U.K - My Insurance would not allow exhaust upgrade on 2020 GT

[MLO 351]

It becomes the new owners responsibility to declare the mods to his chosen insurance company

In the instance of an accident, you can't plead ignorant and expect them to cover you by stating 'I didn't know the car was supercharged and thought they were all like that ...' lol

There is a grey area in the middle where I suspect some 'small' things are allowed to slip, but if it impacts the costs to the insurance company or if they really wanted to, they could reject the claim.

Even tinted windows = car could be seen as more attractive = car could be higher up a thief's priorities and / or could be more expensive to replace glass as part of an insurance claim.

If we look at switching an exhaust and then you get rear ended, they may well cover the claim, but I wouldn't expect them to replace the exhaust 'like for like' - chances are it would come back with an OE ford pipe back on it.

Funny (sad ?) story - I had some insurance work done on a BMW and after a week or so of it being returned, I noticed that during the repair someone had swapped out the silver turn signal bulbs and returned them to factory orange, even though they didn't replace the lights, they only had to remove / refit them during the repair. I don't know if that was purposeful or if it was just a case of some light fingered worker deciding he liked them and hoping I wouldn't notice upon collection ...

WD

It becomes the new owners responsibility to declare the mods to his chosen insurance company

In the instance of an accident, you can't plead ignorant and expect them to cover you by stating 'I didn't know the car was supercharged and thought they were all like that ...' lol

There is a grey area in the middle where I suspect some 'small' things are allowed to slip, but if it impacts the costs to the insurance company or if they really wanted to, they could reject the claim.

Even tinted windows = car could be seen as more attractive = car could be higher up a thief's priorities and / or could be more expensive to replace glass as part of an insurance claim.

If we look at switching an exhaust and then you get rear ended, they may well cover the claim, but I wouldn't expect them to replace the exhaust 'like for like' - chances are it would come back with an OE ford pipe back on it.

Funny (sad ?) story - I had some insurance work done on a BMW and after a week or so of it being returned, I noticed that during the repair someone had swapped out the silver turn signal bulbs and returned them to factory orange, even though they didn't replace the lights, they only had to remove / refit them during the repair. I don't know if that was purposeful or if it was just a case of some light fingered worker deciding he liked them and hoping I wouldn't notice upon collection ...

WD

The whole scheme seems wide open to me, .
How would I know if a used car that I had purchased was modified by a previous owner.

Id be more then willing to sign off a declaration stating the car hadn't been modified from the date of my purchase, prior that I couldn't possibly be held responsible.

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[WD Pro]

I wouldn't disagree, but it is what it is and we have to live with it.

Private insurance quotes in the UK are tailored to the individual and the car, one of the things they ask (and you have to sign off on) are a series of questions relating to modifications / deviations from the original (as manufactured) vehicle specification.

WD

Edit to add this from my quotation paperwork :

 

[MLO 351]

I wouldn't disagree, but it is what it is and we have to live with it.

Private insurance quotes in the UK are tailored to the individual and the car, one of the things they ask (and you have to sign off on) are a series of questions relating to modifications / deviations from the original (as manufactured) vehicle specification.

WD

Edit to add this from my quotation paperwork :

I wouldn't disagree, but it is what it is and we have to live with it.

Private insurance quotes in the UK are tailored to the individual and the car, one of the things they ask (and you have to sign off on) are a series of questions relating to modifications / deviations from the original (as manufactured) vehicle specification.

WD

Edit to add this from my quotation paperwork :

They don't make it easy for you.
The "Best of my knowledge and belief" is a very broad statement.
Like most legal agreements, the company initiating the contract asks for everything, working on the premise that they wont be challenged on mass.

 

[Pittpa]

The whole scheme seems wide open to me, .
How would I know if a used car that I had purchased was modified by a previous owner.

Id be more then willing to sign off a declaration stating the car hadn't been modified from the date of my purchase, prior that I couldn't possibly be held responsible.

It would seem practical that the new owner or his perspective insurance company could check with the prior insurance company to see what modifications were declared by the prior owner . In consideration of the fact that they might have been removed it would at least give the owner somewhere to start looking.

 

[raptor17GT]

end of the day as the driver wanting to insure the vehicle it lies on you the individual to know what's stock and what isn't. Most Mustang owners or any other performance car driver is likely to know what has been changed when they look at a car. For your average eurobox insuring driver, insurance is a simple tick box exercise. If we hated it that much, along with the crappy weather and piss poor diet we'd move somewhere sunny with a better diet.

Not aware of any insurance company knowing how previously insured a car in order to cross check if it was declared modified, maybe they do but i suspect they dont. That'd be joined up thinking.

 

[Lbj]

I would switch Insurance get a refund applied toward the new place just my opinion

 

[Mike Clark]

I believe that’s about US$800. What sort of coverage does that buy you?

Since you asked, I’ll do my best to explain so you can get a flavour of UK insurance nuances, bear with me (longish maybe boring post coming up).....

My policy cover is classed as “Fully Comprehensive” in the UK we have 3 main cover types:

Third Party Only - If I hit someone, their vehicle will be repaired, but I’m on my own getting my car repaired. This is the minimum level of cover that the UK’s “Road Traffic Act” Law requires.

Third Party, Fire & Theft - As above but with additional cover for Fire and Theft of the vehicle

Fully Comprehensive - Full coverage of most eventualities

Then we have the usage of the vehicle, I went with Social, Domestic, Pleasure AND Commuting

This means I can use the car for general stuff (such as shopping and visiting friends) but I bolted on the Commuting option.

This means (in the UK) that I can:

Take the car to the local railway station and leave it there while I get the train into London (I live about 30 miles outside London and there’s no point in driving in as too expensive.
Drive the car to my MAIN employment location (this again is an important distinction if I wanted to drive from my home to say one of my Computer Data Centres, this would not be covered and I’d need business cover)

Then I’ve added basic business use, this covers me for driving between offices, going to other locations, taking the car to the airport and leaving it there to go on a business trip etc etc. This also covers having colleagues in the car too.

Now I know that was a bit boring, but it’s amazing how people don’t know about the differences, I caused panic at work a few years ago when lots of people drove to an “team build” event (which would be classed as business use) and asked if they had business use. Other than me, no one did. That means they’re not insured whilst driving to or from the event. The basic Business cover is normally free if you ask the agent nicely for it. There were many phone calls to insured firms to get it setup...

Now we’ve got that out of the way.....

The cover also allows my Wife who is also allowed to drive the car (but not for Business use).

Cover for taking it to a car show/meet (and includes vandalism cover whilst there).

Windscreen cover - as they’re about £2k for an OEM screen.

Legal Cover, if I get sued for instance because some kid falls off their bike cos of my loud exhaust scares them.

30 days cover for taking the car to Europe (once weren’t allowed post CoVID).

It will cover replacing the mods, but ONLY the cost of the replacement, shipping/import duties etc from stuff that comes from overseas are not covered, that’s down tome

I also went with a “Garaged” clause, so whilst it’s at my home address and not in use, it MUST be garaged from 10PM-6AM, if I leave it on the drive overnight then it’s not covered In any way. (the Garage option saves me £100 on the cost of the policy)

I have a DashCam, so that is expected to be operational when the car is being driven and the insurance firm can request the footage from it in the event of a claim, (again a saving on £££ in the policy) obviously this works in my favour if it’s not my fault, but not so much if I drive like a pillock and have an accident

Hope that was of some interest!

Mike

 

[ChaoticFury09]

Just throwing in some additional information here. Only based on working in the insurance industry in Canada.

Modifications do need to be disclosed to insurance or you risk voiding your policy. Basically what it amounts to is modifying a car from a factory is considered a “material change in risk”. That term is mostly used for residential policies but applies elsewhere. You can also see it as a non-disclosure or bad faith. When you take out your policy they ask you a series of questions and there is always a disclosure that if anything changes you need to notify them. That’s because actuaries and the industry determine rates and risk based on stock cars. Any change beyond that needs to be approved by them or you risk potentially voiding your policy in the event of an accident.

I’m not saying that an insurance provider would but they can. Just like they can request an investigation if you say you were not racing and they think you were. They will have your data pulled from the sensors in the car and determine how fast you were going etc.

Now most insurance companies won’t see most things unless they are obvious. CAI, headers, exhaust. These things are easy to spot beyond factory. Nobody really cares about stripes or cosmetic mods unless it’s a big wing or something along those lines.

Hope that helps and I’m happy to try to answer any questions.

 

[Pittpa]

end of the day as the driver wanting to insure the vehicle it lies on you the individual to know what's stock and what isn't. Most Mustang owners or any other performance car driver is likely to know what has been changed when they look at a car. For your average eurobox insuring driver, insurance is a simple tick box exercise. If we hated it that much, along with the crappy weather and piss poor diet we'd move somewhere sunny with a better diet.

Not aware of any insurance company knowing how previously insured a car in order to cross check if it was declared modified, maybe they do but i suspect they dont. That'd be joined up thinking.

Thanks. Insurance companies thrive on sharing information here in the States.
As a claims employee I had access to an index of all previously filed claims for a person, a car, or even a license plate, it if was reported by a member company, and most were. I could search by name (adding DOB if name too common), VIN#, or social security number. This was invaluable in combating fraud, and people's poor memories as to what prior claims they had, or what prior damage occurred to their car that had not been repaired.

There is also a C.L.U.E. report that is used on a broad scale.
https://clark.com/insurance/c-l-u-e-report-comprehensive-loss-underwriting/
I'm not so familiar with that one, but I believe our fraud unit used it.
It appears we are allowed to check it once a year for ourselves, like checking a credit report for accuracy. From the page:
"Insurers also compile information about you to create what’s known as a Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.) report. It contains seven years’ worth of information about you and any insurance claims you’ve made during that time frame."

I presume it would benefit insurers in UK to share various claim info, so I thought they might keep data on vehicle mods for sharing.
And, joined up thinking is a new term to me.
BTW, I did a UK coach tour in 2008. I loved the Brits, the Irish, the Welsh and the Scots. Did I leave any one out?

 

[Pittpa]

Hope that was of some interest!

Mike

I hope this is not too bad of a thread hijack, as I think we've addressed OP's dilemma.

Mike, I was very interested in that information. So different from here. They do ask us how many miles we drive annually and what portion is business use, but there tend to be few restrictions on use and who can drive, outside of people who aren't licensed.
Here are some screen shots of my Dec page showing coverages purchased and cost.
(6 months premiums)
The combination package is an aggregate of medical expense, wage loss, accidental death and funeral expense. And yes, there is another $1,000,000 medical expense coverage. I have seen too many auto accidents with catastrophic injuries. Under the auto coverage, I dictate where I receive care.
We have a lot of uninsured motorists and people with minimal limits, so there are coverages to protect me in the event of injuries caused by those people (non-economic damages like my pain and suffering).
I have 2 cars, the Mustang premium is $872 annually, not much more than yours.

 

[raptor17GT]

Thanks. Insurance companies thrive on sharing information here in the States.
As a claims employee I had access to an index of all previously filed claims for a person, a car, or even a license plate, it if was reported by a member company, and most were. I could search by name (adding DOB if name too common), VIN#, or social security number. This was invaluable in combating fraud, and people's poor memories as to what prior claims they had, or what prior damage occurred to their car that had not been repaired.

There is also a C.L.U.E. report that is used on a broad scale.
https://clark.com/insurance/c-l-u-e-report-comprehensive-loss-underwriting/
I'm not so familiar with that one, but I believe our fraud unit used it.
It appears we are allowed to check it once a year for ourselves, like checking a credit report for accuracy. From the page:
"Insurers also compile information about you to create what’s known as a Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.) report. It contains seven years’ worth of information about you and any insurance claims you’ve made during that time frame."

I presume it would benefit insurers in UK to share various claim info, so I thought they might keep data on vehicle mods for sharing.
And, joined up thinking is a new term to me.
BTW, I did a UK coach tour in 2008. I loved the Brits, the Irish, the Welsh and the Scots. Did I leave any one out?

I think it's similar here just to make sure the person insuring the car has no tickets (points on licence), the car hasn't been a total loss and as you say insurance background on the driver for previous claims. I do not believe they share information on the modifications though I have no proof of this because I'm not bought a modified car in a long time but when i changed insurance company December just there, I had to declare the modified exhaust. New company didn't flag to me it was modified,, I had to tell them. Would they have come back later and said that my previous company had the car as modified? No idea, i suspect no but again i have zero proof either way.

heh heh, technically you left out the English as you mentioned by name the Irish Welsh and Scots but then Great Britain is Wales England Scotland so technically Brits covered the English. They wont mind not being mentioned directly but they will point it out haha. It's all good

 

[Veteran]

Insurance . Legalised theft.
I self insure as much as I can.
I know of many cases they refuted to pay on a technicality.
O yea, A couple of lawyers in family so I hear more than I should.
Good luck with the exhaust.

 

[Zooks527]

I hope this is not too bad of a thread hijack, as I think we've addressed OP's dilemma.

Mike, I was very interested in that information. So different from here. They do ask us how many miles we drive annually and what portion is business use, but there tend to be few restrictions on use and who can drive, outside of people who aren't licensed.
Here are some screen shots of my Dec page showing coverages purchased and cost.
(6 months premiums)
The combination package is an aggregate of medical expense, wage loss, accidental death and funeral expense. And yes, there is another $1,000,000 medical expense coverage. I have seen too many auto accidents with catastrophic injuries. Under the auto coverage, I dictate where I receive care.
We have a lot of uninsured motorists and people with minimal limits, so there are coverages to protect me in the event of injuries caused by those people (non-economic damages like my pain and suffering).
I have 2 cars, the Mustang premium is $872 annually, not much more than yours.

Interesting how much things swing state-to-state and person-to-person.

Your list above appears to show 6 month premium for $495, so $990/year. My wife and I have the same or higher coverage as you in all of the categories, but without extraordinary medical. We have different deductible levels ($500 for everything except for $0 glass), but the annual premium for all three of our cars (my Mustang and Tacoma, her Forrester) is $1,100 all in. The premium for just the Mustang is only $468/year.

 

[raptor17GT]

ah, healthcare does add complications. That's already factored into our car insurance / normal healthcare system so air ambulance, 6 months in ICU etc basically whatever is needed you get even on the cheapest policy and that's whether you mess up or get hit by someone who is or is not paid up insurance wise. Of course while the humans are patched up the vehicles can get a whole new fight over who repairs / pays for what.

OP has decided on his course of action, job done.

 

[Pittpa]

Your list above appears to show 6 month premium for $495, so $990/year. My wife and I have the same or higher coverage as you in all of the categories, but without extraordinary medical. We have different deductible levels ($500 for everything except for $0 glass), but the annual premium for all three of our cars (my Mustang and Tacoma, her Forrester) is $1,100 all in. The premium for just the Mustang is only $468/year.

Who is your carrier? I would be happy to get a quote.

Yeah, I was off on the Premium.
The presentation of premium and discounts is a little confusing, with policy discounts and separate vehicle discounts applied.
The premiums were listed with a discount that had already been applied.

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