How does modified/custom car insurance work and how is it calculated?

I spoke to adrian flux yesterday asking about modifications. He told me that anything that doesn't alter the power will most likely not make any difference to the premium (suspension, brakes etc). If I got a power mod like a remap then the premium would match my power gains - 20% power hike = 20% premium hike.

My brother in law rang up about how much it would cost to slot a 2.8 V6 from a golf into his Ibiza and I think it was something daft like a £60 increase. They told him full engine conversions aren't actually bad because it's just considered as modifying the engine you already had, rather than a whole new engine. This bit might of changed now though, because this was some years ago.
 
Most seem to require you to be either 21 or 25, but a few are 19 or 20. Sky is the youngest, at 19 it seems. :)

mccarf said:
20% power hike = 20% premium hike
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Going from the 1.2 AWY engine to the 3.2 V6 would be a power hike of 346%. :p

346%!!!! :eek:
 
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Acme said:
Most seem to require you to be either 21 or 25, but a few are 19 or 20. Sky is the youngest, at 19 it seems. :)



Fitting the R32 engine would be a power hike from 54HP to 241HP. So 346%. :p
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Yeah, it might of changed for the engine conversions now because his info about them is a few years out of date. The power hike on an ibiza would have been huge too though so I'm not sure!

Edit: Wouldn't it be better to buy the polo gti with the 1.8t in it already? You'd have a decent base to go from then and the 1.8t is easy to extract more power from.
 
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Like I said, this is mainly just a silly idea at the moment, I don't have any real intent to have these modifications done, but I am curious as to how much it would all set me back. My mechanic and resident car modding enthusiast has said he'll get back to me with a work quote (he knows I'm only curious and not serious and he's doing it cos he loved the sound of the idea, and is a mate. :p) and I have applied for one insurance quote out of sheer curiosity as well.

The Polo GTI would be a good base car yeah, but there is something nice about the thought of keeping my first car and adapting it to suit, instead of selling up. Plus a half decent Polo GTI would set me back 5 grand to begin with, and a-lot of the standard GTI parts wouldn't be up to scratch for that power anyway.

It would almost be worth it just for dousing show-offs in Civics and things at traffic lights. How it must feel to get rinsed by a Polo. :p
 
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Yeah that's understandable. At least the 1.8t cars are at the age now where they're being broken constantly, so the parts are cheap & plentiful enough to make this a good idea for you. Good luck, you're braver than I am! :D
 
The car is fairly low value in its standard form anyway, so I could just get a new car, stick the Polo in storage, and work on it/have work done to it in my spare time.
 
generally speaking, insurers dislike anything to do with engine swaps and forced induction on vehicles that are factory NA.
especially when going as far as to double the power

for instance, Nath got a quote on a stock FN2 CTR then got a quote on his CRZ with a supercharger, same power etc. the CRZ was basically double to insure.
[im sure his rich and vibrant history of supra population depletion hasnt helped though]

realistically, a car with loads of mods will always cost more to insure than a standard car that is faster from the factory unless you are with a performance car specialist.

most of whom will require you to be over a certain age, have experience with that category of vehicle etc in order to take advantage of their services which cater more for enthusiast or performance cars.
 
Thanks. We shall see what the quote looks like if and when it ever comes back my way. :p

I expect it to be over £2K, and for me to look at it and then laugh and move on.
 
you need to do this sort of thing on a specialist site. comparison site regulars wont touch you or will at least quote prohibitively large figures.
 
Lashout_UK said:
Oh, by the way, it'll work out far cheaper to just buy a quicker car. The end result will be better too :D
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I know, but there is something special about owning a very unique car. :D

But, again, this is just another silly pipe dream. As I have said, it is very unlikely that I will go through with this, even though it is very tempting to try.

Admittedly I don't have a great deal to compare it to (a BMW E87 118D M-Sport and an Audi A4 2.0 TDI S-Line are the only two newer "decent" cars I have driven), but when I had my AP Coilovers and 215:40:ZR16 spec tyres on my alloys fitted to the Polo, it was a blast. Obviously it didn't go very fast, but you didn't have to do a great deal of slowing down either. :D

http://www.polo9n.info/Foto/picupload-pimpowski-144349-586.jpg?width=800
http://www.polo9n.info/Foto/picupload-pimpowski-143216-586.jpg?width=800
http://www.polo9n.info/Foto/picupload-pimpowski-140136-586.jpg?width=800
 
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Greenlight probably won't touch you due to your age unfortunately. You have to be 23 to insure a Focus ST with them for example.

They're great for declaring mods though, I just drop a PM to one of their reps through the owners forum and that's it. Added a downpipe, induction kit, RARB, polybushes and a Bilstein B12 kit to my policy for a grand total of £0. Took me about 5 minutes to do as well.
 
That seems strange. I can insure a Focus ST through Admiral right now, at 19 if I want to. :confused:

The quote is a little high, but its there at least.
 
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i'm pretty sure upgraded brakes and tyres make your car safer. especially if it has stock power. the only bad thing that would be more likely to happen if you had 4 pot brembos on a polo, is that someone would run into the back of you when you hit the brakes. really they should pay you to have better brakes, especially if you have drums on the rear. this is why nobody has a tuned car in the uk. it sucks :(. it sucks even more for young people as well.
 
I'm not sure I would want to fit £1500 of brakes to a £1500 base car (4 pot Brembo's are mighty expensive!). I might spend £1500 on an engine, but that is different. :p
 
Jumper118 said:
i'm pretty sure upgraded brakes and tyres make your car safer. especially if it has stock power. the only bad thing that would be more likely to happen if you had 4 pot brembos on a polo, is that someone would run into the back of you when you hit the brakes. really they should pay you to have better brakes, especially if you have drums on the rear. this is why nobody has a tuned car in the uk. it sucks :(. it sucks even more for young people as well.
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By that logic adding a roll cage and bucket seats should be cheaper too but it isn't for the exact same reason and we all know why.

Edit: And nobody has a tuned car in the UK? u wot m8?
 
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