Classic Car Insurance feedback

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DickTurbo
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Classic Car Insurance feedback

Post by DickTurbo » Sun May 22, 2016 10:04 pm

Hi,
I have insured my vehicles over the last few years with Admiral Multicar and also Bewiser. They have all been insured as daily user vehicles and the premiums have been around £160 to £220 per annum and have built useful NCBs. I have had no issues with either insurer but I haven't had a claim.
My circumstances have changed as I've retired and I will now be doing much lower mileages, so I'm contemplating looking at Classic Car Insurance. I notice that Admiral now do a Classic Multicar Insurance that appears to offer NCB, so I will give these a try nearer renewal.
My request for feedback is based on my total ignorance of the Classic Car Insurance scene and whether my vehicles - 1998 Rover Vitesse Coupe, 1995 Rover 827 Coupe and 1998 Rover 825 Coupe , plus a 1987 Ford Capri and a 1992 Ford Sierra estate, qualify as 'classic cars'.
To try and reduce running costs, I'm hoping Classic Car insurance will be cheaper and reflect the future use of the cars as occasional use only and no longer in the daily commuter rat race. I'm obviously a mature guy and have a perfect driving record so far.
So in a nutshell it would be nice to receive feedback to to the following queries
1. Are these vehicles likely to be admissible for classic insurance ?
2. Are there any special questions I should be prepared for when applying for classic insurance ?
3. Have any readers had experience of competitive premiums with classic insurance and if so with which classic insurance company ?
4. Are there any classic insurers who specialise in competitive premiums for Rovers and Fords of very modest value ?
All feedback is welcome as I have about 2 months or so to arrive at a cheaper solution to insurance of multiple cars or the alternative is to reduce the number of cars by getting rid, or take some cars off the road completely.
One can rotate the SORN using direct debits, so the road tax expense can be reduced, most times I can get the cars through their MOTS without great expense as Ican do a lot of the preparation repairs myself as with the servicing, but its the insurance costs that are going to be the area to target.It would be great if there was some type of ''trade insurance'' that applied to this sort of set up ie like garage trade insurance but this only covers cars not owned by you and of course I wouldn't qualify either
cheers
Dick

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scoobyh123
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Re: Classic Car Insurance feedback

Post by scoobyh123 » Sun May 22, 2016 11:07 pm

Hi Dick, i'll answer as much as i can for you and hopefully give a few pointers on the bits i don't know - there was a thread on here recently about insurance but can't remember where now but it worked out that different insurers were better in different areas than others and your postcode is a big factor in reducing the cost. Also limiting the mileage to about 5k a year seemed to be the best compromise between using it and getting a sensible premium for voluntarily limiting your use. Go lower than 5k and they seemed to inflate the premium. Anyway - your questions :

1) the Rovers, yes, definitely as the three "definites" are Vitesse, Sterling or coupe to qualify with many companies. You have that in one or more forms on all your Rovers The Capri should qualify as well (Laser or 280?) but not sure on the Sierra - being a 1992 car you'd think it would but if it's a basic 1.6L then many companies view it as a useful old load-lugger being run on bangernomics - sad but true! Same goes for several 800 models, anything less than either a Sterling, Vitesse or coupe is often thought of as suspicious by insurers as they aren't the "desirable" models. My view is that if it's a reasonable age and is obviously looked after by its owner and there's little chance of seeing another in any condition then it should qualify but then i'm not the underwriter!

2) Only the obvious one - is this your main car? Obvious answer is no as you have two (in my case) and you have 4 others. They don't seem to differentiate between a "daily hack" and a second classic as the other car as long as the one you're insuring isn't your main/daily driver.

3) I've always had good experience with Lancaster Insurance, others have found Adrian Flux more competitive and even more others have found other companies better. All seems to depend where you live, how old you are, your postcode, what you use it for and so on. Personally i think insurers make it up as they go along to try and fleece us for as much as they can possibly get, but i'm well known for being a cynical old git! :lol:

4) see above (3)

As for rotating the SORN around and the insurance, you might find the broker/underwirter charges for insurance changes mid-term so this might negate any saving you make this way. Also if cars are left for a while they deteriorate without use so really you want to be using them all at least once a month.
There is a company that offers fleet policies but not sure they do it for classics, except as a fleet of older cars. The company i'm thinking of is Tradex, usually you need at least 5 cars to qualify which of course you have. It's not always cheaper than insuring them individually though as the single premium is often in the £13-1500 range. Might be better for you being retired but then they might decline to insure you as they're primarily for trade purposes. Worth a call though.

Also the only time i got a Multicar quote from Admiral, the premium for the first car was more than i was paying at the time for all three sparately! Currently i'm paying about £170 each (one a little under, the other a little over) for each of my 827s and about £226 for my Jeep - the Rovers are definitely on classic policies, unsure about the Jeep although i think it is but not really worried as long as it's insured! Mine are all through Lancaster, the Jeep is actually Sureterm but it turns out they own Sureterm so makes no difference.

Fairly sure others will be along soon, one person has 3 or more cars on classic policies and i seem to recall he insured all of them for under £200 all in. He lives in a very low crime area though with all cars securely hidden/garaged i believe so as you can see there's a lot of variation!

Just as a "paper exercise", you might find it handy to get a quote for each of your cars from somewhere like confused.com, just to give you a starting point. I've noticed that recently older cars tend to come up with classic quotes on there so it might give you the starting point you need. Also try Lancaster, again it will give you a starting point.
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


Image
'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

DickTurbo
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Re: Classic Car Insurance feedback

Post by DickTurbo » Mon May 23, 2016 3:24 pm

Thanks Scooby ,
for your very comprehensive reply - really great and much appreciated . Its given me plenty to think about and to plan ahead. I think you are right about insurers making it up as they go along. Believe it or not, some insurers say its cheaper to insure a retired person , whilst others say the exact opposite and that we are a higher risk ( i don't think so, as we avoid the mad rush of the daily commute and drive less miles).
Its funny , once I was taking out some Plumbing Insurance and I really wasn't worried if I got it or not and kept saying the price was too high and I'd leave it. I ended up getting a huge discount that I couldn't believe .... just by being ''not really bovered''.
Cant say car insurance is like this , but we all know they have plenty of discounts up there sleeve and they don't show their full hand straight away.
I know its a long shot , but the chap who got 3 classics that you mentioned, for less than £200 did very well. I hope I'm so lucky
Out of interest , did Lancaster ask you to take a number of photos of your cars and fill in a detailed questionnaire , or did they do it all over the phone or online, for their classic insurance.
I'm pleased to hear that you think all the Rovers and the Capri should be classic status. The Sierra is a 2.0 GT estate, so as you say, may or may not be a classic.
thanks once again,
Dick

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scoobyh123
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Re: Classic Car Insurance feedback

Post by scoobyh123 » Mon May 23, 2016 11:21 pm

You're welcome Dick - Lancaster did ask me for half a dozen photos once for an "Agreed Value" policy but they lost them when i emailed them and still charged me the extra for Agreed Value but said i didn't have it as i hadn't sent any pics in! :roll: Haven't bothered since! I have enough photos to prove the current condition so i can argue like mad if anything happens and they try to fob me off with £20 and a half-eaten pie!
Just over a year ago i bought an 827 SLi saloon that had factory fitted leather and the 17" Vitesse alloys from new, basically it was a Sterling spec SLi except for cruise control. When i phoned Lancaster for a quote (bearing in mind it is almost identical to my Sterling) they quoted me over £1000, can't remember how much now but the reason was "it's not a classic". Why not was my response. "It's not over 30 years old or a Sterling, Vitesse or coupe". So it could have been that i waited until it was 30 years old (another 8 years now) before insuring it or looked elsewhere. In the end a friend round the corner made me a good offer and has managed to get insurance at a sensible price.

The Capri should easily have classic status, even the newest one would be 30 years old or thereabouts now (unless late registered in 87 or 88) and as the Sierra is a 2.0 GT estate (which i think was a limited run model) you have a good case for saying that's a classic too.

Good luck with it, hope you get some sense out of at least one company! :D
Cheers,
Dave

'02 Honda CR-V SE Executive
'99 Jag S Type 3.0 V6 SE


Image
'94 827 Sterling saloon
'88 Volvo 760 V6 Estate
'95 827 Coupé LPG gone but not forgotten!

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rovercoup
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Re: Classic Car Insurance feedback

Post by rovercoup » Tue May 24, 2016 7:53 am

One call is all you will need Dick and id be surprised if you find cheaper. Footman James

http://www.footmanjames.co.uk/
Rover 827 Vitesse Fastback Man Mk1 89
Rover 827 Sterling saloon Auto 90
Rover 820 Fastback 2.0 MPi Auto 90
Rover 820 Coupe sport 94
Rover 827 Sterling Saloon 95 auto
Rover 820 Vitesse Fastback 98
Rover 25 2.0TD 01
MGTF 135 02
Rover 45 1.6 SE 05

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