Puzzling insurance

tabs · 6 Apr 2006 at 00:17

Looking to get a new car in the next few months but one thing i've come across which i cant really account for is that:

Im 19, 1 years NCB, my ideal car would be something like a BMW 318CI / Convertible. The cost of the car isn't an issue but i am getting some stooooopid insurance quotes. The likes of tesco / priviledge / direct line etc (all who use that system) cant even give me a quote, and elephant will tell me 3.5k.
Now what puzzles me is that if i were to try a quote for a 330 (yes, thirty) SALOON i can get quoted by the aforementioned companies for around 2200 which to me is reasonable and the top of the budget set out for the insurance.

Whats the plausible explanation for this? And does calling up the insurers really make a difference? I mean its not like calling them will mean they'll suddenly insure me on the car right?

M0T · 6 Apr 2006 at 00:28

Have you tried putting a parent on with admiral/elephant? That brings it down a huge amount (about £700 on my rover coupe).

geiger · 6 Apr 2006 at 02:37

When you get to those prices none of it makes sense. I take it the 330 is definetly a higher IG then the 318 so I guess you fit into some sort of discounting profile they have for that car.

Gilly · 6 Apr 2006 at 07:52

I've stopped trying to make sense of insurance. It doesn't work.

thebrasso · 6 Apr 2006 at 08:27

Gilly said:
I've stopped trying to make sense of insurance. It doesn't work.

Ditto.

I just had to pay £20 to cover a month on my policy because I had a new exhaust fitted yesterday. Its none standard put it that way

They then proceeded to tell me that they wouldn't actually cover the cost of any modifications to the car. But they wanted to know if anything was none standard.

I'd try ringing round, try some online quotes with Nationwide and Sky, ask Sky to call you back. They seem very reasonable at the moment.

merlin · 6 Apr 2006 at 08:52

Mine is due soon, NU want £1400, I get a 12.5% staff discount off this.

Rang around - Sky quoted £1100 with Ensign, £350 excess.

Called A-Plan - got EXACTLY the same Ensign quote but with a £300 excess and £800 premium. Then I told them to take off the hugely overpriced legal protection which got it down to £770.

These Brokers are making a mint on the legal protection insurance. I know for an absolute fact it only costs them £3 a unit. And they're selling it for £30 +. I can find an uninsured loss recovery company to work no win no fee after an accident in 5 minutes flat.

All my visible mods declared too.

Sputnik II · 6 Apr 2006 at 09:12

Directline quotes get cheaper if you put your wife on your policy, Work that out?

Toast · 6 Apr 2006 at 09:32

Is it possible that the 318 is a more common car amongst, erm, the 'poorer demographic' and therefore been written off / stolen more times making it a higher risk?

Perhaps it's because one's a soft top and the other isn't?

Who knows in the magical world of insurance

PS. Don't get the 318, you'll only get bored

happytechie · 6 Apr 2006 at 10:12

are you parking said convertible on the road? try parking it in a garage at night and se what it does to the quotes. I saved a backet load of cash on my MG when I gained a garage.

HT

Malachy · 6 Apr 2006 at 10:32

Toast said:
Is it possible that the 318 is a more common car amongst, erm, the 'poorer demographic' and therefore been written off / stolen more times making it a higher risk?

Perhaps it's because one's a soft top and the other isn't?

Who knows in the magical world of insurance

PS. Don't get the 318, you'll only get bored

this is the line i would say, the type of people who buy 318s are probably mor elikely to end up binning them into the nearest wall/tree/anything. this is why the insurance is higher,
also why its often cheaper to insure a larger family saloon (mondeo) to insuring a saxo/nova/<insert random chav chariot here>

stoofa · 6 Apr 2006 at 10:54

Sputnik II said:
Directline quotes get cheaper if you put your wife on your policy, Work that out?

Same with Norwich Union Direct.
I got a quote with NUD at the beginning of the year when my insurance was up for renewal.
It was actually a fair bit less than my Direct Line renew quote.
NUD actually called me up and we went through the quote to make sure I was comparing Apples to Apples.

They mentioned my other half.
I actually had money knocked off my quote by adding my fiancee onto the policy.
She is on a provisional license - yet NUD class these as full licenses and as long as it was clean there was a saving to be had.
Quote goes down by having a non-qualified driver on the policy...crazy.

[TW]Fox · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:16

I just did a quote for a 318 and, as expected, it came out less than a 330i.

Infact I've never managed to get a lower quote for a higher group car becuase the 'demographic is better', despite what people here say. The higher the group, the higher the quote..

geiger · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:22

You didnt mention the soft top part or I missed it. I bet thats a reason, they arent cheap to repair and every punk in the hood carries a knife

Luke15 · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:26

[TW]Fox said:
I just did a quote for a 318 and, as expected, it came out less than a 330i.

Infact I've never managed to get a lower quote for a higher group car becuase the 'demographic is better', despite what people here say. The higher the group, the higher the quote..

But i thought insurance groups didnt matter?

[TW]Fox · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:32

Luke15 said:
But i thought insurance groups didnt matter?

Sorry?

tabs · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:37

Sorry i meant CI OR convertible. The convertible i can understand really but surely im 10x more likely of binning a 330 saloon than a 318 coupe?

Luke · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:47

[TW]Fox said:
Sorry?

He may be referring to the fiesta insurance thread where you posted precisely that.

[edit] You were talking specifically about the lower groups, but I'd still guess that was the reason for the comment[/edit]
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17555524

Firestar_3x · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:55

emailiscrap said:
He may be referring to the fiesta insurance thread where you posted precisely that.

[TW]Fox said:
However, the difference between Group 4 and Group 5 is negligable at best.

[TW]Fox said:
I disagree. As somebody who has been insuring Group 9 and above since 18, I've found little real difference between the lower groups. Certainly not enough to dictate car choice.

HMMMMM, He said little diff like i thought................

Jez · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:58

[TW]Fox said:
Infact I've never managed to get a lower quote for a higher group car becuase the 'demographic is better', despite what people here say. The higher the group, the higher the quote..

Certainly for me this is not true, at 17 i could easily insure a 3.0 Omega in group 16, yet couldnt insure crappy hatchbacks in group's only as high as about 12.

Another example is the group 20 MR2 Turbo, easily insurable, yet other group 19 cars i cant get quoted on.

[TW]Fox · 6 Apr 2006 at 12:58

Exactly. The difference between groups is often very negligable. For example, I found the difference between 9 and 12 at 19 was £120.

So, when I say groups are to a point meaningless, I mean you shouldn't say 'I want a new car, max of Group 5 please' becuase it's probably not really that much more expensive to go for a higher group.

This is not the same thing as saying groups don't matter and some Group 12 cars cost more to insure than, say, some Group 15 cars.