Do you declare your mods?

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

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This might turn into a bit of a controversial thread but I thought I'd ask anyway. Quite a few of you are running non standard wheels, lowered, basic paintjobs and stickers but the car is otherwise stock. I see a number of people chop and change their car around quite regularly (especially on Retro Rides), but it's not major work, just the way it looks. Do you declare these changes to your insurance companies?

Mine is as it rolled out the garage, all mods declared. I'm with Flux who charge £25 every time you change something. See who the real criminals are, eh?
 
Yes. I was caught out before when I put non-standard alloys on my car, and when I had to claim they weren't happy.
 
Most of the time I insure with Elephant so I pick and choose the most relevant mods from the list on their webquoter thing without going into details. I also have a habit of "Pre-declaring" mods such as wheels and lowered suspension whether I've got them or not as at renewal time it makes next to no difference to the price but saves the 'admin fee' if I decide to add them later.

When I insured the track car with AF they were barely interested in the mods over the phone, gave them the gist of the engine swap and they gave me a price then asked for details afterwards when I got the paperwork at which point I declared everything in as much detail as I could.
 
Even factory fitted options are supposed to be declared - basically anything extra added to the base specification of the vehicle you purchased.

A typical example people forget is HIDs.
They see it as a factory fit option and assume it doesn't need declaring.
However the repair on front-end damage on a HID equipped car is obviously higher then with standard lights.

Insurance usually only takes "base specification" into consideration.
 
i've not (and probably won't) modded this car - but if/when i do get a play thing i'll declare everything. Will probably batch things up though and install them all at the same time.

I've always declared anything that changes the spec of the car (ie uprated, not just replaceing with non-OEM) but things like stickers/debadging i wouldn't bother with...

Having said that the "rally" cars i've had i've added all sorts of tat too and not declared... but then they haven't been in the country long enough to be a worry ;)
 
Nope, all declared and above board. Good job too, whilst I was on the phone to the insurer they asked if I still had Too R888s on, which I didn't. They had asked if I was a member of any owners clubs and the guy was having a snoop about my posts. It pays to be completely honest, it would seem :)
 
Yes all the time to ever car I've owned. With green light who seem to be quite good at insuring modded cars.

My Mx5 has been the most highly molested car to date... huge amounts of under the bonnet stuff.

The Alfa has uprated brakes, lowered and stiffened, CDA intake and an autodelta exhaust as well as a remap - the fact that I had changed the brakes and lowered and stiffened the suspension increased the premium as much as the MX5 which turned a 147bhp car to a 236bhp car! Still cheap but strange.
 
I got a Perfect example for you matey.

Remember that Lairy Sammy I had with the Exterior roll cage & loads of mods, Well first time I got quoted without mods with Flux it was 139 quid, 2nd time when I declared the mods it was 119, It was cheaper with the mods declared. :p
That'll learn me. :D
 
Peace of mind are the keys words for sure, The way the gavvers are these days with there trick **** beeping in there motors & how wise they are to mods etc you Must be perfectly legal these days no matter what it takes.
 
You have two choices. The first choice is to pay to have your car insured so on theft/damage etc your insurance company will pay you some money back (how much is questionable)

OR

You are paying for a bit of paper which will allow you to get a tax disc.

If its the first choice declare every mod and if possible agree a value in writiing. The second choice you declare nothing, you pay as little as possible on the basis you aren't really insuring your car.

Is it a criminal offence to not declare a modification?
 
my only current mods are changing the colour of the backlights in the dash which ive not declared

and the exhaust.

Ive declared the exhaust this time round, primarily because i know the car is so rare nobody is any the wiser anyway. Not even the dealer has spotted the exhaust is different on the several trips its been in. Probably because when i was enquiring about buying one, all of the staff said they'd never seen one.

My renewal is comming up shortly though, and im going with a mod friendly insurer like adrian flux and greenlight, and will declare both, and the remap im due in for in a few weeks.
 
Im with HIC who are part of adrian flux and i declare everything. Have made changes to my policy modification wise and they've never charged me an admin fee (maybe because they specialize in modification?). Also they only charge me for modification if they make the car go faster. As great as this is, it seems a bit flawed as making my car handle better makes me go even faster :P
 
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