Jap2Scrap

Mate of mine's just come back from lunch with an almost unbelievable tale about his insurance company. He's insured with Advantage Insurance through Budget Insurance brokers on a 2002 Nissan Almera. It's a common or garden 5 door, not a GTi or anything like that.

He phoned them to inform them he'd retro-fitted the factory option driving lights in the front valance/bumper and he'd put some Nissan supplied sill plates on to prevent scuffing.

They only cancelled his insurance because it's been 'modified'!
No option to pay a few quid more or anything just, "Sorry Sir, we don't insure modified cars!"

WTF?

Poor bloke is now chasing around to get insured so he can get home!

P1Fanatic

Id read the smallprint. A factory fitted extra like those shouldnt be classed as a modification.

Sound like a bunch of muppets anyway so probably best if he finds someone else.

Simon.

gsm1

He needs to call the same company back and speak to the right person. If those are modifications then so are furry dice.

shaunywrx

In my opinion all and yes i mean ALL insurance companies are a bunch of money grabbing thieving scum (right that's got the rant out of the way). I just sold one of my motorcycle's, so i cancelled the insurance policy on it (£156 TPFT) it had only ran for 3 week's guess how much they charged me for 3 week's insurance? £100 bleeding quid, and the cheeky ******'s sent me a letter telling me my account (what fecking account) was now £56 in credit to use on any of their insurance product's. Er what about just sending me my own bloody money back?

Patt@firstime

I agree with all of the above, b u t when I insured a Peugeot 206 a few years ago with Tesco (standard BTW) I had some problems over a claim when some ******** drove into me - I had the SP kit fitted as standard but when the assesor came to look over the car before they authorised the work they at first refused to pay out saying that my car was 'modified' saying it had 'an aftermarket bodykit'

In the end they gave in saying that the kit was a factory option but be warned

GCollier

This is an area in which you need to be very careful, as with some policies now it's not always obvious what you're (not) getting.

Last year I was insuring my 996 with Bell Direct, I'd agreed the policy over the phone, the operator was just summarising the agreed cover at the end of the call "Your name is blah, car is a grey porsche carrera 2wd......car is standard with no options or modifications". I pulled him up at this point, and it transpired that not only did they want approx an extra £100 for my factory fit 18" wheels, but if the wheels or any other optional equipment was damaged/stolen, then all they would do is return the car to "factory standard specification". I was pretty gobsmacked by this - factory fit options had never entered into any previous policy.

It was the same with my RS6. Although mine like virtually every RS6 in the country is fitted with no-cost-option factory fit 19" rims, they had to be listed on the policy as an option/modification, and if the wheels were stolen they would only replace them with the 18" rims. Same with the optional special order brushed aluminium interior trim: if this was damaged then they'd only replace with standard trim - could end up with a mad situation such as the trim on one door not matching the rest of the car.

I've moved insurers since then due to unhappiness with this level of cover. Would have hated to have, say, had my porsche stolen/torched and the insurance refuse to pay out because of a factory fitted option that they weren't aware of.

Gary.