Hi! I've just ordered a new fiesta zs ecoboost for me and the wife. We haven't had our own car before and was hoping for a few pointers about insurance. The cheapest quote was Diamond, but there defaqto rating is 3. Does that matter? Also, should I get GAP?

Id get a quote from gocompare.com and then take it from there. Take the cheapest quote you get from there as a starting point and then phone up the insurance company thats the cheapest and say right you've quoted me this what can you do for me to get it abit cheaper. You've got to haggle with these insurance companies other wise they'll just rip you off. Dont let them rop you into adding things onto your policy that you wont need they're only trying to drive the price up to maxomise their profit from yoy

I agree with DanGersFord, but not only GoCompare, use several price comparison sites! Believe it or not, they actually do offer different prices. I personally find confused.com offers the cheapest quotes, but they will usually phone me up the next day to try and sell if I didn't go through with it.

As for GAP insurance, it might be a worthwhile investment. I went for it, and it cost me about £300. Given that my car is now worth about £1000 less, if I need to claim then it'll have saved me £700 already after just over a year. Especially as you're getting a brand new car and depreciation will be much higher, you'll stand to save loads more. Of course, you may not use it at all.

Put simply, if insurance wasn't required by law, would you still buy it? Although you will most likely not use it, would you be prepared to risk it?

Thanks for the tips! Will definitely try and haggle a bit now! Is there anything I need to be wary of with GAP company's on the net? There half the price of the dealers so makes me feel I'm getting a substandard product?

The best bet is to find the best quote as Dan said, and then tell them that via price comparison websites you found a quote with (name another company) who are willing to do it for £100 less. That gets there ears pricked up as they want to make a sale. Then tell them that you have friends who are insured with them who have given positive feedback about the insurer so for that reason, you dont want to go with so-and-so, but really want to see what the best deal is that they will offer you.

I have played this card with Admiral for years, and always get a fantastic price against the renewal price, even if that 'cheaper' quote I provided them was not necessarily 'genuine' :p

Best discount I had so far, was a renewal price of £1280 after my accident, cheapest quote I could find online was about £1150, but I phoned the insurer and told them that I have got a quote for £750. They went away and said that although they couldn't do it for £750, they could do it for about £850. - result. Just saved myself £450!

Moved to Fiesta forum.

Never buy GAP insurance from the dealer, there are a few on the Internet, here's one I have used..

www.directgap.co.uk, although there are others, just make sure they are Authorised & regulated by the Financial Services Authority, which they have a number for. My GAP from the dealer would've cost about £300, I got mine for £90 (3 years) Other then that, good luck.

As above, I personally think GAP is a good idea, just not from the dealer.

My dad got a quote for the new car he is getting, dealer wanted £395, got a quote from ALA for £110 for the same level of cover.

I bought GAP for my car from there too, for about £100 I think, for 3 years cover, the important thing is just to make sure whoever you choose is FSA authorised & regulated and that you make sure it gives you everything you want in the policy wording/summary.

This is all really good info guys thanks! I'm definitely going to get gap now and hopefully the money I save haggling my insurance will pay for it! One more thing, return to invoice or replacement gap?

It is up to you really, I have always though of replacement a bit pointless - cars depreciate and are unlikely to go up in price considerably during the term of your insurance.

If you just want back the money you paid on the car, go for RTI, if you want to be able to buy a brand new one, regardless of car age, go for replacement

Aviva are pretty awesome at the moment if you do it online (20% off). They're also a 5 star provider.

My fiesta (insurance group 11) cost me ~£785 to insure for a year as a first car, 2 months after passing my test (i'm 23, which helped a bit though). Which was much lower than everything else by about £500. Also, yes, GAP, buy it (it's about £100-150). If you get your car written off, you'll be screwed otherwise unless you have a few grand lying around.

This is all really good info guys thanks! I'm definitely going to get gap now and hopefully the money I save haggling my insurance will pay for it! One more thing, return to invoice or replacement gap?

And if your on HP or PCP then Finance/Contract Hire will be a good one, it will clear your outstanding finance etc, because although you owe £xxx on the Actual vehicle, you do have to consider the extra charges on top, ie interest etc.

This is the one I have gone for.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/

Follow this guide and you can't go wrong ;)

Hi, in talking about GAP, you do realise that any insurance policy will have in it that if your car is written off in the first year it will be replaced with a new one...

Hi, in talking about GAP, you do realise that any insurance policy will have in it that if your car is written off in the first year it will be replaced with a new one...

Not every insurance does, but worthwhile checking anyway. But paying a low premium for 3 years on GAP is still money well spent.

Hi, I believe this is written into all fully comp insurance unless they explicitly say otherwise, however, as it is within the normal cost of a premium, who'd pay GAP for year you don't need?.Of course third party fire and theft will not have this but who'd get that on a new car anyway?

Hi, I believe this is written into all fully comp insurance unless they explicitly say otherwise, however, as it is within the normal cost of a premium, who'd pay GAP for year you don't need?.Of course third party fire and theft will not have this but who'd get that on a new car anyway?

You have to buy your GAP policy within about 3-6months of buying the car and it still gives you the cover in case your insurance is a total PIA.

In my case, my car was through Ford direct so has just fallen out of the under 12 months thing :)

I got my Gap insurance from ALA (from the Autotrader website), same cover as Ford was giving me for £70, instead of Ford £395!!! I knew the dealer was trying to pull a funny when he was forcing it on me.

I was halfway through my insurance at Elephant, new quotes were stating £300 less, I applied to change my car online with Elephant and they said they would be INCREASING my premium by £96, naturally I complained, and got £100 off the original premium (so £195 off) and a 20% discount if I stay next year. I said to them that I could cancel my insurance with them, get the money back that I had already paid (minus the months insured on my old car), and then go to a new insurer and still have a few quid leftover. I also told them to get rid of the auto-renew that was on my insurance as I was disgusted with their service (their auto-renew quotes have always been competitive in the past).

MoneySupermarket give the cheapest insurance I checked over all comparison sites and compared all the quotes over differemnt windows with all the same details and they were cheapest by the most of near £150! highest quote was from CompareThemarket definatly ring up the cheapest or even the second cheapest and say you have had a cheaper quote and see if they can beat it!

Thanks for all your help! I picked up the car yesterday and ended up going through my bank (natwest) who were the cheapest if the 5* defaqto brands - I didn't like the reviews for elephant and its affiliates! I also get to pay monthly at no extra cost!

I am also going to go for a two year deferred invoice gap policy from gapinsurance.co.uk for £68 as first year is indeed covered.

Thanks again for all comments! I love this forum!