How Do Mods Affect Your Insurance?

[Hexa-dB]

I'm just wondering, how do modifications like lowering springs, alloys, new stereo etc affect your insurance payments? Does fitting lowering springs make a big difference?

Do I need to inform my insurers when I change my HU? I read somewhere that something as small as changing your gear knob has to be reported!

[RossP]

My insurance isn't affected by any mods that i have now or that i will have in the near future :P

[Blaze]

Well my springs cost me £60 and i wasnt to impressed byt that, but i payed it!

[Fidgits]

you should inform you insurance company of any modifications.

You will find your policy defines a set amount for 'audio equipment', so if you put in a new headunit, you may want to make sure that covers it.

For springs etc, depending on the company, it generally will put it up, and it is illegal to modify your car without informing them.

[Hexa-dB]

Well my springs cost me £60 and i wasnt to impressed byt that, but i payed it!

£60 on the annual premium? Hmm that's not too bad...

RossP - How come your insurance isn't affected? Is this because you're not in the UK?

[Kev Mc]

There are a few people on here that have said their insurance isn't affected as long they tell the insurers what they do but I'd assume they have to pay a bit more than usual for the privilege. I'm sure some1 with a policy like this will be along shortly or you could try doing a search if you want to know sooner.

[Jinxed]

maybe their insurance isnt affected as they dont tell. cant see any insurance company let anyone get away with no additional cost when they can bump up the premium. all insurance companies are a bunch of blag artists. you pay em loadsa money for however long and then when u need to claim they put you through the ringer in an attempt to give you nothing or a small fraction of whats needed imo

i could tell you a story about an insurance company that charged me an extra 100 quid on my premium just cos they found out i was unemployed at the time.... how scam like is that. must have thought with all my free time and dole money i was razzing around an going to blackpool all the time. they got told where they could shove my policy at renewal time and when the time came as promised to them i rang , laughed down the phone, told them the much better quote i got and told them to do something with themselves that was pretty unsavoury.

like tax collectors ...theyre legally sanctioned thieves!

[armoredfist2002]

cis didn't charge me extra for my mods

elephant charged me £60-£80 for alloys, exhaust, induction kit and lowering springs.

they cover my HU for upto £750

some companies charge, others don't.

not sure about telling the insurance company about a new HU, as for the gear knob, that's abit stupid.

some people say 'i'll take my mods off the car if I have an accident'

how would you manage to do this if you were lying in hospital half dead

[Demonic Angel]

I havent informed my insurance company of my aerial.... thats really the only "mod" I have.... I didnt see the point, if someone nicks it, I'll just put the proper one back on!

[RossP]

RossP - How come your insurance isn't affected? Is this because you're not in the UK?

Yeh it's because i'm not in the UK, but is still an amazing deal, and it covers me to drive anywhere in Europe in my car as well

[DaveSR]

What about certain parts like the airfilter panel being replaced with a so called performance part (K&N) and using different pads (Not OEM) in your brakes?

I enquired about a induction kit and it would have set me back £50

[seveer unaek]

Admiral only charged me £30 for exhaust and filter change. Last company didn't charge, but since i changed policy to my name, Admiral were over £1000 cheaper than previous company... or any other company for that matter!

Most insurers (if they insure modded cars) will charge a small amount for them but won't insure the mods themselves... one compnay that does is Adrian Flux, but obviously there is a charge for this.

I havn't declared mods such as T-Sport seats, stereo etc as the stereo is covered upto £750 anyway and who cares about different seats?!?!

[Woody27]

Admiral only charged me £30 for exhaust and filter change. Last company didn't charge, but since i changed policy to my name, Admiral were over £1000 cheaper than previous company... or any other company for that matter!

Most insurers (if they insure modded cars) will charge a small amount for them but won't insure the mods themselves... one compnay that does is Adrian Flux, but obviously there is a charge for this.

I havn't declared mods such as T-Sport seats, stereo etc as the stereo is covered upto £750 anyway and who cares about different seats?!?!

Because if in a crash your seats break or dont hold you in or something they can blaim poor fitment. If they already know about them and dont ask about fitment, when you crash and you go with your seat through the screen it there fault for not asking the full details about it (like whether it was fitted properly). Also if you have a car accident and like get a bad back injury they may say the aftermarket seats void your claim. And Tbh if you have a claim that is big and they check over the car they may just void it as u have aftermarket seats undeclared and say its breach of contract so they may not cover the accident regardless of cause!

Just a thought!

[seveer unaek]

Admiral only charged me £30 for exhaust and filter change. Last company didn't charge, but since i changed policy to my name, Admiral were over £1000 cheaper than previous company... or any other company for that matter!

Most insurers (if they insure modded cars) will charge a small amount for them but won't insure the mods themselves... one compnay that does is Adrian Flux, but obviously there is a charge for this.

I havn't declared mods such as T-Sport seats, stereo etc as the stereo is covered upto £750 anyway and who cares about different seats?!?!

Because if in a crash your seats break or dont hold you in or something they can blaim poor fitment. If they already know about them and dont ask about fitment, when you crash and you go with your seat through the screen it there fault for not asking the full details about it (like whether it was fitted properly). Also if you have a car accident and like get a bad back injury they may say the aftermarket seats void your claim. And Tbh if you have a claim that is big and they check over the car they may just void it as u have aftermarket seats undeclared and say its breach of contract so they may not cover the accident regardless of cause!

Just a thought!

If someone who doesn't own a Yaris or someone who doesn't know the differences between the models looked into my car they wouldn't have a clue!

Maybe with race seats i'd declare it, but not standard fit seats.

[jaxx]

all in all on my yaris, mods boosted it to around an extra 150quid, which isnt bad to be honest to say i spent around 10k on it!

but i did have my stereo covered elsewhere as that was too much for elephant at around 2k so i had Natwest insure that on just a normal possesions policy (about 55quid)

mr2 alloys have added around 45, which is good to say ill get 900quid back if theyre nicked! filter, zorst and BOV added around 50 odd aswell

[Woody27]

Fair enough! Just saying insurance aren't going to let much slip through if you have accident with big claim. They are more likely to pay for an expert to check over your car than to pay big bucks to replace your car! But yeah they are pretty unmodded looking with no Tsport stitched logos on so your ok. Bit off topic but you got any pics of them in?

[seveer unaek]

Yeah... hang on... gotta find em somewhere....!

Here:

Iv got the rear ones in now too, but no pic yet!

[alanbradley]

My suspension added £20 to my policy - I've yet to find out what damage the OZ rims do, but I know that my policy is a "mods like-for-like" one so it may be £50 or so - not so bad really...

The power chip (come back next month ;) ) may add a few quid more, but I'm sure I'll cope ;)

A

[Gnome]

As with the answers above, you "should" tell your insurance company about mods you've done to your vehicle.

If you don't you run the risk of insurance becoming void in the event of an accident, and then it can escalate to driving without insurance , and therefore tax as well.

I know people who have had spills on bikes, and in the time it's taken the insurers to send out an inspector, they've replaced everything back to standard.

Alot of insurers will accept modifications to vehicles when you tell them, and will say that they'll replace it not with the aftermarket modification you've put on, but what was there as standard.

The car's bog standard, so I don't worry with that, but my bike is heavily modified, and I didn't wanna run the risk, so all modifications were decalred, the the insurers have 6 pictures of the bike from different angles to see what's on it....

Elephant (who my car is with), will cover the Ice upto £750.