GAP Insurance - Which One?

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A4 SJC

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GAP was one thing I meant to purchase after picking my car up last year, but never got round to it.

Been looking at ALA today and they offer "back to invoice plus" or "vehicle replacement plus".

Which one would you recommend? If the worst came to it, I'm not certain I'd replace like for like, so I'm thinking return to invoice would be sufficient (along with £50-odd cheaper)

Your thoughts are welcomed!
 
Got mine here;

£119 for two years, deferred for first year, so it covers years two and three of the finance agreement
 
Vehicle replacement is dependant on whether you think your model car will increase in price over the period of your GAP cover, either down to increased prices or lowered discount offers.

Got my GAP vehicle replacement from gapinsurance.co.uk. Covers full cost of car after discount for 24 month term of my PCP at £155. Mine is a B8 S5 and with the B9 just around the corner, I think its inevitable that prices will increase and discounts will be substantially lower, so vehicle replacement seemed like a better option to me.
 
A4 SJC said:
GAP was one thing I meant to purchase after picking my car up last year, but never got round to it.

Been looking at ALA today and they offer "back to invoice plus" or "vehicle replacement plus".

Which one would you recommend? If the worst came to it, I'm not certain I'd replace like for like, so I'm thinking return to invoice would be sufficient (along with £50-odd cheaper)

Your thoughts are welcomed!
Click to expand...
I've literally just taken out a return to invoice policy with ALA this morning. I've got a discount code you can use shall you wish?

I got 15K of cover for 5 years for around £230 with my remap declared.
 
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Mine was bought second hand, so the worry over support/discount levels on new models isn't there.

I think I'd be happy getting my £20k-odds back to buy something else of my choice
 
Is the discount code for 5%? I've been sent it already I think!
 
Possibly mate, didn't take much notice of how much knocked off tbh
 
Hi,
I bought my car New on June 11th 2015. Car has no finance and paid in full.

What type of gap insurance should I opt for? Never had it before and never had new car before.
Car is 2015 Audi A4 BE+ 177PS TDI Quattro Sepang Blue.

Any help appreciated it. I checked quickly and warrantywise where coming in at £178 for two year. Valued car between £22k - £25k and said I should insure for half of this. Was a bit lost at that.

What should I be taking out?

Help and advise appreciated as want to get this sorted this week.
 
@ruairi83

I'd imagine Full Replacement would be more beneficial to you than Return to Invoice. That way you'd end up with a new car, regardless of any discounts you'd managed to negotiate from your dealer originally.

It works along the lines of (I think!)

List Price: £25,000
Discount: £5,000
Invoice Price: £20,000

Lets say your car is written off 2 years down the line, and your insurance company settles at £13,000. Return to Invoice would pay you £7,000, allowing you to spend £20,000 on a replacement car. This may be problematic as the new A4 figures may look like this;

List Price: £30,000
Discount: £2,000
Invoice Price: £28,000

Meaning in reality, you can't replace like for like unless you stump up £8k. Full Replacement removes this risk, as the policy replaces your vehicle for one of identical spec

Feel free to correct me folks!
 
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A4 SJC said:
@ruairi83

I'd imagine Full Replacement would be more beneficial to you than Return to Invoice. That way you'd end up with a new car, regardless of any discounts you'd managed to negotiate from your dealer originally.

It works along the lines of (I think!)

List Price: £25,000
Discount: £5,000
Invoice Price: £20,000

Lets say your car is written off 2 years down the line, and your insurance company settles at £13,000. Return to Invoice would pay you £7,000, allowing you to spend £20,000 on a replacement car. This may be problematic as the new A4 figures may look like this;

List Price: £30,000
Discount: £2,000
Invoice Price: £28,000

Meaning in reality, you can't replace like for like unless you stump up £8k. Full Replacement removes this risk, as the policy replaces your vehicle for one of identical spec

Feel free to correct me folks!
Click to expand...

Yep thats exactly how I understand it. Vehicle replacement will always do the greater of either return to invoice, or replacement. I.e. if the discounts of the A4 are better and you can get the same model A4, say in 2 years time cheaper than what you paid today, they will give you the invoice you paid today. Meaning you would pocket the difference if you bought the same model cheaper.

In that sense, vehicle replacement is really just added security if the price goes up or discounts go down.

Question is, if you have a B9 A4, its likely that discounts will only get stronger in the next few years, not weaker!

In any case, the difference is like £20 a year, so to me it seems sensible to get the highest level of cover. If I get Gap and still end up out pocket, I would be pretty ******!

With regards to the amount you cover, GAP will cover the shortfall between the insurance payout and the amount you paid. If you think that typically a car will lose 50% of its value in 3 years, then you can at least expect the insurance company to pay out 50% over a 3 year period. Meaning the maximum amount the GAP will need to cover is 50%. GAP usually offers cover in magnitudes of £5k, and typically the cost difference between say £20k and £25k cover is negligible. In my case, it was only a few quid to go from £25k cover (about 50%) to covering the entire cost of the car. Sort of is money wasted as the GAP will never pay out the full cost of the car, but at least I know I'm covered for any amount if my insurance starts playing silly buggers! Besides...whats a few quid over 3 years?
 
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A4 SJC said:
@ruairi83

I'd imagine Full Replacement would be more beneficial to you than Return to Invoice. That way you'd end up with a new car, regardless of any discounts you'd managed to negotiate from your dealer originally.

It works along the lines of (I think!)

List Price: £25,000
Discount: £5,000
Invoice Price: £20,000

Lets say your car is written off 2 years down the line, and your insurance company settles at £13,000. Return to Invoice would pay you £7,000, allowing you to spend £20,000 on a replacement car. This may be problematic as the new A4 figures may look like this;

List Price: £30,000
Discount: £2,000
Invoice Price: £28,000

Meaning in reality, you can't replace like for like unless you stump up £8k. Full Replacement removes this risk, as the policy replaces your vehicle for one of identical spec

Feel free to correct me folks!
Click to expand...
Thank you @A4 SJC and @DrEskimo

I paid £29k for car. Warranty wise gave valuation of between £22-25k.

Should I be insuring it for full replacement @ £29k? Thanks guys.
What's this discount code :grinning:
 
ruairi83 said:
Thank you @A4 SJC and @DrEskimo

I paid £29k for car. Warranty wise gave valuation of between £22-25k.

Should I be insuring it for full replacement @ £29k? Thanks guys.
What's this discount code :grinning:
Click to expand...

No problem :)

How long you looking to get cover for? Get quotes from ALA, gapinsurance and gapinsurance123 and see how the quote changes in relation to the level of cover.

You probably don't need more than 20K, but if the price is very similar for 25K then might as well go for that...
 
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DrEskimo said:
No problem :)

How long you looking to get cover for? Get quotes from ALA, gapinsurance and gapinsurance123 and see how the quote changes in relation to the level of cover.

You probably don't need more than 20K, but if the price is very similar for 25K then might as well go for that...
Click to expand...

I don't know how long to take it for. 3 years maybe would that be sensible? Not planing on getting rid of car.

Will try the three of them tomorrow and update post. I'm going for full replacement and will price £20k or £25k.

Cheers buddy
 
I thought you only had a fairly short window to put GAP in place after you bought your car? Is not the case anymore?
 
Seems you have a year from purchase date now.

@ruairi83 - you need to cover the maximum you think they would need to pay out. I'd take the difference between the price new and something like 30% of that value after 4 years and use that figure
 
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I took out "Back to invoice plus" with ALA when I bought my S4. Seemed good value and there were good reviews of them.
 
I went with ALA. There are cheaper ones but ALA is probably best for higher value cars. My S5 was over £51K OTR list but I got it for £42K. So I chose vehicle replacement 'plus' as I couldn't be sure that the discounts would last. Seems that they are for the B8.5, but my GAP lasts 5 years so if it has to be a B9 then surely they won't! I did pay £420 for this, but to me once I'm having to pay say £200 for return to invoice for 2 years, paying another £200 or so for vehicle replacement for 5 years is a no-brainer. The maximum payout is £50K. I probably didn't need that but again the extra cost was negligible for the peace of mind it has bought.

Indeed anyone going with ALA should make sure they get a discount. I think if you keep on their website for long enough it will just pop-up.

Audi-partner said:
I've literally just taken out a return to invoice policy with ALA this morning. I got 15K of cover for 5 years for around £230 with my remap declared.
Click to expand...
Useful to know as I'm still hoping to get my S5 tuned one day and was wondering about impact to GAP.
 
A4 SJC said:
Seems you have a year from purchase date now.

@ruairi83 - you need to cover the maximum you think they would need to pay out. I'd take the difference between the price new and something like 30% of that value after 4 years and use that figure
Click to expand...

Gapinsurance came in best today.
Got replacement car plus cover at full car value @ £29k for 3 years @ £200.

Spoke to them online and they where really helpful. Thanks for help and advice bud.
 
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