Insurance freak out

[Couscous19]

Hi everyone

I'm having a bit of a panic. I just put in my order and paid my deposit for a MS, 75 battery. Having looked online previously it appeared that insurance wouldn't be much more than my current car (~£600 per year).

I've got some terrifying quotes (up to £11k) and the lowest I've found is £2k. What's going on? I've even tried Direct Line who apparently get the Tesla safety systems.

I can't really justify £2+ thousand a year on insurance. If I have to cancel my order in the 1 week grace period do I get the deposit back?

Really appreciate any help. Really worried sick that I've committed to something with more costs than I was expecting!!

 

[DJP31]

Don't panic, there are some Insurers who are in the market. Try Direct Line again but make sure you have the specific Tesla unit, the normal route wont work. Number is 0345 772 9779.

Also try LV and Admiral.

Best of luck!

 

[thegruf]

as @DJP31 says

plus slightly bizarrely I found Sainsburys were quite competitive!
(I have also found occasionally in the past that AA or RAC offer reaonable pricing so maybe worth a try)

Watch out for stupidly high excesses though on apparently low premiums if you try the comparison sites.

Generally the UK insurance market is a mess at the moment because of that disastrous court ruling that forced the governemt to change the rules (including retrospectively) on the Discount Rate will fall from 2.5% to minus 0.75%, increasing the costs of eg injury claims massively.

It will no doubt settle down but right now shop around must be the message as many insurers seem to have over-reacted.

 

[GilesX]

Mine was about £1k with DL

(London, MX 60kw) (ps. I'm 38 with a lot of NCb)

 

[cheshire cat]

also try NOVO they are well liked and reportedly great service on Tesla UK owners (in Liverpool)

 

[Alkali]

Just got a quote from Direct Line for my MX 100D coming on Aug 1 (yeah!). £1,160 with a big excess (£1,300 - £950 mandatory plus £350 voluntary). Think this is "not bad"?

Interestingly they did not have the 100D on their system but did have the P100D, so there was a bit of "put you on hold" while they sorted it. Will try Admiral tomorrow.

 

[thegruf]

these massive excesses are just the latest way of insurers preventing modest claims for the more common relatively minor damage incidents.

Tesla's are expensive to repair, but if you imagine a dink on the wing or a broken side mirror or a dented bumper/fender that probably would cost iro a grand to repair, well your insurance is worth nothing for that scenario. Also check carefully what glass cover you get as some delinquent putting your glass though to get at that pound coin you left in the car might leave you with a huge bill.

Actually as Direct Line are Tesla's adopted partner in the UK I would have hoped for better.

 

[cheshire cat]

was that on the specific (DIRECT)Tesla phone line ?? I think the cost of repairs (bodyshop) as a whole is something which will fill a book despite there not being that many actual vehicles over here --I wonder if the euro owners experience is similar?

 

[Alkali]

Good q @cheshire cat was the dedicated tesla hotline. But odd the did not have the MX 100D on their system..... just off with Admiral, same story, £1,220 premium with a total of £1,250 excess. 10,000 miles per year, some business use, I'm registered keeper. London, parked on the street. Most interestingly..... I asked Admiral who does the repairs and dug a bit deeper on claims process. Turns out they have their "valuer" decide how much a repair should be, and if that is less than what Tesla says, their *could* be a gap that I would end up paying for. Seems like there could be some debate / negotiation with their claims adjuster.... wonder if anyone else has heard of this?

 

[DJP31]

Good q @cheshire cat was the dedicated tesla hotline. But odd the did not have the MX 100D on their system..... just off with Admiral, same story, £1,220 premium with a total of £1,250 excess. 10,000 miles per year, some business use, I'm registered keeper. London, parked on the street. Most interestingly..... I asked Admiral who does the repairs and dug a bit deeper on claims process. Turns out they have their "valuer" decide how much a repair should be, and if that is less than what Tesla says, their *could* be a gap that I would end up paying for. Seems like there could be some debate / negotiation with their claims adjuster.... wonder if anyone else has heard of this?

I had this with Admiral over the repair to my Lexus NX which at the time was a new model in the UK. It was a straightforward bumper replacement and associated bits and pieces. They wanted it to go to their approved repairer (who would never have worked on the model as it was so new) and I point blank refused. It went to Lexus and Admiral argued the labour costs were excessive. Lexus simply told Admiral that they had on many previous occasions carried out repair work on behalf of Admiral policyholders, who caved in.

its strong arm tactics by the Insurer (they are all perry similar in this regard with only one or two exceptions and generally a big premium attached to it) who want the approved repairer to do the work to minimise cost. With modern day cars, I would never have anyone touch my car apart from the manufacturer for repairs.

 

[RoyBB]

I just switched my insurance with Churchill from a BMW520 to Tesla S 60D. Comes to about £500 per year totally.

 

[Couscous19]

I just switched my insurance with Churchill from a BMW520 to Tesla S 60D. Comes to about £500 per year totally.

Hot piss! How is your insurance so cheap?? What's your age, no claims, parking situation like?

 

[DaveMUK]

I just changed from Admiral to Direct Line for our late 2016 Model S 60. Admiral increased the price by over £250 this year. I just paid direct line £450, that's for the two of us, mid forties, business use, 9+ years NCD (the max Direct line will acknowledge), 18,000 miles a year parked on a drive in ox26. Both have clean licenses and only a chipped windscreen claim in the last 3 years.

The Tesla team at Direct Line was great, they called me back and were a pleasure to deal with, however the generalist I had to deal with to move my wife's car over was not the best, he spent 5 minutes trying to find a convertible mini on their system, in the end I had to get him to read out the list to me and educate him about the cabriolet option being the same as a convertible!