What mods WOULD you tell your ins company about?

[NUTTTR]

Trying to find out here, if i was looking at, say a cat-back 2" piping, etc, would i have to tell insurance? Is that something anyone else would? What if it was "rusted" and leaking, and so you had it replaced and they just put that in instead??? (certain ins companies say "no power increasing mods")...
What about a powerchip or amd software? Would you tell them? Air intake mods to make it breath better? These are things that a lot of people do do, what i'm wanting to know is who does tell ins about this and who thinks we should!

thanks!
Aaron

[anicorsa]

Well AAMI let me have 3 performance mods before my premium goes up.

[NUTTTR]

(oh i am under 25 so they said no) :)

[wishbone]

yeh maybe as well.. im scared of telling them ehhehe..
but yea.. i haven't told them yet..
i had a new front lippe added when i crashed my car.. and they just told me that they weren't going to replace it.
does that make a point??
what happens if they find out i have a new exhaust?
they just wont replace it?
am i right?

[Anonymous]

what happens if they find out i have a new exhaust?
they just wont replace it?
am i right?
this is pretty left field....
they could also look at the fact that the exhaust increased your power hence may have contributed to the smash (if you're at fault) :roll:

therefore giving them rights to dispute the claim..... just expect the unexpected from these guys......

[wishbone]

yeh i geuss
maybe i should tell them..
thing is im 20 years old..
but then again.. i put it under my mums name.. to save on insurance and me as a 10% driver
they're not gunna believe my mum put an exhaust on it
would they?

[Anonymous]

no defiantely not, when some one hit me and i was at AAMI getting it looked at, there was 19 year old in there getting told off by an accessor who had rejected his claim....

the 19 year old had a riced up excel, lowered, mags, "sports pedals" etc etc.... and the 19yo was trying to tell him that it was his mothers car, and it was the first time he had driven it..... :lol:

they aint stupid, people must try that trick everyday...

.... allthough mine is insured under my dad's name, u can just say he was going through a mid life crisis and decided to mod the car :lol:

[freaktown]

i have a 2.25inch zorst and panel filter, and they will never know!

money grabbing bastards!

Besides, it was my parents choice not to tell them, not mine!

[Mrs T]

One of my friends about 3-4 years ago brought an AU XR8 insured in his parents name (no mods). Was playing around at my other friends house and got sideways around the corner, hit my friends dads car and badly damaged the XR8. When he made a claim the insurance company investigated (the XR8 driver told them he was coming around the corner and mustve hit a patch of oil) and asked his neighbours and the surrounding neighbours of my friends house how many times they saw him driving the car and so forth and because he drove it more that 10 times in a year ) and the car was at his place all the time the insurance company rejected the claim. Since that happened i have always insured in my name. Its not worth taking the risk. :D

[ultim8DTM5]

I tell them everything, them being Allianz.

They have a pretty strict policy on it, basically "anything that enhances performance" is out. After changing from Suncorp to Allianz, I took off my exhaust and put the stock one back on I even rang them up to see if I could place a tip on the stock exhaust, and they said it was no problems. I made sure I wrote down the operator's name, date of call etc on the policy if it ever came back.

The car is insured under my dad's name, and I am not on the policy at all. However, the age excess for me is about $3000- covers unlisted driver, driver under 25 and the standard excess. I'm fine with that, because I don't want to be like the Excel driver who was most likely trying to claim under his mum's excess.

From changing from Suncorp who allowed mods to Allianz who say "no performance" I'm saving about $500 per premium. I can still do bodykit, stereo and wheels just don't touch the drivetrain or suspension. Allianz gave me a more than generous agreed value, and I'm happy about that. If I chose I could insure any car at my parent's holiday house (population of 70!) and I would be cruising around in a WRX with a very high chance of my claim being rejected.

Theres a very large section of every insurance policy out there, called "duty to disclose." Basically if you don't at least tell your insurance company what you're going to do, what you've done and so on, they can reject your claim as they are legally allowed to do, because an insurance company is a contract. By failing to disclose you are breaking the terms of the contract, and it becomes void.

My best mate had a Prelude with every mod under the sun, illegal wheels, bodykit, suspension etc. He had an accident in the city and he luckily he knew the smashie where it was being kept at and he went over one night and pulled every mod off it. I wouldn't want to be worrying about that, especially if I'm not in the best condition post-accident to decide what tilt-tray it goes on!!!

A few hundred bucks extra a year doesn't sound too bad when we are talking tens of thousands of dollars at risk here!

[NUTTTR]

I mean, what if you replace the rear muffler, because you bent the old one?? if it's not a genuine holden part, do you have to tell them? Techincally it increases power.... or could do......
I mean, seriously, should i ring them and tell them there's a small scratch on the edge of the fender so when i make a claim it doesn't get rejected because of existing damage?? How far does it go? I mean, what if my suspension wears out and i don't put stock back on, isn't that then a performance mod? or could be classed as one that potentially increases performance?
What if you request normal springs and you somehow end up with lowered ones and you don't know? (say it's 20mm lower, you don't "normally" notice that - a normal person wouldn't anyway!)... where do you stand with that?
Aaron

[imay]

Tell 'em everything . . . otherwise they are within their rights to forget that they ever heard from you! Check the fine print, it's all there.
I've just had my Astra lowered. Thought I would do the right thing and advise my insurance company (just to be up-front with them) and was politely told to go find someone else to cover me because they won't any more! Spent the next couple of days ringing around chasing someone to cover me. Ended up with either AAMI or Just Car Insurance (some crowd), which is ironic in that the company I was with is the parent company to AAMI, who controls JCI. Figure that one out???
Anyway, point is . . . I'm in my 40s and had trouble finding cover. So my message to you guys: Check with your insurance company FIRST, then get the job done.
Don't forget, these guys won't be doing you any favors if you don't fess up.
Plus, once you have told them, they get to charge you more on your premium because your car "may be seen to be more attractive to thieves." That's what I was told by several agents.
I was also surprised that the insurance companies that advertise that they are there for car enthusiasts, weren't the slightest bit interested in my business!

[NUTTTR]

Yeah, i know what you mean, i rang around a few companies.... AAMI was cheapest (under 1K!) NRMA most expensive (1900) and i couldn't justify the extra 1K just so i can lower my car.... AAMI said maybe when i'm 24 1/2 i might be able to get exhaust, springs, etc but have to wait till then...
Other companies (GIO, Allianz, from memory) won't even touch me and my car (i had a perfect record at the time, it's just that i have the "SRi" version!)....Somehow it feels like they are just making it hard for us for the fun of it!

[ultim8DTM5]

imay the reason why they have JCI is to send all the young people out of AAMI- its called not pissing in your own yard

[NUTTTR]

that is very true, i've heard that just cars tho can be hard to claim from??? not sure, but wasn't willing to risk it, been with nrma before, been with aami before, claimed through both and both were easy as
Aaron

[Dregger]

imay the reason why they have JCI is to send all the young people out of AAMI- its called not pissing in your own yard


Thats is 100% correct!



trust me ...i know....


Regards,

Christian
Busisness Systems, AAMI :P

[Alfonzo]

I've been with AAMI ever since I bought my first car. And considering the value of my second, and now third cars against my age, I've always made an effort of declaring every single thing on my policy.

For example, with the Lancer, I had it lowered 30mm with full suspension upgrade, 17" rims, 2.5" cat-back exhaust, sound system, full darkest legal tint, and at every stage I rang up AAMI and told them of my mods. At each of these policy additions, I made the operator read out the other mods I had, and then send a brand new policy update out to me for clarification. The great thing about this is being 19, I really wasn't looking forward to the point where they said "Nup, go get knotted." However they were awesome - I was told (by multiple operators at each mod upgrade) that my policy would be honoured until renewal time, and at that point rather than being refused, I could just have my policy transferred to JustCars.

It didn't actually come to that, as 11 months into the policy I changed it when I sold the car, but I declare everything. Some things you just can't leave to chance, IMO.

[DoomTrooper]

i'm with NRMA and i've declared everythng from the sound system to my springs to exhaust and air intake, otherwise i can just see them being tight on hte payment if i crash, only bad thing is i have to get 17x6.5's which means i have to get the rims made to 6.5's

[FLY-SRi]

well im i with RACV and they said i can put a cat back exhaust system, turbo timer without any extra charge

[Mitch]

I've told NRMA about my stereo but I haven't got around to telling them about the exhaust, I better do it soon. :lol:

[dug74]

i'm with NRMA and i've declared everythng from the sound system to my springs to exhaust and air intake, otherwise i can just see them being tight on hte payment if i crash, only bad thing is i have to get 17x6.5's which means i have to get the rims made to 6.5's

I say you should tell them everything....why risk your prized possession on a few extra bucks on extra premiums.

I was with NRMA with my vectra...<rating 1 for life> i rang them up before i got my wheels to find the size etc..they told me the biggest was 7 inch width...diameter didnt matter...and offset of 40.

When i bought my corsa...i tried to insure...and they refused me...becoz i was putting 17 x 7.5 on it....the biggest i could go was 6 inches wide....so i left them and went to suncorp metway....who told me i can put anything that is legal by QLD Trans.. ...later i asked if i could get a sunroof....they told me NO....so now i have moved onto AAMI....and they have no probs with the wheels or the sunroof...becoz they aint <performance mods> ...and im over 30 anyway...

SO......i suggest you either ask your insurance provider...before you get the mod...or disclose it....if you already have it...

http://www.zaraz.com/phorum/smileys/lol.gif

[blueraven]

i have told them about everything except one thing :wink:


so if have a crash, i will have to "remove" various things very fast......

[NUTTTR]

That's if the bottle doesn't get stuck, lol

[wardy]

I told NRMA about everything.
1/3 the value of your car before premium increase

[NUTTTR]

I told NRMA about my stereo, 6K value, they then wrote me a letter telling me they'd cover me for now, but won't allow a renewal with stereo at that value....
Which was stupid! I wasn't happy, but now with AAMI and they did it

[woody]

Hmmmmm.. i've not told NRMA about my K&N Panel filter or my SUB.... maybe i should - i'm not paying a whole heap on insurance anyway so it's probably best.