Evening all,

My insurance are awkward and won't let me retrofit a cruise control steering wheel.

I was just wondering what I could do to upgrade the performance of my 2013 Zetec auto that the insurance won't be bothered about.

Like parts that may or may not have accidentally needed to be replaced due to "wear and tear."

Thanks

None the cars to be standard as it was from the factory even adding decals need to be declared

None the cars to be standard as it was from the factory even adding decals need to be declared

That might be true, however I am hardly going to waste my time calling up my insurer for extremely minor 'mods', like replacing interior halogen lightbulbs with LED equivalents; or placing a dashcam on the windscreen.

Motor insurance is a joke in this country.

wouldnt a dashcam reduce your premium? thats one thing i would tell them

Maybe it would, but then what happens if it not working or turned on. Will then then refuse to pay up?

I have said it on a number of occasions, it is best to run any modifications past your insurer, however silly you may think

it to be. It doesn't take long and may save argument at a later date. You should also get their response in writing.

Although it did not concern a modification, my garage door broke recently which meant I was unable to garage my car for a

couple of nights. I informed my insurer by email of this and they made a note of it. I did this because I stated on my

insurance proposal that my car would be garaged overnight whilst at my address.

It's better to be safe than sorry.

wouldnt a dashcam reduce your premium? thats one thing i would tell them

Bad idea tbh. IF you crash and it's your fault you'll have to give the investigators potentially the only proof that it was your fault...

'Safety' mods often put the insurance up as well, especially things like adding bigger brakes or window tints etc. I've not found any mod to reduce a premium yet.

OP - Unfortunately there aren't any mods you can do without telling the insurance (technically!) so any you do are up to you to decide to declare or not really. Just out of interest, what was the reason for not insuring a cruise wheel lol?

OP - Unfortunately there aren't any mods you can do without telling the insurance (technically!) so any you do are up to you to decide to declare or not really. Just out of interest, what was the reason for not insuring a cruise wheel lol?

It was just a no. No reason given whatsoever.

They take the mick

Who are you with, which company?

Most decorative "insignificant" mods dont even cost, but just as well to declare them since then can quite happily void your policy without declaring.

Ive declared absolutely everything on mine and the insurers have always come up trumps and sometimes sense with costs for mods

Who are you with, which company?

Endsleigh

Endsleigh

Hmm, same here. Never called up to ask their opinion about mods. Do you know if they hate mods in general, or have you only ever asked about the cruise control?

Hmm, same here. Never called up to ask their opinion about mods. Do you know if they hate mods in general, or have you only ever asked about the cruise control?

I assume they have a zero tolerance policy towards mods.

Tbh they've got me by the balls

I have said it on a number of occasions, it is best to run any modifications past your insurer, however silly you may think

it to be. It doesn't take long and may save argument at a later date. You should also get their response in writing.

Although it did not concern a modification, my garage door broke recently which meant I was unable to garage my car for a

couple of nights. I informed my insurer by email of this and they made a note of it. I did this because I stated on my

insurance proposal that my car would be garaged overnight whilst at my address.

While i applaud your honesty,what do you do if you go to a hotel for a few nights??? ;-)

Check the insurance guidelines. some of this is nonsense.

Theres two ways they wont pay out

You knowingly lied, resulting in insurance they wouldn't have accepted or with a premium significantly higher, in which case your screwed an possibly fraud!

You unknowingly misled them resulting in insurance they wouldn't have accepted or with a premium significantly higher, not fraud but will result in no insurance, you might get you money back though

but in ether case they need to show you misled them and the premium must be significantly higher. Significant is the important word there!

take you cruise control, as an everyday Joe how would you know if the cc was factory fitted or aftermarket, ? Its not reasonable for you to check every feature is stock, etis can be wrong anyway, them refusing the above wont work unless they can prove the above.

check the ombudsmen web site, every case on there clearly shows that the only time folk get refused is when they knowingly lie, usually on details like previous claims, address, named driver issues, where its generally (not always) parked for the night etc.

Don't get me wrong, id rather not have to fight them so telling is the best way but there seems to be a certain amount of paranoia here which really shouldn't be the case. What they try to get away with and what they can get away with are two different things

If I go away on holiday or stay somewhere overnight I do not even consider informing my insurer. On my proposal form I was

simply asked the question - would my car be kept in a locked garage when at my address overnight, to which I answered 'yes'

As I was unable to do this for a couple of nights I informed my insurer of this, which they noted. Obviously, if I was going

to be away from home for a lengthy period of time which meant my car would be ungaraged for that period of time, I would

inform my insurer.

If I go away on holiday or stay somewhere overnight I do not even consider informing my insurer. On my proposal form I was

simply asked the question - would my car be kept in a locked garage when at my address overnight, to which I answered 'yes'

As I was unable to do this for a couple of nights I informed my insurer of this, which they noted. Obviously, if I was going

to be away from home for a lengthy period of time which meant my car would be ungaraged for that period of time, I would

inform my insurer.

Got to say i doubt many are as honest as you.I know last year i had to store stuff in my garage for a friend for two months and left car outside and never thought to tell insurer . But in an ironic twist (which i STILL cant work out) my car insurance this year is £30 cheaper to keep it on the drive over night than it is to keep it in the garage!!

I cant remember off hand what the definition of "normal" was but I think it was something like your normal place of home is somewhere it spends ~4 nights a week, can you imagine the mess if everyone's insurance was void if you ever parked anywhere other than your home or your work.

Reasonable is the word, both you and the insurance must be acting reasonably. if you said you had a garage and didn't then you are deliberately misleading them, goodbye insurance, if you park else where occasionally then so long as that isn't your normal place to park then so be it.

can you imagine the number of peoples insurance that is "wrong" through daft unreasonable demands. I'm going to pull a number out of my ar$e an say I reckon that probably half the people on the road don't have valid insurance through one reason or another, there are rules and there is a means to challenge those rulings and if you look at the case history of many of them youll see most folk who do small insignificant things are covered fine so long as it wouldn't increase the premium substantially or you deliberately or unintentionally mislead them.

clear as mud

Informing them is clearly the best way but theres no need for paranoia for every small thing.

Endsleigh

Ah I see, and I've just noticed your age as well, had assumed you were older, my bad. You're probably on a specific 'young persons' type of policy which doesn't allow mods unfortunately.

While i applaud your honesty,what do you do if you go to a hotel for a few nights??? ;-)

It doesn't matter as it states 'home address'...if you're going to a hotel for a few nights you really don't need to contact the insurer. No wonder their phone lines are always busy if people are calling up for something like that!

The lines are probably busy with people questioning why their claim has been refused! You are of course right but as I said

previously - if I was going away for a number of weeks I would inform them of this.

Adrian Flux Modified car insurance is the best. They let you have any mod however they even need to know if you change a bulb to led. But at least they allow it. Ensleigh don't allow mods at all. If they do your premiums go up a lot. I choose flux. They are just better.. try them out. ( PS I am in no way related to them) .

Hi,

If you need any help with insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.