Just Got Insurance

Just got my insurance for my NEW 'Campaign'.
Rang a few of them…….

'TOLD THEM ALL I GOT THEIR NUMBERS FROM VW GOLF MK1 OWNERS CLUB'

RH insurance…..a 'girl' answered sounded really fed up/bored…this was at 0930 in the morning….started quoting me data protection about my wife…..told them not to bother.

Peter Best Classic….. Nice people but car has to be garaged….will NOT cover on driveway.

Lancaster….could'nt get in touch.

Footman James…..Bl***y brilliant….made everything seem so sipmple.
In the end…even tho we are a couple of 'ole fa*ts….we got comp ins, on driveway, 5000miles a year, no mention of security!! ?273.00

Would recommend them. I spoke to a nice bloke called Daniel.

TC

Footman James all the way - Mk1 Golf Gti's are about ?30 per year on my fleet plocy with them, no limited mileage, breakdown cover, agreed value, fully comp etc etc

Both my cars are insured with FJ on classic policies, and it is cheap without the garage and security restrictions imposed by some companies…. BUT… my recent experience with a claim (not on the Mk1 thank god), leads me to suspect that the claims experience can be variable.

A lot depends on who the final insurer is as FJ are effectively just a broker (as many of these companies are). In the event of a claim you will end up dealing with the insurer, and that will be different depending on who FJ took the policy out with.

My Mk1 MX-5 (also on a classic policy with FJ) was involved in an accident which was a no - fault (i.e. myself and the other driver had to claim off our own insurance). It turns out I was insured with Equity Red Star via FJ. Unfortunately my car was not driveable after the accident so I couldn't take it anywhere to get quotes for a fix, and had to go with Equity Star's approved repairer Nationwide Crash Repair. They came and took the car away at the beginning of January and I still don't have it back yet.

Part of the problem seems to be that Equity Red Star contract out all engineering assessments to a 3rd party company (C.J. Norman based in Milton Keynes). This means that an engineer has to travel from there to inspect your vehicle and it then takes about a week for him to report back to the insurance company.

The bottom line is Nationwide didn't complete the repairs to my satisfaction, so then I had to wait for another engineers report to assess what they had done… then there was a wait for the parts, and now I am less than confident that the work will be right when I go back to inspect it this week. Its a continual chase to identify who is responsible for what and quite frankly I feel it is FJ that should be doing the legwork, but they really don't seem interested.

Anyway, I digress. I guess what I am saying is if you never have to claim you will be fine, but it might be an idea to check out who the insurance company underwriting the policy is before signing up with a broker policy.

FJ did give me the option to take the car to a repairer of my choice, but wouldn't pay for it to be trailered to a place for a quote. Catch 22 as no-one would guarantee they could do the work or give a price until they had had the car brought into their premises for a quote.

Knowing what I know now I would have hired or borrowed a car& trailer combo for a day and trailered it round a few places for quotes.

I do know other people with FJ policies that have had to claim and have had no problems, but again that was with a different final insurer underwriting the policy.

Chris,

Don't you have legal cover with your policy?  Maybe they can help sort out the problems!

Rich,

I have the use of loss recovery services, but that only really covers things like recovering your excess and sorting out compensation / loan cars etc. in cases where the other party was to blame and their insurance Co. accepts liability.

In this case neither my insurer or the other party's insurer is admitting liability so it will probably be settled on a 50-50 basis - this makes a big difference to what you can get it seems.

The problem is not that things are not getting done, just that they seem to be taking forever. I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel with this, and I don't think its a train  :wink:

Nationwide are part of the problem - they are really not geared up for repairing older, non standard cars like my Mk1 MX-5. Its a pile em high push 'em through operation geared towards modern econo boxes and repmobiles. I've already had to tell them the paintjob on the nosecone and the front wing were not acceptable and to redo it. Guy tried to fob me off saying I could only see the difference because it was in sunlight - I mean whats that all about  8O !

I said that I knew black paint was hard to match, but that as a professional bodyshop they should be able to do a much better job than that….. and he reluctantly agreed.

Anyway, according to Nationwide it should be ready this week, so I guess I will have to wait and see.

I guess the question that worries me now is will I have to declare the accident on my Campaign policy when I have to renew? The cars are insured on 2 seperate policies (both with FJ) at the moment.

My experience with FJ is that it shouldn't make much difference if you've only have one prang and/or a speeding ticket  ops:  ops:

Whew, I hope so. This is my first prang in about 15 years. I guess renewal time will tell!

Chris, I know this is a bit off topic, but have you got your Campaign running yet?

Not yet - all the new bits are on there, just been a bit of wimp about braving the artic conditions to refit the battery and fire it up again  ops:

Will probably do this tomorrow weather permitting. How long  does shell optimax stay "good" in the tank for? i think the tankful I have in there now is probably well over a month old  :?

I think its 50-50 as to whether the replacement bits will have cured the problem. If not I'll have to start looking further back in the fuel system (pump / accumulator and lines). Got Wellsy's test pressure gauge now so if I can at least get it to start I should be able to do more diagnosis.

Piggy bank is now empty until I get back to work though so anything major / expensive will have to wait  :roll: .

Hi All
ChrisB … Thats weird…I have my taxi insurance with Red Star equity…on TWO occasions in the last couple of years…two ladies decided to do right turns in front of me….on the first I had nearside wing, the whole of the front valance, new bonnet and nearside headlight housing….happed about 1600…. taken to garage 1700…..next day 1000 engineer inspected…….1100 following day, picked up taxi 1130 went to work…?1400 total…..all done in day and half.

Told FJ about accidents being none fault….they said 'dont worry about it if was none fault' you have to tell them tho.
TC

I guess I must have been unlucky, but as I say I have been less than impressed at the amount of chasing I have had to do (wrt to both FJ and Equity Red Star).

Well with a bit of luck I won't have to find out whether it was a one off for another 15 years or so  :wink:

In retrospect I don't think I would have had these problems if I had been able to take the car to garages I trusted to get quotes. However my car was not driveable so I was a bit stuck and ended up with Nationwide instead. I just think that my insurers should have covered the costs of getting the car trailered to at least one place of my choice locally for a quote, but as I say they were not willing to do this.

Cheers,

Chris

Chris

If it's of any sympathy to you I have had bad experiences with other big insurers (AA & Admiral). It seems to take at least 6 months to settle a claim to one's satisfaction these days. Often that is down to the quality of the repair which is the fault of the garage, but it is frustrating when you have to do the legwork to correct things rather than the insurer. I managed to get ?500 compensation from Admiral after their approved repairer gave the car back to us in an unroadworthy condition.

It is always a pain in the backside so I say go with a cheap quote like FJ and at least pay a smaller premium in the first place.

Cheers
Rajan

Interesting thread this. I hadn't considered the ability to take a car to your choice of repairer in previous policies I've taken out, but I will now !
Come to think of it, my Mum was hit side-on in her 1yr old car and it was 'repaired' by the insurance company's approved garage. The car needed an inner wing and the job they did was absolutely appauling - sprayed over stickers in the engine bay, overspray on the engine block, hoses, etc. Not nice on any car, never mind a 1yr old one !  She traded it in a couple of months later. I guess such 'approved' garages just want to get through jobs as fast as possible. Not exactly the right attitude for a cherished car.
Hope it works out for you
Mark

In the previous 3 years I?ve had two auto claims, 1 my fault, and 1 not, and recently a household claim. Tesco was and still is my insurer and on both car accident occasions. Just phoned them and within days a courtesy car was dropped of at work or for the ?my fault? claim a car was available from the garage. Repairs done to a high standard, one at an independent appointed by Tesco other at local Renault dealer. Fortunately both claims were for my daily driver not the GTI?? ..

Then last August during the torrential rain (remember Boscastle in Cornwall) my home was rained in, the telly and carpet was soaked :cry: . The company that likes to quote you happy  :evil: has just, 6 months later, finally resolved the issue. I?ve had to have 8 days off work and used two Saturdays waiting in for engineers, loss adjustors, inspectors, collections, deliveries, uncle tom cobbbly ?n all to visit. I?ve had to constantly phone and write letters to them to get things progressing after nothing happened for weeks and weeks after being promised that stuff would happen. They took away my TV,DVD,sky box etc and returned some bits still damaged (MDF TV stand swelled up like a balloon with water and they still returned it back to me as OK, eventually they sent me ?50 and I had to buy a replacement that doesn?t match exactly) They lost the remote for the TV….  :x It goes on and on but I?ll stop now.

The moral of this story is, TESCO brilliant in my experiment. Norwich Union are the most useless waste of space and time and must NOT be used under any circumstances. If you ever need to claim you?ll regret it. The problem is that you don't know which is which until you claim.

Its interesting to hear others experiences on this. As Rajan says at least FJ are cheap and I think its good that they let you take the car to your preferred repairer.

With hindsight I would definitately have paid ?120 quid to hire a landrover and car trailer for the weekend to trailer the car round 2 or 3 garages I know that would have done a good job. I think with some arguing I would have been able to get that back off the insurers as well.

Nationwide's quality of work left a lot to be desired. The car had significant front suspension damage and yet initially they only repaired the damaged bodywork, claiming that was all the insurer had approved. I knew this to be wrong as I had spoken to the engineer and he had told me his report specified at least the upper wishbone and front strut on that side of the car was to be repaired. The bumper had a big run on it that I spotted straight away and the colour match was pathetic and yet supposedly this had passed through their quality control process  :evil: .

I insisted on a re-inspection and even sent the engineer some detailed workshop manual diagrams and photos indicating which parts of the suspension I knew to be damaged. I also emphasised to him that there was no way that the damage could have been said to be repaired without a full 4 wheel geometry check.

When I go to collect the car I have requested a copy of the geometry check print out and I will be comparing that with the genuine Mazda specs for the car to make sure the settings are within spec.

I intend to be a thorn in their side until they realise the only way to get rid of me is to do the job properly.

I know though that if for example this had been someone non technical they would have been taken completely for a ride. The other thing that annoyed me was the bodywork loan car was delivered with obvious damage on the rear bumper that was not marked on the drop off sheet or pointed out to me - I only noticed it a few days later, and the car was filthy.

So there you go, I think the moral is take loads of photos of any damage before and after the repair and insist on a professional job and keep sending it back until they get it right. Take the car to a place you trust if you can, even if it involves some expense on your part.

If anyone needs the address of a place that hires 4WD's and car trailers for what seem like reasonable rates in Kent let me know.

Chris,

You can borrow my merc and Trailer if you want.

Thanks Rich - I have to confess I forgot you had the trailer - DOH!!!!

Hopefully now the MX-5 is at least road worthy though so should be able to drive it elsewhere if the Nationwide saga continues.

Definitely will bear that in mind though for future reference - I'm sure your rates are very reasonable  :wink: Maybe the club should invest in a 1 car transporter - saw a sherpa based one go on ebay for only a few hundred quid about 6 months ago  8O

Cheers,

Chris