Spent this afternoon getting quotes in anticipation of finally doing my 2 litre conversion, my current ins runs out tomorrow so I figured I'd insure it as 2litre on renewal. HIC conversation was as follows- ME: I'd like to insure a MK2 Golf with a 2 litre engine conversion HIC: No problem sir, we specialise in modified vehicles. What exactly are the modifications? ME: Simple, 2 litre block, 1.8 head in a 1986 8v GTI HIC: What sort of car did the engine come from? ME: I've no idea, it was on a guy's garage floor when I bought it. It makes no difference it's a generic VAG 2 litre engine. HIC: We need to know what car it is for in order to assess the risk ME: It doesn't matter, the same engine was fitted to Passats, Golfs, Toledos, Audis etc HIC: Perhaps VW can tell you what it was fitted to by the engine number? ME: OK it was from a Passat HIC: You said you didnt know ME: I don't I just made it up. HIC: If we quote you on the basis that its a Passat & it turns out to be Gold engine it will invalidate your insurance. ME: what if it was a brand new engine? HIC: I don't understand ME If I bought a brand new engine form VW it would never have been fitted to a car, what would you do then HIC: VW would know what car they made it for. ME: Imagine its a computer & I'm changing the hard drive, PC world sell generic hard drives to fit lots of different computers. Its the same principle HIC: We don't insure computers ME: FFS you people are a waste of time Hang up phone & call Brentacre, where I find myself talking to GeordieGar from this very forum. I explain I'm sticking in a 2E with my EV head, he says 130bhp should do you, that'll give you room to fit a cam & a 4-branch at no extra cost. that'll be 340 please How simple was that? Well done Brentacre & GeordieGar
Is a 2E from a Mk3? You could have just said its from a mk3 from the start. Brentacre give me terrible quotes for my car, double what I pay with HIC. Brentacre 1 - HIC 1
HIC base your quote on the car the engine is from. For me, the quote is based on a mk3 16v as thats what my engine came from. Funny isn't it? Gurds
Brentacre is good for my daily but can't come no where near to my HIC policy. But prefer the customer service of Brentacre hence I use them for my main car since that gets the usual changes to updating the car or reg transfers...etc..
as above they base the quote from which car the engine came from, this is why they need to know. dispite the same engine being fitted to a golf and a passat, the premium isnt the same. this is why it would be invalid if they found out engine came from a different car to what you quoted
How would you know what car it came from if the seller doesn't know? especially if they were fitted to various cars. What if you said it was from a mk3 and they found out it was from a passat. Same result. invalid?? makes no sense.
well vw may be able to help, or just say its a Golf one. i really doubt the insurers would actually bother to check, but there is always a risk i suppose
They are suggesting they would. Anything to not pay a claim.. If that happened i'd then go to the insurance ombudsman. They got my cousin 7k back after the company refused to pay out due to some undeclared mods on his harley that he didn't know about, when it was nicked.
I also just spoke to GeordieGar at Brentacre, but unfortunately they couldn't compete with my quote from Adrian Flux. I was very impressed with the service though. HIC also gave me a pretty good quote, but I found them to be rather pushy which I didn't like. Adrian Flux: 23yrs old, 5yrs NCD, TPFT, 1500miles, Garaged - 300.
I cant help thinking that if HIC are that awkward & pedantic about a quote what the hell would they be like in the event of a claim? Refuse to pay out on a theft claim due to the policyholder being unable to prove that windows were wound up the correct torque?
My thoughts exactly. As with everything if it's cheap you probably get a bad service and her charged for everything extra like certificate re issue, number plate changes etc. A friend goes with companies off price comparison websites and I can tell the differences. Not very helpful when trying to claim and try to get out of paying up.
or you find that if you go thru the motions with hic declaring every possible mod, it all goes smoothly. but if you go thru a less pedantic guy on the phone you end up loosing out because you didn't declare absolutly everything? at the end of the day its down to you to know exactly what has been done to your car and declare it all. its a ball ache and takes ages, but if you dont want to loose out this is what you have to do. if its too much effort for you, dont modify your car! and i dont know what all you guys are winging about anyway, ive dealt with hic for around 3 years and found them to be nothing but helpful. even when they have to sit there for half an hour and listen to my dull droning about each and every little thing I've put on my car over the last 4 years you cant expect them to know everything in the world about dubs, and if they have rules you should follow them. no good moaning at the poor guy on the phone, its not like they can magically change the system they have to work with for you. having worked in customer service there is only so much you can do if you're sat in front of a computer and/or have a sheet that says we must know X, there isnt really anything that can be done if the customer doesn't have the info, regardless of how much they complain about it
I can understand an insurer needing to know about modifications but insisting on an irrelevant detail is annoying especially when they claim to specialise in modified vehicles. If someone can give me a reasoned explanation as to what difference a 2E from a Passat makes to an insured risk as opposed to a 2E from a Seat I will shut up. It's the same as asking whether you bought your spark plugs from Halfords or GSF. Blaming the computer is fine but if a business is losing customers because of it perhaps they need to look at another system especially when your business is one that relies on of a lot of variables that cannot be catered for by a "one size fits all" approach
we already told you why chap, HIC base the quote off the car the engine comes from. if you dont know what it is, they cant do you a quote. ok you can make it up, but if they check it and its not from the car you said then this will invalidate your insurance. simply because a Golf GTI MK3 is gonna cost you more to insure than an automatic passat isnt it!
