Posts tagged Prestige Car Insurance
New report points to car vandalism hotspots
Nov 28th
Waking up in the morning to find your wing mirrors hanging off is not a good feeling. A newly released survey throws some light on car vandalism (malicious damage in insurance-speak) and point to the top 10 car vandalism hotspots in the UK. Basically, if you live in one of these places there’s a reasonable chance that you’ll wake up tomorrow to a great big key scratch.
- Enfield
- South East London
- Bournemouth
- North West London
- Brighton
- Southall
- Romford
- Southend on Sea
- Rochester
- Edinburgh
In addition to this list, the report also points to how widespread this type of activity has become. 54% of British motorists have been the victim of car vandalism and 10% of us have had something like this happen to our cars in the past 12 months. In terms of the sort of damage that was inflicted, ‘keying’ was the most common, accounting for about one third of all damage. Smashed windows accounts for about one quarter of all incidents and slashed tyres about one tenth.
The report also suggests what might motivate car vandalism. Interestingly, you’re significantly more likely to experience vandalism if you drive a BMW, Audi, Mercedes or other prestige brand. Less notable cars such as Fords and Citroens are much less likely to fall victim, suggesting that an unhealthy mix of spite and envy motivate most acts of vandalism.
Most comprehensive policies will cover acts of malicious damage so make sure you’re covered (particularly if you live in Enfield). If you’re not sure – why not give us a call?
Woman receives £53k car #insurance quote
Sep 1st
It seems that some parts of the UK are becoming insurance “no-go” areas. A Lib Dem MP from Bradford is claiming that some of his constituents are being quoted over £20,00 for simple third party car insurance.
David Ward claims that punitive pricing in some parts of the city are forcing many people to abandon their cars altogether. It’s a serious issue for many people who claim to have been told that “Bradford is blacklisted”.
Mr Ward is organising an online petition to call for cheaper insurance which so far has in the region of 600 supporters. This follows another recent story, this time from Huddersfield that certain postcodes are being denied insurance altogether. According to the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, the insurance company Esure has admitted that it simply won’t provide insurance to some people in the HD2 postcode.
cost of #insurance prices young people off the road
Aug 8th
Average annual insurance costs for young men (17 – 20 years old) has burst through the £4,000 a year barrier, according to recent reports.
The figures suggest that the average young male driver now pays a grand total of £4,006 to insure his vehicle. This, when added to the other costs associated with running a car (tax, maintenance, fuel etc) takes the annual runnning costs for a young male driver up to a grand total of £6,500 a year!
The recent rises in insurance costs are partly responsible for the rise in insurance fraud and uninsured driving that is blighting the UK. Other studies suggest that another consequence is that young drivers are simply being priced off the road. It’s high time, we feel, for the industry to start thinking up new and innovative ways to address these issues. We’re ahead of the game, offering a GPS based, telematic insurance policy, why not give us a call to find out more?
Admiral to continue taking acceptance fees…
Jul 26th
Unsurprisingly when you realise that “ancillary sales” account for 52% of their UK car insurance profits, Admiral have decided to face down their critics.
Admiral came in for a large amount of criticism recently when it came to light quite how much money they were making from acceptance fees. Acceptance fees is the name given to payments made to insurance companies by personal injury companies in exchange for the details of insurance customers who have recently been involved in an accident. It’s a practice that got a lot of attention recently when Jack Straw denounced it in the press and the ABI called for a ban after explaining that UK consumers pay more than £2.5M every day to the legal profession through car insurance premiums.
Admiral CEO, Henry Engelhardt has decided to face down the critics. “We are not doing anything illegal and we are not doing anything immoral. We’re not doing anything that I would not tell my mother about.”
It comes after a recent announcement from AXA that they would no longer be accepting fees for customers’ details.
Continuous #Insurance Enforcement – classic car owners beware
Jun 23rd
So if you’re not aware of the recent changes in the law regarding car insurance, take a look at some of our posts, we’ve been discussing it for a few months.
The idea behind this law is to catch reckless uninsured drivers but there are other groups of motorists who need to beware. If you own a vintage or classic car, perhaps something that you don’t use that often, a car that sits in a garage for most of the year and gets the odd spin out in the summer – then you need to be acting now to avoid the fine that may be coming your way.
In the past you were able to take out a short policy to cover the days that you were using classic cars and simply garage them for the rest of the time. Not so now. The law now requires you to either have insurance for your classic car or to declare it off road while it’s not being used. It’s a major change that might catch some classic car owners unaware and leave them facing a hefty fine.
What to do? Well, first thing to do is to familiarise yourself with the new rules then speak to a broker who specialises in classic and prestige car insurance,
The law is designed to remove the dangerous 30 year old fiestas and Micras from the streets of Britain but it might catch the odd E-Type too so make sure you’re insured or declared off-road.
Latest advice on Continuous Insurance Enforcement
Feb 21st
Exempt from the new rules
Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) is coming into effect later in the spring,
We’ve blogged on this subject before, and no doubt will again as it’s an issue that’s likely to be of particular importance for our prestige car insurance customers and those who have an occasional use classic car.
If you have a vehicle that’s currently off-road without a valid SORN, it’s probably time to start looking for a competitive insurance quote. In the next few weeks, drivers who are suspected of having no insurance or SORN will start receiving “Insurance Advisory Letters”, warning them to insure or take their cars officially off road.
If you ignore this letter you’ll get…
- a £100 fixed penalty
- a £1000 fine if the case goes to court
- a clamped, siezed or destroyed car
There are some exemptions to the new rules but basically, unless you are a scrap dealer or HM the Queen – it’s time to get insured.
Footballer forgets he owns £100k Porsche
Feb 14th
I think I'd remember having one of these...
You’ve got to love footballers. Stoke City’s right wing journeyman, Jermaine Pennant apparently “forgot” he owned a £98k Porsche which he left for 5 months in a railway station car park.
In the understandable excitement of signing for Stoke City, the former Nott County, Arsenal, Birmingham City, Liverpool and Real Zaragoza player completely lost track of the supercar. Well, it’s easily done.
What’s more, when it was tracked down (with his personalised plate P33NNT, which he also forgot) it was discovered that he’d left the keys on the passenger seat…
Given how many times Mr Pennant has signed for different clubs and how excited he clearly gets by this is might be worth checking out the car parks in railway stations around the country.
And yes, we will have to check whether 5 months in a car park with the keys on the seat is still covered by prestige car insurance.
The sound of the car of the future
Nov 18th
Not so fast Mr Whippee
News here that Audi are experimenting with a variety of different fake engine noises for their first generation of electric cars. Electric cars, for the uninitiated, are virtually silent – no noise from the motors means that only the sound of tyre on tarmac warns the blind and partially sighted of their approach.
Campaigners at Guide Dogs for the Blind are keen to have all future electronic vehicles fitted with an audible warning noise and in response to this Audi have turned to the RSQ – the fictional R8-alike vehicle they created for the film “I, Robot”.
So – when the Audi E-Tron series hits the streets in 2012 expect it to have that classy futuristic whooshing sound.
Is this a missed opportunity to think outside the box? Why not make all electric vehicles play embarrassing ice-cream van jingles at speeds over 30mph? Better still, keep the Will Smith connection and play the theme tune to “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”.
This could eliminate both carbon emissions and speeding at a single stroke.
Footballers uber bling motor gets torched
Oct 28th
Spare a thought for poor old Andy Carroll.
As part of a pending court case, the long-haired Newcastle striker was ordered to house-share with his team mate Kevin Nolan.
As if being in an upmarket episode of the odd couple wasn’t bad enough, Andy’s pride and joy, his brand new chrome plated Range Rover has just been torched while sitting on the driveway.
Who is responsible? Was it an act of vandalism? An angry Boro supporter? The taste police? The vandalism on the garage door suggests it may have been the Womens Institute.
We are still deliberating whether or not a chrome plated Range Rover still qualifies for prestige car insurance.
Hurray – the Cygnet is coming
Oct 22nd
Yes, it’s really going to happen.
Last year’s concept car the Cygnet is going into production in Gaydon in 2011!
Bad news for Lexus – it’s no longer the rich man’s Toyota. (The Cygnet is essentially a Toyota IQ wearing Aston Martin lipstick)
£30,000 for the ultimate city car anyone?