I spoke to my insurance company today about fitting a new exhaust to the car. Saying that this would be around a 5% increase in BHP. They then came back and said it would be a £232 increase plus raising my accidental damage excess to £700.
What are your thoughts on not declaring mods to your insurer if you have a crash will they not pay at all if they conduct a investigation on just not for the moded bits of your car if you damage them. By decating the car am I right in thinking your are now uninsured as the car is not road legal so what is the point of declaring the mod to the insurers?

Insurance companies are quite happy to take your money but will scrutinise you and your car like hell if they need to make a big payout.

When buying car insurance you are not just insuring your car but you, your house, and any other asset you have. This is because, if they find any reason not to pay out, you'll be covering the cost yourself. If you were unlucky or daft enough to cause a major loss to another party you could end up bankrupt and/or in prison.

I'm not trying to get you down but you everyone must realise what insurance is for and not abuse it.

Put it this way, if you have mods on your car, no matter how trivial you think they are and you don't tell the insurers, you then heaven forbid spin out into a bus stop mashing up a couple of pedestrians on the way, the insurers can refuse to pay out, it will technically void your insurance, leaving you stuffed....and possibly faced with doing a stretch too if you get prosecuted.....

nadger,
to put it bluntly, if you mod the car, and don't tell them, and then you make a claim and they find it's modded, that's it you are 100 percent stuffed. Nasty, but true.

I know my insurance aint exactly cheap, but that's because the car is a) a Jap import, and b) modified, and I keep modifying it.

I'd rather mod the car and pay a little more, safe in the knowledge that the ins co knows about, than mod it and not tell them and be buggered come claim time.

the other factor is this. If you post on here about your latest and greatest mod, which is not declared, and someone from the ins co is reading then you might get a nasty suprise. They could claim, even without you making a claim that you're voiding your insurance due to undeclared mods.

Insurance companies will try as hard as they can to wiggle out of paying up if they can, and if they find you are modded and not declared they will use it.

One case I recently remember is that a chap had a golf gti with a leather interior, which I beleive was standard fit, he had an accident, or it was broken into, and made a claim. and insurance assesor came out and looked it over and then he got a letter saying they were not going to pay out due to him not declaring the leather! he said that as it was standard fit he did not know he had to declare it!!! tihnk he's in the process of trying to get them to reverse the decision, so not much fun!

Thanks for all the replys I have every intention of paying the extra for the mods cause I work for a travel insurance company and I know what is like when thay come to large payouts they try every way possible to get out of it. I was just a bit shocked at the extra cost for a minor mod and just wanted to know whether you lot declared every mod you did.

Cheers

Nick

I am having a std subaru front strut brace which I intend to tell them about, but where do you draw the line ? Rear cup-holders ?

I am insured with elephant.co.uk (a subset of admiral apparently) I qestioned them about the mods on my my01 WRX at the time of getting the insurance which were all cosmetic. They said that basic cosmetic changes would not effect the premium.

A few months ago I equired about the differnece in price if I had a PPP fitted. I gave them the low down on what was involved and got told that they could only insure the mod of the exhaust change, as they couldn't insure the ECU, and intercooler hoseing (fair enough!)

The differnence in price was £40. Not bad at all!!!!

where do you draw the line? well, from my bad memory, most insurance companies consider a modification to be anything that changes the car from the original manufacturers specification.

To be honest, I think most ins cos would not be too bothered about rear cupholders, or a magic tree, guess it depends how anal they want to be though.

Hi peeps. Working as a Claims Adjuster with a history of motor insurance, here's a few comments....
Premiums will increasingly rise because NO insurer is making any profit from motor insurance. Most are making aprox 30% loss on this class of business each year, fueled by the ever increasing cost of claims made by third parties.
You should always declare any modification but some insurers are more picky than others about subjecting increased premiums. On the most part though insurers will charge more for mods that either increase or facilitate performance, or make the car more desireable - for that read attractive to theiving scumbags.
If you do not declare your modifications your insurer will most probably, unless you can successfully argue that the mods do not effect one or either of the above, not indemnify you, that is not pay for your own loss/dammage. Most if not all insurers will pay for any damage or injury you have caused to any third party. If this amounts to a reletively small amount most insurers will leave it at that, but cancel your policy or ask you to pay the increased premium due. If however the settlement to the third party is a lot larger they may then sue you for the cost. If the Court agrees you could be paying for years to come!
All in all, it's best to stay legal and pay for our toys. If however you do fall foul of mod you've forgotten to declare, and your insurer picks up on it, its best to openly discuss it with them. Most insurers are reasonably willing to find an amicable agreement.

I agree fully and second what Izzy has said...in fact I really couldn't have put it better myself...

Basically...if in ANY doubt...ADVISE the insurance company...the worst that will happen is an increase in premium....as Izzy has mentioned...if you don't advise...well....basically you could be paying for years to come....

Rum*

Well said Izzy and Rum*
no matter how small the mod just tell your insurance company, you wont regret it

Dewi

Going back to part of Nadger's original post, where do you stand if you have a full decat exhaust (as many of us do)?

If the car was fitted with them as standard (like my MY98 UK), and I remove them and tell the insurers I have fitted a performance exhaust, am I covered? Surely as the car will no longer pass an MOT it's illegal and hence uninsurable?

What do those of you with full decat systems do?

Cheers,
Steve

Just to keep you up to date with my previous comments: My MY02 arrives in 2 weeks. I had a quote of £1100 off Tesco a few weeks ago. I called them today to kick the insurance off but also to tell them that I had forgotten a claim Mrs Fazack made a in 1999 and also that I am having a subaru front strut brace fitted by the dealer. They spoke to the underwriter whilst I was on and no increase over the previously quoted figure.

So, being honest does not always mean you'll get shafted.

Hi Izzy,

For the most part I completely agree with what your saying. If it changes the car, declare it.

I can't however accept that insurance companies make a loss on car insurance. I agree that profit will have dropped because of the number of "I've hurt my kneck" claims etc.

Why would these companies continue in this market if they did not make a profit? They wouldn't!

Cheers

Gazza

The reason insurance companies won't have made any money this year is the fact that the stock markets have performed poorly. When they get your premium, they don't just leave it in the bosses drawer, they invest it and make it work for them. Minor glitches will be ironed out though. A bad year of claims and a bad stock market is a very bad year, such as this, but it will be reaped back. A couple of years back the insurance companies were making LARGE profits. It even made the news a couple of times, but they are very quick to get the hankies out again when there's a natural disaster.....
nym

Sorry for the delay, been busy. Yep, the "hurt my neck" claims are spiraling in cost. This combined with the market need to be competitive (?!) keeps premiums for "normal" cars artificiallly low. I'm not saying that perhaps some insurers see the premiums for performance cars as a way to get disproportionately higher premiums though. Most strictly motor insurers, and there is not many of them left as some have gone out of business and others have been bought by larger organisations, do continue trading on the profit they make from their capital investment. Most other "motor insurers" are part of a much larger company, which subsidises motor business in return for a "foot in the door" of such customers for its other, more profitable, lines of business like household insurance or finance etc.
Regarding the querry on de-cat exhausts, I could'nt really comment other than to say that the MoT certificate only confirms the roadworthyness of a vehicle at the time of the MoT inspection, and does not confirm such & neither does anything else, once the vehicle has left the testing station....

I informed Frizzels of HKS exhaust and 18 Oz Prodrive alloys and no change to premium.

alanjack:-I informed Frizzels of HKS exhaust and 18 Oz Prodrive alloys and no change to premium.

hehe, i like good news like this, especially when I've just renewed with Frizzells.
Now, where's that catalogue....
mark

I have declared ALL my mods - didnt make much of a difference....

Do HID headlights make the premium go up or down? Up because they're more expensive to replace or cheaper because you've got better visibility at night?
I'll find out when I'm ringing round over the next few days, but would be interested if anyone knows?

I think that the Insurers have taken the risk on and reckon that if a Scoob is knicked, or likely to be knicked they have already covered themselves with the high premium. Bear in mind though, insurance companies also insure themselves against big losses.
Why can't we insure 50/50, good for us good for them!

Alanjack who is frizzels and what is there no . as me going to do the same mods as you .

cherz justin

Frizzells number is 08456097191, we get extra discount as missus is a CSMA member.

If the 'hurt my neck' costs are a big drain on the insurance world then why cant those sort of claims be an extra to the policy,so if you havent got the cover you cant claim,something similar to legal cover.

Steve ;)

The "hurt my neck" or to give it it's proper title, Third Party Personal Injury Claims, are not claims made by the policy holder, but are claims made by a third party - the person, or persons - you have hit. As a result apart from arguing over whos fault the accident was and then how much the injury claim, amongst other things, is insurers have little if no control whether such claims are made. In short, it's not something you can pay extra on a basic policy for cover for.