risk so much more and are effectively uninsured, just makes no sense at all!

Thanks for your answers guys, the reason I prolonged it is because my insurance will expire in October this year so I want to go straight to another company with a new quote. Can I cancel the actual insurance and start with new company? 

Or should I just start with new one and pay towards both for 2 months until old one expire.

PS: just from curiosity, how do insurance companies know a car ECU has been remapped and how much power the car has? Probably Dan from Adrian Flux can answer this.. thanks again 

Edited 4 August, 20187 yr by vrsdx57

If you get insurance cover from another company you can cancel the old policy making sure the date it ceases is the same or later than the new policy start. 

 

Two points, you will not get current year NCD added to your record/declaration, there is also likely an admin charge to cancel which may reduce any refund due or cost you.

 

Running two policies side by side is likely to cause severe problems in the event of a serious accident. You cannot claim on two concurrent policies either....

 

 

On 05/08/2018 at 01:07, xman said:

If you get insurance cover from another company you can cancel the old policy making sure the date it ceases is the same or later than the new policy start. 

 

Two points, you will not get current year NCD added to your record/declaration, there is also likely an admin charge to cancel which may reduce any refund due or cost you.

 

Running two policies side by side is likely to cause severe problems in the event of a serious accident. You cannot claim on two concurrent policies either....

 

 

Thanks for answer, made my mind to tell them about modifications it’s better. Only 2 months to go anyway. Cheers