Insurance puzzle

[Daz Auto]

Just been looking at the post office online insurance quotes. I am researching how much it would cost to insure an S3. This has left me a little puzzled.

I am over 45 now... boooo ... but insuring an S3 seems possible ... yay

What is puzzling is that I can insure a brand new S3 for the same money as my wife is paying for her 2 year old A3 1.6 diesel. Just for comparison I went onto the Parkers website to see what the insurance groups are. S3 = 36, A3 = 16 and my current Mk6 GTD = 30.

Value of car, and insurance group do not seem to make much difference to our quotes. The thing that made the biggest difference was the annual mileage. My wife was saying that she did 20k miles. My mileage is likely to be under 12k.

Out of curiosity, I entered my details to insure the A3 1.6 diesel and the quote was just a £25 cheaper than a new S3.

It makes no sense to me that a car that is twice the value and 20 insurance groups higher is almost the same cost for me to insure.

I was expecting a shock when trying to insure an S3. I got a pleasant surprise.

Is this just because I am over 45 now?

 

[RichardT]

It's all very complex!
The issue about the value of the vehicle though is often misunderstood.
They are not so concerned with your vehicle, the real cost comes in what you hit and how much damage you do.
Also, most cars are repaired, not written off. And it doesn't really matter what the car is when you are replacing the wing (within limits of course)

 

[S32B]

Yeah I know what you mean, before the S3 I had a Mokka 4x4 1.7 diesel that cost £270 to insure. When I got the S3 I was 43 and it cost me £302 to insure...I thought not bad. I renewed this year at 44 and moved from Aviva to AXA and it dropped to £272!!! with extras such as upgraded hire car, legal protection, protected no claims discount.

Going against your sig, I can only think that it must have something do do with it being quattro! You have to be doing something very crazy indeed to lose it on a bend! There have been a few times over the past 15 months where I've hit a bend a bit too fast and thought "The back would have gone there if I hadn't had quattro". The day after I collected the car we went up to the lakes and it was lashing it down, we hit what I thought was a small bend, it turned out to be a big bend! That was the first time I felt it do it's thing!

BTW AXA give you 10% off if you use a dash cam

 

[Scottyg]

The biggest issue for insurance is where you live. Age obviously plays a part but if you live in an area of high crime etc your premium will go through the roof.

 

[S32B]

The biggest issue for insurance is where you live. Age obviously plays a part but if you live in an area of high crime etc your premium will go through the roof.

Yes it does, but what he's getting at is how can a car that is wayyy up the insurance group from what he has be a similar price for him. Such as mine was, £270 for a 128bhp Mokka and then £272 for the S3 with 300bhp crazy!!!

 

[Scottyg]

I've always found the newer the car the cheaper the insurance. Older cars, easier to steal! Newer cars not so much. I went from a Vectra 55 plate 2.2 to 08 plate BMW 523i Auto M-Sport in 09 and my insurance went down. Much more expensive car, obviously but much newer.

 

[Keef1004]

Yeah God knows how insurance works when I picked up my s3 still had 6 months insurance on my tt changed the insurance over and got a £45 refund even thou the difference in value between the 2 cars was £15,000

 

[RichardT]

The insurers are clever guys and calculate the premium based on the risk, the amount of a claim and how much they want the business.
It's based on their experience, but you are never going to find out how it's calculated

 

[Adambsmith]

As said above, it's what you hit and what damage you do. If you, (certainly hope no-one does) should run someone over by accident and that unfortunate person is just to embark on a glittering career and then cannot continue because he/she is so badly injured then you are looking at ££m claims.

Areas play a big part too - some areas used to be uninsurable (I am sure some still may be). But new car security is usually now so good that the risk of theft is a lot lower than the late 80s early 90s when Cosworths (for example) could be nicked easily.

As a slight aside, was looking for insurance for my daughter's (18 year old) new Fiat 500. One quote, kid you not, was £107,000.

I could pay by instalments and there was £30 cashback on offer.

Eventually managed to get it for £870 with a black box fitted.

 

[Keef1004]

Your address must be a major factor one of the young lads a work uses his uncles address to register his car and as his postal address and saves £350 a year on his insurance

 

[sandman112]

insurance is an odd ball system, i think I've posted my insurance story on here already so won't bore you all with the details, but I'm just over 40 and recently changed from an A3 2.0 TDI so an S3 and there was NO CHANGE to insurance costs, with 10 months left on the policy ... ready for the good bit ... £192 PER YEAR !!! I've had a look on comparison websites and there coming in at almost double the £192 so I'm expecting a fair hike come my next renewal .. which to be honest i was expecting when i got he car in the first place

sod it ... the short version of the rest of the story, my wife got an A1 1.6 TDI at the same time (<year old) and insured her and our 18yr old son on it, bargain at just under £600, to add myself to the policy as named driver ... over £500 extra for ME !!! makes no sense what so ever

i will add that these are separate insurance companies ... but still, makes no sense what so ever

 

[S32B]

Your address must be a major factor one of the young lads a work uses his uncles address to register his car and as his postal address and saves £350 a year on his insurance

His address is the same for BOTH cars. He's not on about the overall cost of the insurance, he's shocked about it only being £25 more to insure a brand new S3, which is 20 groups higher up the insurance ladder than his wife's 2 year old A3 1.6 diesel.

 

[batch]

Women drivers...

 

[testcard]

Your address must be a major factor one of the young lads a work uses his uncles address to register his car and as his postal address and saves £350 a year on his insurance

Good luck if he ever has to make a claim.
https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120316163318AAebKDe

 

[James_TDi]

Your address must be a major factor one of the young lads a work uses his uncles address to register his car and as his postal address and saves £350 a year on his insurance

He saves money by fraud? Excellent.

 

[musicegbdf]

Just a little to add. For a young driver old cars ( over 7 years old) ,and insurance through the roof. I found cheapest to be a new car with only four seats . Got my daughter a vw up. Insurance much cheaoer than the twelve year old micra it replaced.
Actually found black box deals no cheaper.
Different insurance companies have different ideas. Like driver awareness. Admiral hit you, direct line do not. Direct Line view is you will be a safer driver after the course.....

 

[James_TDi]

Different insurance companies have different ideas. Like driver awareness. Admiral hit you, direct line do not. Direct Line view is you will be a safer driver after the course.....

When I was 18 (many years ago now) Direct Line were one of the few companies to give a decent discount for having Pass Plus.

 

[musicegbdf]

Shows worth shopping around.

 

[RichardT]

Your address must be a major factor one of the young lads a work uses his uncles address to register his car and as his postal address and saves £350 a year on his insurance

As others have said - this is very risky.

 

[Mullaccc]

Cashback can also make a difference during insurance renewal. I went with Aviva and got £75 back through Quidco last year when I renewed my policy.

 

[S32B]

Your address must be a major factor one of the young lads a work uses his uncles address to register his car and as his postal address and saves £350 a year on his insurance

May be worth passing this on mate, save today pay out later!!! http://www.confused.com/motor-insurance/your-cover/would-you-lie-to-get-cheaper-car-insurance
http://www.confused.com/motor-insurance/your-cover/would-you-lie-to-get-cheaper-car-insurance

What could invalidate my policy?
A lie in this instance does not have to be a blatant mistruth.

It could mean withholding a piece of information that the insurer would use in calculating the insurance premium or misrepresenting certain details to get a better price.

 

[msdmjb]

insurance is relatively simple in that it is based on statistics and an equation.

as people have said location is a major factor as is a history of hitting things but whatever you drive the damage you can cause to a 3rd party is relatively consistent (the main risk is the 3rd party liability not underwriting your car in most cases e.g. cause a fatal collision and your insurance company might be on the hook for £1m, a £30k S3 or £20k TDi is peanuts in the bigger picture), ironically the more valuable and newer the vehicle it may reduce the premium as the data could suggest people are more careful with new shiny expensive cars.

as for lying about where a car is kept most of the time, if anybody finds out then big problems not just now but for ever............all insurance companies (its like a big club nowadays) hate with a passion people who have lied to them. £350 is peanuts to the issue they might have if they ever claim and the insurance company find out e.g. neighbours/gps in the car etc etc

It is important to find insurance companies who want to insure you i.e. some companies may not want to deal with an S3 so will artificially load the premium to put people off. As always just press a few buttons and you get lots of answers..............I am mid 40s and Direct Line wanted £139 fully comp in rural Oxfordshire on a brand new S3, I wouldn't insure me at that price but delighted somebody would

also the more people insured on the same vehicle would mean the highest risk driver will statistically spend less time behind the wheel hence potentially much better value policies.

 

[thegingerone]

Just to mark the water when I was shopping around before buying my S3 I went through comparison websites and the lowest price was with my current insurer cost £270 for the year, about what I had paid for my '07 3.2 V6 TT.

I then found a car in London, done the deal and on the day before I was due to fly out I spoke with Admiral and got them to change the vehicle. At this stage I didn't have the registration number so they quoted based on the vehicle details and the price went up to £600 for the year. When pressed on why the sales advisor stated that they have 20 different versions of Audi A3 S3 Quattro listed. When I later rang back with the registration the price went down to £200... go figure that one...