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Goddamn insurance!
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 4:15 pm
by Karl_CLCoupe
I feel thoroughly peeved. I am getting (cheap) quotes of £1800 quid (thats with Pass+) on my car. I really don't know what to do. I don't want to sell up, as I have:
A) invested a lot of money into my car to date considering I can't drive it
B) probably couldn't find another cheap reliable car.
C) grown somewhat attached to the Polo.
Insuring through parents returns even more shocking quotes as we are a 3 car household (including mine), and that can produce quotes up to £5k.
I mean why is the thing Group7? I could have a GT which fits into Group8, and can easily crack the tonne mark for a little extra. And then I ask the insurance companies this again: why is there such a big leap (insurance group wise) between 1 litres and 1.3's? I mean a 1.0 CL Coupe is Group 4, so why therefore does my 1.3 CL Coupe rocket up to Group 7?
Then some companies refuse insurance because the car is gonna have alloys on it. Why? Because its 'modified'. Thats such a blanket term from my experience now. I could have an engine transplant, and that would be modified, or I could stick a tacky plastic spoiler on and modify my ride, and bizarrely probably pay the same for a 'modified' car.
It really is becoming ridiculous for people to even consider driving at my age. I could bag myself a Ford Ka 1.3 (with more power) and pay around about a grand insurance because its a lower group. Does beg the question though: If Ford stuck a Coupe badge on it, would the insurance group go up? That brings me onto the fact that S/Bs are a group lower than their Coupe equivalents: eg. A 1.3 CL Coupe = Gp7, while a 1.3 CL S/B = Gp6 supposedly.
I can appreciate that not much of this could have made sense, as the red mist has set in.
Anyway: RANT OVER!
Karl.
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 4:58 pm
by chubbster
have you tried tesco's? i guess you must of really, but they do both me and the birds insurance and its nice and cheap. shes had a 106 1.1 for a year and now is about to upgrade to a 306 XSi, which is gp 12, shes had her license for a year and is 23 but the insurance only goes up by £200! it seems almost unreal.
the other thing you could try is get rid of all benifits on your insurance such as legal help and increase your excess. not that sensible really though. hope you sort it out anyway
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:04 pm
by PoloGTi
Ive had a few wierd quotes recently. Im 23, 4 years ncb this time, full licence for 6 years and a SP50.
Norwich Union Direct quoted me £1,100ish last year yet with an extra years no-claims have quoted me £1,757 this year.
The woman asked me if I wanted to see if including the girlfriend reduced it any I said go on then expecting it to at least double (she is 22, has 3 points, 0 ncb and almost wrote her car off last year after a blow-out sent her into the central reservation)
What happened? They reduced my quote to £1,200
But the wierdest thing is Adrian Flux insured me for £1,047 last year and have just quoted me £660 over the internet after I put Direct lines quote of £725 as the cheapest! (Ive not received my renewal quote yet so I tried the internet)
Still gonna try Privelage cos that daft Joanna Lumley advert says they guarentee they will beat any quote if you have 4 yr ncb.
Just keep trying, check under the GTi forum and look for a post about insurance (quite recent) and click the link to Dub-Club for a list of about 20+ insurance companies.
Good luck mate and dont give up!
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:12 pm
by Karl_CLCoupe
My problem is I'm 17 (or will be by the time I pass my test (hopefully)), and will only have Pass+ to count for some experience. Not many insurers want to touch people like me as we are inexperienced and accident prone, especially 18 year old males, so that puts me high risk. I'm still gonna keep on trying though.
Thanks
Karl.
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:41 pm
by wul3er
The two best companys for me were Tesco (who we went with) and Direct line who im going with.
Tesco gave us the quote, we accpeted. Paid the deposit and set up DD for the rest. We got sent out a Years cover note, then a letter asking for proof of 2 years NCB, so we sent them several letters from the old insurance, they said that wasnt good eneough, then they said ok we'll get in touch with your old company and get this sorted and start taking the payments out of the bank. That was about 5 or 6 months ago and still no payment has been accepted. But we are just gonna cancel it and take out the cover from Direct Line, who were actually cheaper.
We have even made a claim with tesco, and they paid up. (was only for windows)
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:59 pm
by chubbster
privelege was cheaper for me £403 without NCB protected, protected was £468. tescos is £440 not protected and £507 protected. for some reason i still went with tescos

Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:07 pm
by dub envy
Fully Comp, all mods declared, agreed value of £1200. £400 a year. HIC
Yeah, I'm a lil older, but I was only paying £450 fully comp on a Golf GTI back when I was 18.
I hate insurance companies. All them years they blagged me that when I hit 25 I will get cheaper insurance... then I get to 25 and they tell me that my age doesnt matter on the model of car I have.
Bastards.
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:50 pm
by carmadaaron
elephant all the way!!
im 18 and im paying 1000 for 9 months
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 10:28 pm
by GroovyCarrot
Co-op, parents name, insured for any driver, me named as third driver, £450.
Mine's only a group 4, but my next door neighbour did the same for his 1.3 Genesis (before some idiot cabbie wrote it off

) and was charged about £30 more.
We're a four car household, as are my neighbours. Neither of us have pass plus, both of us are 17.
Don't worry, it's possible, it just takes a little more faffing about when you're 17

I'm 18 two weeks from today, so hopefully that'll make my next premium a bit nicer

Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 10:30 pm
by GroovyCarrot
Oh yeah, don't get internet quotes, they're only any good if you've got some years driving under your belt. Do it all by phone and negotiate with them (an insurance quote is not, contrary to popular believe, unchangeable

). Also, lots of insurers will want to come and look at the car before they quote you, if they do, make it look as horrible, scruffy, dirty and unloved as you possibly can.
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 10:51 pm
by robz
i only paid jst over £600 with Admiral for my GT, fully comp in my name, all mods listed (alloys, suspension dropped & custom exhaust)
im only 19, have 2yrs driving experience but no years no claims (as ive been on dads insurance)
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 10:56 pm
by M@Turner
I pay just over £800 for my GTI. The car and insurance is under my mums name and i'm a named second driver. I'm 19 and I've been driving 18 month and my mums got full NCB. thats with Eaglestar direct.
When i'm 21 and gonna try and change it all into my name, if i can afford it that is!
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 11:03 pm
by chubbster
bloody hell a GTi at 19 your a lucky lucky man!
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 11:04 pm
by chubbster
i had a mark1 golf in bright yellow on an x reg (old reg) at 19, very funky but a wreck.
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 11:31 pm
by Tahrey1043
its your old job market thing
those who are in the least priveleged position (young and/or no experience OR unemployed and/or haven't worked before) have to try the hardest and suffer the most trouble to get on the ladder so to speak
once you have a job its so much easier to get another (higher paid as well, perhaps - your first one is 99% guaranteed to be minimum bloody wage).... but if you haven't experience no-one will touch you.
if you're 17 and being insured for first time.... you'll be lucky to get anything resembling a decent quote even though it's merely the number of bad-boyz racing about that puts the quote up (and, well, inexperience of greasy junctions in the wet, for example

).... no NCB or anything like that either to bring the number down, which is a similar thing to having work experience (and i mean the real, actual graft thing, rather than the 2 weeks off school at the end of year 10 malarkey). after all its a considerable chunk of money saved.
there's a good 40 or so insurers dotted about (but, not an infinite amount) so its well worth your while gathering as many names as possible and getting on the websites or phoning every last one of them. it wasn't worth me trying more than about 10 or 12, as it became clear that unless i saw a dramatic reduction i wasn't going to get as much back as my time was worth... but, you have a chance of probably saving as much as i spent overall, so get researching ---- and much like in the job hunting world again, dont give up. it may take time but something could crop up right at the last.
(there are some tossers out there in management/personnell positions i mean, as there are folks who work in insurance companies and have a bit of a laugh when it comes to assigning various costs to the risks

though my very favourite lady, who was my manager at a certain 24 hour retail outlet and i quit because of, with a letter of complaint, was last seen working at a similar but much much smaller one in East Mids airport.... on the tills!!

take heart, the world has ways of redressing the balance... and even if you can't get it down, you won't be sitting around wondering... what if? had i looked round more, would it have been less than £1800?

)
i wonder what the average accident rates are for polos vs other small cars? i bet they haven't revised the groupings to take into account the general driving style of people who tend to buy VWs rather than, say, Clios.. your group is still going quite a lot by net engine power, and initial purchase price of the car for reasons of replacing a brand new one written off on it's way out of the showroom...!