Insuring the new Car

[feeltheburn]

I checked about the Audi GAP insurance at the time, figuring I could go with DL, not fit the tracker and still be covered. Not always the case, gap covers the shortfall up to maximum value (in my case I think it was £25K cover for a prices of £500). So if it were stolen, DL would pay nothing, and GAP would/should pay out the £25K, still leaving me somewhat out of pocket! (only really now realising that this might not be enough cover given the Invoice price of the car...I am away to find the GAP policy documents for a closer read!!)

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I checked about the Audi GAP insurance at the time, figuring I could go with DL, not fit the tracker and still be covered. Not always the case, gap covers the shortfall up to maximum value (in my case I think it was £25K cover for a prices of £500). So if it were stolen, DL would pay nothing, and GAP would/should pay out the £25K, still leaving me somewhat out of pocket! (only really now realising that this might not be enough cover given the Invoice price of the car...I am away to find the GAP policy documents for a closer read!!)

Gap insurance requires you have to have a valid primary insurance policy. If DL fail to pay up due to you not fulfilling the terms of the insurance policy then the gap will also not pay up as you failed to have adequate cover on the car.

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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!

could you agree a value at 75k? although if it was smashed up/stolen before then you'd be out of pocket.

There are plenty of places it can be fitted other then the usual place - some involve far less hassle or disassembly.

[dermo79]

Ok so just off phone with dl and after they checked with the underwriter the car does actually need a tracker! Bit annoying tbh as I checked twice while getting new quote and renewing that one was required, both times they said no...seems they had a system glitch. The lady said that it had been noted on my policy that I had asked re tracker and they had said it was not a req, had the car been nicked they would have covered me as I had been misinformed by them ( although I wouldn't be entirely comfortable with that scenario given how insurers like to wriggle out of things!). So now I need to have the tracker fitted as they've realised their error, at least they said that's it's covered for theft until I send them proof that the tracker is fitted, I had to insist on this tho despite it being their error!
Anyway how's everyone else finding the car, unreal power and interior quality top notch, car just looks so aggressive a real head turner as well during a short drive today in London. One thing I'm a little underwhelmed by is the sports exhaust, doesn't seem to pop and bang on overrun as much as I would have expected, what are other peoples impressions of this?

[feeltheburn]

Good that you now have piece of mind that you are adequately insured!

I have the sports exhaust and love the noises it makes. I take it you have the exhaust in Dynamic mode? It pops and crackles a bit on the overrun in standard D mode- if you flip the gearstick back and go into sport mode it pops and crackles every time!

[dermo79]

On the drive select individual I didn't notice a setting for the exhaust only for the engine sound. Is it the same thing?

[feeltheburn]

You're correct...the setting is "Engine Sound" and I have it set to dynamic in the Individual selection.
Biggest engine size I have had previously was 2.0L and mostly diesels, so maybe my expectations are lower than others who have had "real" sports cars previously...in any case I am happy with the noise levels.

[dermo79]

Just came back from a quick blat yeah didn't realise u had to have the shifter in S mode as well for the cracks and pops to kick in from the exhaust , sounds great...Happy now

[RSphantom]

Just came back from a quick blat yeah didn't realise u had to have the shifter in S mode as well for the cracks and pops to kick in from the exhaust , sounds great...Happy now

You don't, just drive it in manual mode, it sounds even better, especially if you take it up to the limiter (not that I would recommend this ). You seem to get even bigger "farts" on up changes. First time I took my Dad out in the car he thought something had fallen off the back of the car

[RSphantom]

In reference to the DL issue when my renewal was due I looked around for quotes and found DL to be the cheapest with a reasonable excess. However, this was up to their £75,000 limit on value. Anyway, phoned them up to confirm the price and query on the value as I worked out that mine was worth around £77,000 at the time. At that point it went to the underwriters and suddenly I needed to have a tracker and the excess had gone up from £500 to £2600!!!! So I then asked them to explain the point of this as if the car was only worth £75K then on a normal policy they would have paid out £74,500 but now on their underwritten policy they would only pay out £74,400 and the premium had gone up from £414 to £850. I then told them that the valuation was my estimate and it may only be worth £75,000 anyway so could I go with the original policy. No was the answer and I would now need to get a third party valuation done to confirm this and then they may accept the original quotation. I declined their kind offer and got the policy through Churchill (who are the same company I'm led to believe) and stuck on a £75K valuation. Cost me £20 more than DL. As far as I'm aware most insurance companies only pay out trade in values anyway (hence the need for GAP). However, I think I'll end up going back to LV who I had been insured with for the last five years. The only reason I changed was they wanted £770 but usually when I had this in the past I would ring them up and tell them I got a cheaper quote and they would try and bring their premium down a bit. This time got some snotty kid who just said nothing he could do. Shame as they have always been spot on in the past.

[dermo79]

thanks phantom yeah think my excess was less than that for some reason even tho car valued at 75k...will check how much it is.
I'm a tad confused on the sports exhaust setup, on drive select I usually use 'Individual' with engine sound set to Dynamic, however if I don't pull the gear lever down and switch it to Sport mode the exhaust doesn't pop and crackle, even using the manual shifters it has to be in Sport mode for the extra noise.
Couldn't help notice ur car history , pretty impressive a diff RS model every yr...why do you change so often?

[RSphantom]

You may well be right on the sports exhaust as I have mine on individual as well with everything on auto except the sports diff and engine sound set to dynamic. I'll have to give it a try to check.

I change my car a lot for a number of reasons but mainly because I get tempted far to easily

I do have a very good relationship with my dealer and as such get some reasonable deals and they do sell my cars for me rather than trade them in which helps with the deal.

I'm actually on my second RS6 as I've just picked up my new one about two weeks ago. I haven't posted up about it due to the fact there is a number of members on here that have been messed about with the facelift issue and I didn't want to rub their nose in it. The reason for change was a number of factors but mainly due to the fact I got a better deal thanks to a bigger discount and for the same value car I got to change from a March 2014 with 6k on the clock to a Sept 2014 brand new for not much cost. So I'm back to the running in stage again

[dermo79]

variety is the spice of life as they say...with the running in is it super important to keep the engine below a certain rpm for that period? First brand new car I've actually owned been taking it relatively easy so far only 120 miles on the clock but will have to make alot of unnecessary journeys to get the full running in mileage on there!

[RSphantom]

variety is the spice of life as they say...with the running in is it super important to keep the engine below a certain rpm for that period? First brand new car I've actually owned been taking it relatively easy so far only 120 miles on the clock but will have to make alot of unnecessary journeys to get the full running in mileage on there!

You will get varying opinions on how to run in a car. I tend to be gentle for the first couple of hundred miles mainly to bed the brakes and gearbox in. I think the engine is pretty much run in anyway so after that mainly steady with a couple of blasts. I had to the other day to test the shift lights on the HUD

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Re running in. Always check the manual. Not that it's right or the best way but more the fact that it can and will be checked during any related warranty claim.
Tbh, I'm similar. A few hundred miles of varied driving to get things to settle then slow increase the rpm usage. It's not rpm that is the problem during running in but rather excessive loading/labouring in too high gear.
As for brakes - best ones I ever had were brand new on start of a Trackday.