Not seen this posted yet.

4X4 insurance bills to soar | This is Money

...Owners of 4x4s are likely to bear the brunt of changes in the way car insurance is calculated.

Drivers of Range Rovers, BMW X5s and Toyota Land Cruisers and other so called Chelsea Tractors are likely to have to pay hundreds of pounds more for comprehensive insurance under a new risk assessment scheme to be announced today.

The changes are also likely to hit drivers of sporty diesels and even some mid-range hatchbacks...

...The relative 'weightings' no longer accurately reflect relative risk levels, it adds. Up to now, for instance, insurers have looked at the maximum speed and the rate of acceleration from rest to 60mph.

But this does not 'adequately reflect' the characteristics of some vehicles, such as turbodiesels which have extra torque - or 'pulling power' - at medium speeds.

That gives them an extra burst of speed which could land some drivers in trouble...

So, whatdya think?

:popcorn:

But this does not 'adequately reflect' the characteristics of some vehicles, such as turbodiesels which have extra torque - or 'pulling power' - at medium speeds.

That gives them an extra burst of speed which could land some drivers in trouble...

:eek: Does this mean what it sounds like??? :(

Ok, I accept I put it (correctly) into a tumbleweed part of the forum and I gave it the most boring thread title ever but I expected more interest than this.

This sounds like a bad thing for all vag diesel drivers. *cough* *cough*, HELLO PEOPLE, MAYBE THE NEXT FURBY VRS WON'T BE INSURANCE GROUP 9.

Maybe a mod could change the title of this thread to "higher insurance for fabia vrs drivers", it might attract some more interest.

Yes I saw this.

Periodically the insurance industry seems to come up with reasons to target whatever has become a popular market segment and up the rates. e.g. TWOCing/summer riots did in 'Hot' hatches circa 1990. My beloved Astra GTE16v became all but unsaleable and uninsurable overnight!

Seems like bad news next renewal, and as a PD130 driver I can state that in reality the performance is nowhere near that of a half decent 2L16v petrol - despite the waft of torque (and diesel drivers kidding themselves). Will hurt second hand values of diesels too.

I suspect if there is a problem with TD's it is youngsters with undeclared remaps and tuning boxes.

I'm young, male... I'm aware I'm gonna get raped by insurance companies

****ers, it is just them targeting what is popular to make more money.

Why not clamp down on the uninsured and work out a decent way of those where drivers run off or are uninsured. The current you have comprehensive, tough ****, kiss your NCD goodbye isn't fair.

:eek: Does this mean what it sounds like??? :(

What do you mean exactly?

****ers, it is just them targeting what is popular to make more money.

Why not clamp down on the uninsured and work out a decent way of those where drivers run off or are uninsured. The current you have comprehensive, tough ****, kiss your NCD goodbye isn't fair.

Surely it's the police's job to clamp down on the uninsured. Oh no, wait, sorry they're all out catching speeders 'cos it's easier.

:sofahide:

What do you mean exactly?

Diesel owners could be targetted for higher premiums due to high torque

Its worth reading the article in full, it does make sense but the bit in red in the OP sums it up. I thought one of the perceived benefits of the fabia vrs (surely a 'sporty' turbo diesel) is its low running costs, cheap insurance being part of that. Before settling on a turgid family hatchbback, the only reason I could consider a warm hatch was that the vrs was only ins grp 9. But now, if they consider the torque and also weight is mentioned, the vrs being a porky little pig, its not looking good.

Overall, I don't think this change is unreasonable, as they say the system is getting old and the mix of cars on the road has changed. Therefore its now reasonable to change the assessment criteria to adequately reflect the risk and costs involved. However, I'm suspicious that this will not be a zero-sum endeavour by the insurance companies who are likely to squeeze a little extra profit from the exercise by charging us all a little more for the privilege of being insured.

Even I'm worried despite driving a 1.6 family hatchback as the current ins grp for a 1.6 mazda3 is grp 5, which seems low. Octy 1.6 Ambiente was grp 7, one of the reasons I didn't get one iirc and an equivalent focus was grp 6.

The problem is that the Furby vRS is developing a bad reputation. Some insurance companies no longer insure them, and even on this forum several have been written off or badly damaged.

I always thought that group 9 was a little low for the furby, considering the MK1 octy vRS was group 15.

However, I'm suspicious that this will not be a zero-sum endeavour by the insurance companies who are likely to squeeze a little extra profit from the exercise by charging us all a little more for the privilege of being insured.

I think the conspiracy theory stuff is a little overdone. The car insurance market in the UK is FAR too competitive for any insurer to cream off extra profit on a particular type of car - if one tries it, someone else will under-cut them by the necessary amount to steal the business back.

If premiums for Fab vRS's go up, it will be because the assessed risk is higher than previously thought - because of all the write-offs we keep hearing about - not because of an insurance company conspiracy.

you lucky lucky bar stewards. Fab vrs goes from 9 out of 20 to 18 out of 50. Try for all the info:Insurance Group Search

Octavia 2.0TDi, was group 10 on the old scale, now group 20 on the new scale. So therefore moves from halfway, to less than half.

My old boxster goes from 19 to 46.

Octy vRS MK1 goes from 16 to 31.

New scale ? Where can we find info on that Mannyo ?

http://www.abi.org.uk/carinsurance/ListGroups.asp

Gives you the new groupings.

Neil

My Octavia TDi 110 is group 11! No wonder it's expensive to insure :( The TDi 90 is only Group 7. Anyway, it's only going up to 23 so that's not too bad.

J

Ouch that will hurt the wallet again :(

Fabia VRS insurance group:

9 on a 1-20 scale (old)

18 on a 1-50 scale (new)

So its a relative drop of 9% on a like for like scaling system!

In theory an insurance drop (potentially)?? ..if its a linea representation.

..so why all the doom and gloom?! ..or have I missed something?

it's 8 & 16 for the 2.0 fabia

Does this mean stipping out the rear seats and carbon fibre reduces insurance prices? (and supercars will be dirt cheap to insure now?)

Excellent! My Passat goes from a Gp12 (so thats a rating of 0.6) to Gp24 (thats a rating of 0.48). Should be a substantial decrease in premium for me then!

I do believe the Furby is under-grouped, as was the 306TD (Gp5 IIRC), and many diesel powered "warm" hatches. The FR PD130 Ibiza is a Gp8, the FR 1.8T (150) Ibiza a Gp12 - never did seem balanced imho.

Surely it's the police's job to clamp down on the uninsured. Oh no, wait, sorry they're all out catching speeders 'cos it's easier.

:sofahide:

Unfortunately the police are nowhere to be seen on the roads, even to catch speeders! They leave that to the big yellow/grey boxes!!!

306 with a 1.9 XUDT was a group 5, however the 306 DTurbo with the same 1.9 XUDT and body kit, suspension tweaks while also a group 5 had a significant premium hike attached to it :(