Insuring the new Car

[jezitalia]

Hi,

Just had a funny discussion, in some parts with the Insurance guy.

One question, what experience do you have of driving powerful cars, so spilt the list, advanced driving lessons etc etc, Driving days based on safety not speed.

Then comes the clanger, excess of £2500, ouch!!! Basically all but a major prong will be at my expense, and non nego too! May well be shopping about on that basis. Direct line may be losing 3 cars at this rate!

[eightfoot]

well i was thinking of purchasing a matt daytona from my local dealer,thought i'd get an insurance quote just to put me off and make me appreciate my rs4 a bit more so i goes to compare me meercat and it comes back at £250 from m+s blimey i thought they obviously dont know what this is but luckely for me the rs6 was sold when i went back, told myself they are to big and i should keep the rs4 lol,as a side note i just insured the rs4 through lloyds cost me £230 must be classed as old git now

[geordie jay]

if you dont mind me asking how old are you jezz?my insurance due in november and i did a quote and its gunna be about £420 but £450 excess

[GLM]

Pretty sure I was quoted £700-ish but that's with parking on the street.

Many years ago i was put off direct line when they insisted on trackers for anything over £40k. Sounds like they are just pricing high to discourage business unless you've got more money than sense.

[geordie jay]

personally i think direct line try to take your eyes out with silly quotes thats why they not on comparison sites

[adsgreen]

It's more the case they don't want the business. If you sign up to the silly excess then it's a bonus for them but that's it really.

[wrekka]

Direct line - never been anywhere near competitive. Quoted me £3500 on my first RS4 and I ended up getting it for £800 off swift!

[jezitalia]

Geordie, late 40's. My quote is a little above yours, but better than Direct Line.

Was recommended another company, who found a sensible offer and lower excess via Zurich, looking like thats the way i will be heading.

[geordie jay]

jez im early 40,s mate,comparison sites win my vote everytime.ohhh and 15yrs no claims

[feeltheburn]

I ended up going with Admiral insurance for my RS6. I had been with DirectLine (DL) for many, many years, 4 cars, buildings, contents, the cat, travel etc and generally my car insurance costs were dropping year on year so I assumed DL were competitive and their multi-car/policy scheme seemed to give good discounts.

Prior to the RS6 I got a quote from DL of £280 (£350 excess) to insure it, amazing I thought but checking again and again online it kept coming back at the same price. (assumed value of <£75k , 44years old, married, parked on driveway, <10kmiles per year. "safe"postcode, access to 3 other vehicles, no convictions +20 years no claims).

When I picked up the car, I got the 7 days Audi insurance and went online to DL to arrange insurance and got a shock. Because the car was over £75K (£86K), I had to call them to arrange insurance rather than online. Upshot was £850, £2500(!) excess AND a Tracking device HAD to be fitted!

There was NO way I was allowing anyone to dismantle my brand new car to add a tracker so I really started to panic. Fortunately on another forum i discovered that Admiral didn't insist on a tracker so explored that option. Upshot, got both the RS6 AND our Q5 (was up for renewal) for a total of £650 (£250 excess) on their multi car policy and NO tracker (RS6 was £450 on its own)! Well pleased with that and I will probably move our other cars over to Admiral when they come up for renewal.

Never saw the point of shopping around for insurance, laziness on my part I guess, but from now on I will always look around for a better deal as long as it is with one of the "big" companies or underwriters. I also took the Audi Gap Insurance- again maybe should have shopped around as there seems to be others which offer similar benefits for less money.

I'll never understand how insurance companies work. Loyalty seems to count for nothing, Logic also seems to be in short supply!

[jezitalia]

Sadly loyalty = being treated with contempt. Seems they all buy the business in year 1 then jack up the next year.

[adsgreen]

The issue is ironically price comparison engines. The larger brokers can operate as a loss leader for year one driving up the cost per customer acquisition. As such in order to have a chance, you have to accept that you as a broker will make bugger all in year 1 and hope to claw it back later. This means that insurance is technically too underpriced and isn't really sustainable.

[dermo79]

Taking delivery of a new RS6 tomorrow...my insurance is with direct line too and of course I checked with them if the car needed a tracker and they said no, I'm changing from a RS5 which needed a tracker so found it strange the RS6 didn't ...the call centre guy was certain it didn't but should I double check this? Not so sure after reading ur post above

[feeltheburn]

If the car is valued at over £75K then DirectLine informed me that I had to fit a Tracker. I had several calls to them to try to determine the Category of tracker required - quite a difference in price between the categories! So in all I spoke with at least 4 different people and they all confirmed I needed a tracker due to the value of the car being in excess of £75K.

It was explained to me that my RS6 would be insured fully comp without a tracker fitted, but if the car was stolen then I would not be covered! I explained that come September 2015 my car would be valued at less than £75K (if not the second I drove it off the forecourt) and that they were forcing me to buy a tracker (and have my car taken apart) for 12months of cover: they didn't see my point!

Maybe things have changed at DL in 27 days, but I'd make sure. Does the online quotation system now accept values above £75K- if it does then I guess things may have changed. It seemed to me that it was the value of the car that determined whether a tracker was needed and not the fact the car was an RS6. Check and triple check not worth the gamble!

[dermo79]

Yeah I basically said car was worth 75k as like u that's what it's worth as soon as driven away! With the gap insurance the diff would be covered anyway ...but yep will certainly check this again