Older car costing more on insurance!

F

familyguy

Registered User
Messages
70
I recently sold my car, a 2006 Saab 2.0t petrol 4 door sports saloon.
I brought in a 2003 Alfa Romeo 156 1.9 Diesel from the UK and cleared it.

I called my insurance company AON/insure.ie the other day to arrange the transfer of the policy to the new car and I was told on top of a €40 processing/admin fee for
the change that I would have to pay over €150 to fully cover the Alfa! (I have full over on my current policy)

I was shocked by this. The girl on the phone explained that some companies value older cars lower but some are the opposite and see older cars are representing more risk I presume.

Can this be right? I can't believe they want an extra 150 quid for a car that is 3 years older that I'm valuing at around 3 grand compared to the 6/7k I valued my last car at which is lower in engine size aswell.

Has anyone else had this experience?
 
I feel insurance companies have u if u change mid policy. Husband just changed van AXA wanted €20 processing fee last week and policy is due out tuesday. They were looking for €60 extra but thankfully after a few words with broker at the desk this was waved. Sometimes it can work out cheaper to cancel a policy and start again.
 
There can be complex profiling of cars, it's not just on their value.

They might be able to determine that 156s are involved (for whatever reason) in more claims, or that if you make a claim on a 156, the cost of parts is higher than average, and therefore the loading is higher.

These are just examples. You should always check the insurance rate of a car before changing.

In the UK this is more organised and every car belongs to an insurance group so you can more or less figure it out. There are probably similar groupings in Ireland but I don't believe they are published.
 
It also has to do with the cost of the parts and the fact that 1.9 diesel is probably a little racier than a 2 litre petrol. Amongst other things.
 
peteb said:
It also has to do with the cost of the parts and the fact that 1.9 diesel is probably a little racier than a 2 litre petrol. Amongst other things.
Click to expand...

Diesel a little racier? 25% longer 0-100km/h and lower top-speed, so no.

As fraggle says, it's down to the model of the car and the age. Older cars are statisticaly a higher risk as they are involved in more accidents. Again, statistics will most likely say Saabs are involved in fewer accidents than Alfas.

If you want to try out how various combinations affect the quote, play around with some of the online insurance quote engines. If you don't have anyone else on the policy already, try adding a partner/spouse. This generally lowers the quote.
 
once a car is over 8 years old insurance goes up, I had a 2001 audi a6 1.8T and swapped foe a 3.0 Range rover 2003 about 2 years ago and my insurance went down €150.

You use to get a reduction in insurance for being a smoker, which i never understood but the stats showed smokers had less accidents and were less agressive in the car.

The best one is as a man always put your girlfriend or wife on it as named, it always lowers the insurance..
 
bluemac said:
The best one is as a man always put your girlfriend or wife on it as named, it always lowers the insurance..
Click to expand...


Very true, My elderly relation recently took his wife off his policy as she no longer drives and her licence has expired, he had to pay his insurer an additional €130 for the remaining 8 months, (was €450 last renewal)
 
Get a better quote from somewhere else and cancel the current policy.

They won't disclose what increases the insurance, so I have to assume there is little logic or fairness to their pricing.
 
AlbacoreA said:
They won't disclose what increases the insurance, so I have to assume there is little logic or fairness to their pricing.
Click to expand...

No insurance company will disclose much of this information. The actuarial science behind their quote engines is very closely guarded.

They already explained the older car having an impact, they can't go too much further.

Just because they won't tell you, doesn't mean it's unfair. The only way to determine that is to shop around, and the OP should be doing that anyway.
 
But in the UK don't they advertise Cars with their insurance rating. So you can make an informed choice about the car you use. Why is that impossible here?
 
That's the insurance group of the car when new, as determined by a panel set up by the insurer's representative body. There are also many more factors that dictates the price.

So at least there you will know that all 5 year old group 1 cars will cost pretty much the same. But a 10 year old group 1 car will still cost more than a 5 year old group 1 car.

It also isn't impossible here, just a little more cumbersome. Use the online quote engines, keep all other details the same and enter the details of some car models you're interested in.
 
See that would make sense if they were consistent.

But I've had old car being quote as more expensive, because they've less safety features, more expensive to replace parks as hard to find, all sorts of reasons. Only constant is its almost always more expensive. The other thing is the way they can adjust to match a competitors quote at the drop of a hat.

They have a credibility problem.
 
Just changed my car this week, rang broker and then told cost €55.06 to change car. Shocked, asked for breakdown of figures, told €30 their admin fee and €25.06 the insurance company charge. I responded admin fee the highest Id ever heard and she immediately dropped it to €20. Unfort id had no choice but to pay as sitting in new car waiting to drive home!
 
You'll probably find if you check their terms of business that is states how much will charge you.
 
twofor1 said:
Very true, My elderly relation recently took his wife off his policy as she no longer drives and her licence has expired, he had to pay his insurer an additional €130 for the remaining 8 months, (was €450 last renewal)
Click to expand...

Would it be unlawful to leave someone on the insurance who never drove the car in order to have a lower premium? Rather than a person driving with no insurance it would be a person not driving with insurance!
 
I'm inclined to the view expressed above that these increases have little to do with actuarial science and more to do with opportunism and bluff. I recently changed the car on my daughter's policy to a slightly newer model of the same car, keeping the original insured value, and the insurance company wanted €110 extra for the remaining term. When I challenged it they ventured that the newer car was a Japanese import and so the cost of replacement parts would be higher (the cars in question were a '97 and a '00 Nissan Micra, valued at €600). I pointed out to them that this was not the case — I'd checked beforehand — and they said oh, well in that case the increase would only be €58. When I asked again on what basis, they said "mid-policy change of particulars". I read out to them the written terms of my policy (which said that no such charges were payable), they went off and checked and came back and said that on this occasion they would "waive" the extra premium.

When dealing with insurance companies, I find it best to assume that nothing they say is to be trusted, until proven otherwise. Always shop around, and always read the small print carefully.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top