Another lol insurance thread

ubersonic

ubersonic

ubersonic

Soldato
Joined
26 May 2009
Posts
22,175
Ok so its a new year and im planning on getitng a new (to me) car, Ive whittled it down to three hopefulls so thought it call my insurance company (Bell) up and get quotes on a new TP annual policy, check this lol out :P

Car 1, 1998 Mitsubishi Legnum VR4 Type-S
Body: Estate
Engine: 2.5L V6 Twin Turbo
Power: 280PS
Drive: 4WD
Policy Price: £580

Car 2, 1991 Toyota Supra JZA70
Body: Coupe
Engine: 2.5L I6 Twin Turbo
Power: 280PS
Drive: RWD
Policy Price: £620

Car 3, 1993 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS25T
Body: Coupe
Engine: 2.5L I6 Turbo
Power: 250PS
Drive: RWD
Policy Price: £1280


Ok now I know insurance companies are a law unto themselves but seriously? the slowest car is more than twice the cost to insure of the other two, now I know they have special ways of working out costs (maybe they think all Skyline drivers are loons or something) but I would think that the slowest car would be the least likely to crash. Ok I know it doesn't have the 4WD or AYC of the Mitsi but it should be harder to crash than the Supra.

All three would require parts from Japan in the event of a smash as they were never sold outside Japan, all three have performance turbocharged engines, so I don't get it, is this really a case of the insurance companies thinking Skyline owners are twice as likely to cause an accident as Supra/Legnum owners?
 
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Insurance doesn't work solely on the basis of how fast/powerful your car is. Perhaps they consider the Skyline more attractive to car thieves.
 
Showing your ignorance here - there's a lot taken into account when rating private car business.

Historical accident/claims costs data on the particular car in question: -

outright accident/claim frequency
parts availability and prices
labour costs
theft attraction
fire susceptibility
demographic of typical owner
fault/non fault ratios when the car is involved in an accident
typical third party costs for the vehicle when fault
typical passenger liability costs for the vehicle when fault

As per usual there's only half a dozen people on the forum here that actually have an understanding and appreciation of foundations of the pricing model but their comments fall on deaf ears. Seems ignorance is King. :p

I'm grumpy this morning btw.
 
indeed - it tends to be down to how much the car costs the insurance company on average.

If (very simplified) the Skyline generally costs the insurance industry twice as much, on average, than the Supra you get a higher policy - pretty much the reason s2000 cost a bomb to insure :(
 
The VR4 and Supra are rarer in this country so their claims record is probably much more attractive wheras there seem to be a lot more Skylines and many people have probably binned them.

The truth is, insurance is a finger in the wind for each individual on the face of it. I've always been paying much more than people of equivalent statistics excluding area, but according the various lists my area is only 2/3 dow nthe list from the best. Then again, hit 25 and my renewal halved. ARGH, insurance lol. You just have to do the shopping :)
 
Confused said:
Don't try to understand insurance.
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Why not? It's really rather simple. The premium collected is calculated based on the perceived risk to the insurer. Lots of things are considered when calculating the perceived risk.

I dont understand why so many people have a problem with this or think insurance is a black art, everything comes back to this.

Want to know why they want £3k to insure a Punto in Bradford?
Want to know why they want £2k to insure a 200bhp Impreza but £1k to insure a 300bhp Jaguar?
Want to know why a different job changes the price?
Want to know why a slower car costs more to insure than a faster car?

It's all because of the perceived risk of a claim
 
And its also to do with pricing information being spread between insurers, limiting competition ;)
(according to some news article yesterday that is)
 
Morba said:
And its also to do with pricing information being spread between insurers, limiting competition ;)
(according to some news article yesterday that is)
Click to expand...

They watch one anothers pricing, this in itself is not anti-competitive, it's just basic business strategy.
 
I've even had fun bouncing around brokers using the same underwriter to save myself almost £300 when doing quotes for last years insurance. Two different insurers (A-Plan, Sky) same underwriter (Chaucer) and I was using the quotes from each of them to get the price further and further down. Eventually they both settled on the same figure :rolleyes:
 
ci_newman said:
I've even had fun bouncing around brokers using the same underwriter to save myself almost £300 when doing quotes for last years insurance. Two different insurers (A-Plan, Sky) same underwriter (Chaucer) and I was using the quotes from each of them to get the price further and further down. Eventually they both settled on the same figure :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Why does having the same underwriter make any difference, they are hardly going to run an identical profit margin unless they really have to?

Go and buy a computer game, you will find different prices despite the same supplier.
 
merlin said:
Showing your ignorance here - there's a lot taken into account when rating private car business.

Historical accident/claims costs data on the particular car in question: -

outright accident/claim frequency
parts availability and prices
labour costs
theft attraction
fire susceptibility
demographic of typical owner
fault/non fault ratios when the car is involved in an accident
typical third party costs for the vehicle when fault
typical passenger liability costs for the vehicle when fault

As per usual there's only half a dozen people on the forum here that actually have an understanding and appreciation of foundations of the pricing model but their comments fall on deaf ears. Seems ignorance is King. :p

I'm grumpy this morning btw.
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Im very sorry that I didnt know how insurance worked before asking how it works, ill try to get my questiones answered before I ask them in future :P sorry for the ignorance >.>

outright accident/claim frequency - will be different for the cars your correct
parts availability and prices - availability is the same for pretty much all three (still available but ordered from Japan) prices may differ
labour costs - if they use their own approved garage for any repairs it should be even, though for TP insurance repairs shouldn't come into it for the policy holders car
theft attraction - TP doesn't cover theft
fire susceptibility - or fire
demographic of typical owner - Yeah I suppose the may be a "chav tax" on a Skyline, but wasn't that my original point? lol
fault/non fault ratios when the car is involved in an accident - good point
typical third party costs for the vehicle when fault - good point
typical passenger liability costs for the vehicle when fault - good point



breadturbo said:
the jza70 supra is still an i6 :P
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Oops forgot that, messed up on the Skyline too, fixed now tho ty :P
 
TP is usually no cheaper than comprehensive despite the fact parts costs, etc etc dont matter for one simple reason.

The sort of people who insure a car TP have been stastically shown as being more likely to be involved in a fault claim which would cost the insurer money.

Think about it. TP = cheap. So people buying cheap fast, high performance cars and insuring them on the cheap... etc etc.
 
I can understand some frustration when people can't buy the products or services at an affordable price - but that doesn't mean the mechanics of capitalism and indsutry marketplaces is against them - what it means is they don't at this point in time have enough money, simple as that.

I want an M3 - but I can't afford £800 a month repayments, I don't blame nasty greedy BMW despite the likely 80% mark-up between build cost and retail.
 
ci_newman said:
I've even had fun bouncing around brokers using the same underwriter to save myself almost £300 when doing quotes for last years insurance. Two different insurers (A-Plan, Sky) same underwriter (Chaucer) and I was using the quotes from each of them to get the price further and further down. Eventually they both settled on the same figure :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Perfect example though of the BENEFITS of the marketplace. :)
 
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