Volvo V70 2.5tdi's

[Scania]

Nonono I mean the moon mileage one you looked at was stupidly overpriced, I don't think yours was!

Ahh, I get you now.

Reminds me of my 850, looks almost identical, inside and out.

I still like the styling to this day, they have that awesome stereotypical Volvo estate look that modern ones have lost!

It's an 850 in everything but name from what I can tell, it is very stereotypical for sure.

Still can't quite believe I've wound up in one mind you!

Pipe, slippers etc next for me!

That seems quite expensive for insurance! I pay £350 more for a Cooper S! (21, 2y NCB). I remember Clarkson saying something along the lines of "At this cost, you expect me to write the car off atleast two times a year?!" Just the once in this case I suppose?

Does seem a good barge and hopefully a reliable one, which is likely being a Volvo.

Tell me about it! - I'm a 45year old professional driver with 11yrs NCB, low mileage use, parked at secure car park at work etc etc taking my other half off the policy (thinking this may help) only increased it further by another £150!

I can insure a V12 750i BMW - of far higher value - for much less than this,it's ludicrous.

Pretty bonkers, whilst on the phone to my insurers I was told it's a high risk car not because of the type of driver more because of the damage it'll do to whatever I hit with it(!) I pointed out that I haven't hit anything with a vehicle be it private or heavy goods for years and don't intend to start now.

Best of it is I'm insured under a specific scheme for HGV drivers which is supposed to cut my premium! :/

 

[Akagi]

My bone stock 90HP diesel Octavia is about 40% more expensive to insure than a MK2 MX5 1.8S with declared wheels, suspension, exhaust, induction, hard top, and interior changes.

Its also about the same price to insure as my Celica GT was!

 

[Ryan-3]

They must just expect these to completely demolish anything they come into contact with.

 

[paradigm]

Pretty certain I was only paying ~£400 to insure my 850 at the time, not that I kept it for 12-months.

 

[Akagi]

They must just expect these to completely demolish anything they come into contact with.

This was sort of disproven on Fifth gear a long time ago. Old Volvo with a mile of bonnet vs a smart car in an offset head on colision, Volvo came off worse.

 

[Jez]

Best of it is I'm insured under a specific scheme for HGV drivers which is supposed to cut my premium! :/

I am sure you probably have, but have you tried insuring outside of this through a regular mainstream insurer?

That premium is bonkers

 

[Scania]

I am sure you probably have, but have you tried insuring outside of this through a regular mainstream insurer?

That premium is bonkers

Yes, basically I find the best price via Compare the Meerkat / Confused / Whoever and they match or better the price which is what I did.

Think my postcode must be the insurance equivalent of Aleppo!

My cover includes brake down cover including home start, protected ncb, legal cover, courtesy car and a few other things (pretty much every option ticked if you will) with zero excess so I probably could have got it lower with tweaking a few options but still, cover costing the purchase price does rather erk me!

10 years ago (is it that long!) my e38 728i cost me under £240 f/c albeit with a different postcode.

 

[tummelv]

I would imagine a £250 excess would knock a good £100 off the premium

 

[Scania]

I would imagine a £250 excess would knock a good £100 off the premium

Yes it probably would but in the event of a claim (on an already low value vehicle) that £100 saving costs me a further £150 on top of the £100 saving hence me opting for zero excess.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Yes it probably would but in the event of a claim (on an already low value vehicle) that £100 saving costs me a further £150 on top of the £100 saving hence me opting for zero excess.

Under what circumstances would you ever make an insurance claim for a £650 Volvo?

It is never going to be worth making a fault claim so therefore paying extra for zero excess seems absolutely bonkers?

Even if what you said was true and you did intend to claim if required then surely opting to pay £100 more to save £250 in the event of a claim means you must estimate your personal chance of a claiming being what, 30-40%?! Surely not?

 

[Jez]

Indeed, on any cheap vehicle (infact, personally, on all vehicles) i always max the excess until it stops lowering the premium.

On a <£1k there is almost zero chance you will ever claim, so either insure it TPFT if cheaper, or with the absolute maximum excess possible.

 

[Scania]

Under what circumstances would you ever make an insurance claim for a £650 Volvo?

It is never going to be worth making a fault claim so therefore paying extra for zero excess seems absolutely bonkers?

Even if what you said was true and you did intend to claim if required then surely opting to pay £100 more to save £250 in the event of a claim means you must estimate your personal chance of a claiming being what, 30-40%?! Surely not?

Indeed, on any cheap vehicle (infact, personally, on all vehicles) i always max the excess until it stops lowering the premium.

On a <£1k there is almost zero chance you will ever claim, so either insure it TPFT if cheaper, or with the absolute maximum excess possible.

Hmm, valid points, I'd tbh not thought of it like that! - I've always applied the zero excess logic although previously my cars have been worth a fair bit more, not so much in recent years mind.

I'll give them a call tomorrow to see if I can rearrange the policy (still within the cooling off period as I've only just renewed) hopefully I can get it down to a more respectable figure!

Potentially daft question I guess but I assume I'm right to still opt for brake down, legal cover, protected bonus etc etc as all add to the premium.

Cheers.

 

[rodenal]

Personally I think protected no claims is a waste of time unless it's nearly free to add - my no claims loss made very very little difference to my premium after having a bump, the fact I'd been in an accident was the cost driver.

Legal so long as you don't have it in any ither policies

Breakdown so long as you don't have it through a nationwide account or the likes

 

[Scania]

Hmm, just edited my quote on Confused.com, adding £750 excess where before I had zero, doing so reduces the cheapest premium to £515.73 but an additional £40 for basic (no home start) break down cover and another £31 for legal cover (both of which I don't have elsewhere) the £750 excess when applied to the quote from Hastings Premier (which policy and inclusions my HGV driver insurer have matched) reduces the premium by, wait for it, £10! - £620 to £610 even though I've effectively made the likelihood of me claiming very low.... It's a bloody joke!

I'm going to phone my current insurers tomorrow and see what they can do by adding excess to hopefully reduce it.

 

[rodenal]

No idea then tbh, I quickly just run it through compared to my own car (but without mods) and get similar quotes for both so I guess its just the combo of the car, your profession and your history

 

[Scania]

No idea then tbh, I quickly just run it through compared to my own car (but without mods) and get similar quotes for both so I guess its just the combo of the car, your profession and your history

I know being a professions driver supposedly makes me a higher risk(!), I have a declared medical condition which also won't help possibly and my partner has a non fault accident declared (but removing her ups the premium) I've been looking around Volvo forums today and one linked to an owners club who have an insurance deal for club members, maybe I'll give that a look tomorrow.


I could understand if this car was a T5 Petrol turbo or suchlike, but for a 17year old 5pot tdi estate? Bloody nuts!

 

[HangTime]

I know being a professions driver supposedly makes me a higher risk(!)

Wouldn't surprise me if pro drivers have more accidents than most professions on average in absolute (not relative to mileage) terms.

 

[helpimcrap]

Fairly nonsensical. The principle is sound but the reality is that a car with 500,000 motorway miles will be considerably more worn in every possible way than one with 5000 miles of 2 mile trips.

I think he means it will have less wear because the engine will be hot as 90% of damage to an engine is done in first 5mins until it reaches temperature.

Volvo's are great , reliable cars. A mate swears by them and Volvo offer him fantastic service and he didn't even buy the car from them.

 

[Scania]

Wouldn't surprise me if pro drivers have more accidents than most professions on average in absolute (not relative to mileage) terms.

Perhaps, I don't know the statistics tbh, but I find it interesting that a HGV driver is still deemed high risk despite extra driver training (to obtain the license) and having to undergo refresher training (albeit classroom based) every five years yet "lower" risk non HGV drivers pass one practical and theory test and that's it training wise until a ban or death!

Relative to mileage the accident rate I would imagine would be very very low but given there's only ~ 300,000 or so HGV drivers in the uk (according to the freight transport association) the accident rate over such a relatively small pool of drivers (compared to non HGV drivers) must be huge.

 

[Scania]

Tried Chris Knott insurance today (recommended on the Volvo owners club forums) they couldn't get near my existing policy even with a £500 excess, looks like I'm just going to have to suck this up, drawn a blank with comparison sites too, loading the policy with huge excess saves me so little it's not worthwhile changing.

So there you have it, insuring a boring middle age mans Volvo estate will sting you! :/