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Modified cars – hints & tipsGenerally speaking, a modified car costs more to insure because it presents a bigger risk to insurance companies. It is important to note that anything you do to your vehicle that changes it from the original state it was sold in counts as a modification – to the letter of the insurance law, that includes swapping the stock wheels for alloys, adding a better stereo and switching to a flip-coat paint as well as fitting a wide-bore exhaust or a nitrous booster. |
| Whether the mods have been done to the car’s engine,
interior or exterior, the investment you have made in your vehicle
makes the size of claim you’d make in the event of an accident
or theft higher – that higher potential claim means a bigger
risk for your insurer. And if one thing remains the same across all
kinds of insurance coverage it is the plain and simple fact that insurers
do not like to take risks.
However, the fact that you’ve modified your car doesn’t have to mean your insurance coverage is impossibly expensive. There are a few things you can do to keep your premiums down without compromising on the individuality of your car, we’ve tried to outline those for you here. |
| Three big steps First, get online quotes from three run-of-the-mill car insurance firms. This gives you a baseline for the cost of insurance on your vehicle, and something to compare other insurers against later. Second, go to any search engine you like and drop in keywords relevant
to your car and modifications and add the word ‘insurance’
to see what results you get. There may be brokers who specialise
in offering coverage to the exact make/model of car you’ve
got, or even brokers specialising in the particular modifications
you have done. Visit their websites to get a feel for the coverage
on offer and get a few quotes if possible. Some of these specialist
insurers will want to call and clarify the details of your modifications
– that’s normal, they do this because a form often doesn’t
have the flexibility to include relevant details that the insurer
wants to take into consideration when establishing a fair premium
for you. |
| Third, compare the quotes you’ve received from specialist
insurers with those baseline quotes you got in the first place. Often,
you can ring a mainstream insurance company up and haggle with them
once you can prove you’ve been offered a better quote by one
of their competitors. This might result in a lower premium being offered
by the ‘big’ company, which you can then take back to
the specialist and say, essentially “if you’re a specialist,
can’t you beat this quote from a non-specialist?”. This
can be a very effective way to negotiate, but it is important to have
proof of the better quote as often an insurer will only price-match
something they can see for themselves. Other research and
options |
They will be able to recommend insurers they use, alternative companies they found competitive and sometimes joining a recognised club for any sort of special car will get you a discount off of the club’s recommended insurer. People in the custom car community can also give you helpful pointers on what sort of modifications are better or worse in terms of cost (so if you haven’t yet fitted that exhaust, it might be worth buying one brand over another as these tiny details can make a difference). And finally |
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