Insurance

[jimdox]

Hi All,
I have been looking for a good X350 for about a year but nothing ever becomes available within 100 miles of me in the spec I desire. I want a car with sat nav (as I think the dash looks better with it), heated seats and petrol. Over the Christmas holiday I widened my search and found a Sovereign near York. I am currently trying to arrange seeing the car before I return to work on the 3rd January so I thought I would get an insurance quote. I clicked on the Footman James link on the club home page and filled in all my details including club membership number. I am an HGV driver trainer/instructor (DVSA registered) and as have had the use of a company vehicle for 3 years I do not have any NCB. I intend using the car over spring/summer weekends only with an annual mileage not exceeding 6000 (this is probably way over estimated). The quote I received was an eye watering £742.78.
I have since went onto Compare the Market and with all the same details (although was not asked if I was in any club) the quote I received was £278.41.
As you will guess, I will not be using any company endorsed by the club for my insurance.

[J44EAG]

What you have found comes as little surprise. Many of us here have found similar.

Our Club insurers appear better geared to classic vehicles than modern ones. Each insurer has his own views on what client market they wish to service. Classics are relatively low risk and are cossetted items with owners taking massive steps to ensure the security of their pride and joy. The modern car is a completely different kettle of fish.

Whilst many club members may cosset their more modern vehicles in a similar fashion to classic owners, moderns tend to be driven very regularly in everyday traffic and for commuting. The risks are much higher which presumably classic car insurers consider is business they do not wish to become involved with. So its each insurers decision as to which market sector he desires to engage with.

Modern car insurance is highly competitive business which is well catered for on the open market. In this respect the internet insurers have no equal and reign supreme. Frankly, I wouldn`t expect niche market classic car insurers to be able to compete in this market. I`ve re-insured two cars recently. One is my tweeked 2004 XJR and the other a 61 plate Focus Zetec. The XJR and the Focus were plumbed into the Go Compare site. Quick, easy and a massive choice of insurers, cover levels and costs. The Focus was insured for £275, 4k annual miles, protected, legal, £350 voluntary excess, £95 windscreen cover excess with my sister as prime driver, me as second driver and my 88 year old Mother as third driver who is the registered owner and keeper. Car garaged overnight. Admiral Policy.

The XJR is owned and insured by me. Has declared mods. Kept in the open on a driveway, sole driver, legal, protected, max NCD, £350 voluntary excess, £65 windscreen excess, 8k annual miles, Cost £386 with AXA.

Realistically, it concerns me not one jot that Club insurers do not cover my modern vehicles. Insurance is so easy to obtain on the internet that whether Club insurers have a desire to enter that market is completely unimportant to me. Should the Club make moves to try to obtain insurers that are more willing to cover modern vehicles? I don`t think so. With that product sector completely saturated and with such low premiums being available, there hardly exists a desperate need for any change, does there?

Horses for courses.

Mike K

[jimdox]

You got a good price for your insurance Mike considering all the mods.
I had a 1986 Ford Capri 2.8i Turbo Technics from 2000-2003. The first year the insurance cost was over £600. I then went to one of the advertised classic car insurers and it cost me £180. I got agreed value of £3500 (I wish I could still buy those cars at those prices) and unfortunately the car got an engine fire one night when I was driving down the A1 and because of the agreed value there was no hassle when it came to me getting paid out.This was all in the days before we ALL had computers and access to the internet and before sites like Go Compare existed. Anyway I hope to have a car before the end of next week so I may be back on with a story of my purchase and a couple of pics. It's been four years since my last Jaguar (S-Type). A car I loved but got written off when I hit a deer. I shall save this story for when I get an XJ.
Jim

[J44EAG]

Good to hear from you again, Jim. Good luck with the hunt. Take a look at the Trovit cars site. Set your parameters and the site will ping to your email. Unsubscribe when your search has produced a result.

Mike

[jimdox]

I've been on Trovit Mike and it is a good site.
I have a car I am going to see next week. It's a 2005 Sovereign with 63000 miles. I have been in talking with the seller and hopefully we can get a deal done. I will keep you updated.

Jim

[robv12]

Ah ha the old insurance one pops up again!!

It always pays to shop around, a number of the clubs directors, me included are tasked with shopping around for insurance for their cars/collection, just to keep everyone on their toes

The market is congested and competitive, cheap is not always good of course, you find that out when you need help as I di after a major shunt in 2016 which hospitalised us, Peter James himself has been involved and on our case along with DAS the clubs legal eagles via our insurance

The clam is less that straightforward which I will not go into here, but the attention we have had had been excellent, I doubt Churchill or Direct Line would go to the same lengths

Also your policy is made up of many many variables, age, location, garaging, mileage, value, driving record, occupation, other drivers, so it sis unlikely two quotes will be the same

now I do know the club is looking at a ne scheme to try and bring modern cars, that is to say sub 10 years old, into a better deal, but as I say that market is crowded

My own experience always puts me back with Peter James , no one has yet to better the package I get there, I did the shop around exercise a few months ago, PDJ, came out best again just under £1800...

How much, I hear you exclaim, but wait, this what I get

Two named drives, me and my partner, at the time I had 9 points, 3 windscreen claims, and one non fault accident on my record
Unlimited mileage on all cars, and we do a huge mileage
Agreed value on all cars as required
Garaging at three locations, any combinations of cars
Driving other cars up to 250K
Legal assistance, already in use
Breakdown Cover, used many times
Windscreen hotline, used three times

Cars range from a 1968 Triumph Herald to a 2008 Maserati, 17 cars in total, with a substantial agreed value


Now I think that's a great deal, don't know about you??

Moral, shop around, but don't always go for the cheapest

[RichardSEL]

With a '59MY Mark IX and a '73MY Citroen DS23 already with Footman James on a joint policy, I did try to add the last year of my daily -- an '06MY VW Passat 2.0 tFSI with all the toys, uprated turbo, etc. I'd been with the Co-op previously and found them the most competitive over the previous years even with Go Compare doing the comparisons.
But FJ did admit that they couldn't come anywhere close as that wasn't their market segment. So I stayed Co-op for the Passrat.

Although I'm Classic-less at the moment (two off XJ8) I did still get good renewal with FJ for them both -- £384 on agreed value, fully comp, 6k miles max each. But I still had the Citroen with them when I first added.

That last year's renewals' experience got me wondering though -- I seem to recall 3rd Party Fire & Theft being much cheaper than fully comp. There now seems to be very little premium price difference

The other two "recommended" by JEC tried to rip me off. One said 6,000 miles "put me in the next annual mileage bracket" so I said "right, then it'll be 5,999 then". Whereupon this numty said "but you've already declared to me 6,000 so we'll have to go with that". {{<<slams down 'phone>>}}

And the other tried to get over £750 out of me for the two XJ8s...

Check that you do actually want the "NCD protection", the "legal indemnity", the "breakdown cover" (most usually cheaper via RAC or makes membership equivalent to free), and the amount you want to pay in the event of a claim. I found those items added on my FJ renewal's notice when I didn't have them before.

[naki]

My 2p's worth.
If you have a classic and a modern car, you can often add your modern car onto the classic multi-car policy, for a lot less than having a separate policy.

As others have said, there is no such thing as the cheapest cover for everyone. Its different for everyone, so its all about shopping around.

[jimdox]

I agree with what you all say. My post was originally done in anger at what I was quoted. As I said earlier, when I previously had classic car insurance the internet was in it's infancy and the likes of Go Compare did not exist. I was shocked at what I was quoted from a classic insurer but equally surprised at the quotes I got from comparethemarket.com