Model 3 performance insurance difficulties

[MorgenBlue]

Getting insurance for the Model 3 seems to be incredibly difficult, and then if you want to have PPF on the car then it's even worse. Has anyone else found any decent insurers / brokers for less experienced drivers?

I'm currently in a bit of a pickle. I got my M3P+ in August, and at the time getting insurance for it was a bit difficult as most insurers didn't seem to have the Model 3 list yet. In the end I went with Churchill, at the low cost of £2300 a year . The problem with Direct Line brands like Churchill is that they don't cover you with PPF on and count it as if you have had a full vinyl wrap, which I wasn't aware of when I got the car. Now (perhaps stupidly) I did indeed put PPF on the car and figured I'd let the insurance know after and it might be a few hundred more or whatever. So I speak to someone at Churchill and enquire about it to find out they don't really know what PPF is and after waiting a while they said they can't cover wrapped cars.

Okay whatever, I'll transfer my insurance elsewhere. I spoke to a few companies like Admiral and Novo who said they don't even count PPF as a modification and it's fine, great. Well Novo won't cover me because I've only been driving 3 1/2 years and had one fault claim in my first year of driving, and Admiral offered a quote of £6600 a year. I tried a few brokers like Adrian Flux but they didn't know what a Model 3 was, and Plunginsure can't cover Teslas.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[Alex987854]

See this Insurance UK

You probably want to skip to the end and work backwards

 

[SimonTe]

btw, what is the problem that insurance companies have with wrapped vehicles? How does it increase the risk? To me it seems one of the more benign changes you can make?

S

 

[MaDProFF]

Why do you need to tell the insurance if it is wrapped, it makes no difference to the car what so ever, assuming it is not bright pink etc.
Wrapping really is a form of protection, it actually should make insurance cheaper.

 

[curmudgeon]

Getting insurance for the Model 3 seems to be incredibly difficult ...
Well Novo won't cover me because I've only been driving 3 1/2 years and had one fault claim in my first year of driving, and Admiral offered a quote of £6600 a year. I tried a few brokers like Adrian Flux but they didn't know what a Model 3 was, and Plunginsure can't cover Teslas.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

LV was by far the cheapest for me, somewhere around £500 for performance M3.

 

[gangzoom]

Why do you need to tell the insurance if it is wrapped, it makes no difference to the car what so ever, assuming it is not bright pink etc.
Wrapping really is a form of protection, it actually should make insurance cheaper.

Go ahead and try that, than let us know what happens when you have a crash and need to claim.

These cars are expensive to buy, expensive to repair, with long lead times for parts, all that equates to pricey bills for the insurance company come claim time. They will use every trick in the book to get out of covering you, and not declaring you have modified the entire exterior of the car is like a gift wrapped present to them.

What they would do is refund you're insurance costs that year on the basis your car was never 'insurable' under their policy due to the wrap, than hand you over to the legal team of the third party who will chase you down for every penny of the claim + you than have to sort out your own car.

I love penny pinching, but try and save a fe £££ by not declaring something as obvious as a wrap as asking for trouble.

 

[pdk42]

I think the rationale about increasing premiums if the car is wrapped is simply that wrap = boy racer = higher risk. Blunt and unfair - but that's insurance companies for you!

 

[MrBadger]

I think the wrap mod is to do with ease and cost of repair. So having a full wrap, makes it more expensive to fix - ie prep. However, partial PPF protection, such as the 6 or so inch wide strip I have on my sills and many cars have similar as standard, literally only takes a couple of seconds to remove with no tools or mess that does not easily wash off (I had my first PPF removed and redone) so is most clearly temporary and would have less impact on any repair than a mudflap. The grey area is where do you draw the line?

 

[MorgenBlue]

LV was by far the cheapest for me, somewhere around £500 for performance M3.

LV won't insure me unfortunately due to "not enough experience". Not sure exactly how much is required but apparently 3 years is not enough.

 

[Coly]

Churchill's my cheapest as well at 2k 8years ncd. I might go to lv direct. Direct line was like 4k, its bloody ridiculous.

 

[MorgenBlue]

S[/QUOTE]

btw, what is the problem that insurance companies have with wrapped vehicles? How does it increase the risk? To me it seems one of the more benign changes you can make?

S

I could kind of understand it if it was a full wrap but PPF is a bit different to a full wrap.

Did Tesla ever even get the Thatcham rating done? I remember when I picked up my car hardly any insurers had the Model 3 and Thatcham stated Tesla hadn't submitted it for testing so it was the default highest possible rating.

 

[Rooster6655]

The thing is with the Direct Line group nobody is going to know or care about PPF so its easier for them to just tell you a flat No, I don't personally see an issue with PPF as its a clear film, if you tell them your putting cling film on the paint I wonder what they would say... in reality its up to the individual what they decide to risk and not risk.

Out of curiosity has anyone declared their mud flaps?

 

[Durzel]

Wraps make repairs more complicated. The bodyshops insurers use will almost certainly not be set up or sufficiently competent to do wrapping. There’s an art to doing it competently, and it’s a different discipline to painting.

Not declaring it is extremely risky, especially if the insurer does not cover wrapped cars. In the event of a claim you could find that they void the policy from inception, and chasing you for the third party repairs if necessary. Having insurance “in theory” on such an expensive car is madness imo.

Either don’t get PPF, or find out if you’ll be covered before doing it. Doing it and then assuming it’ll be no big deal is a recipe for aggro and big premium hikes.

 

[MorgenBlue]

Wraps make repairs more complicated. The bodyshops insurers use will almost certainly not be set up or sufficiently competent to do wrapping. There’s an art to doing it competently, and it’s a different discipline to painting.

Not declaring it is extremely risky, especially if the insurer does not cover wrapped cars. In the event of a claim you could find that they void the policy from inception, and chasing you for the third party repairs if necessary. Having insurance “in theory” on such an expensive car is madness imo.

Either don’t get PPF, or find out if you’ll be covered before doing it. Doing it and then assuming it’ll be no big deal is a recipe for aggro and big premium hikes.

Yes perhaps a bit naive to assume PPF wouldn't be an issue. I kind of figured it would just be one of those things that wouldn't be covered if I had a claim which I was okay with. I can understand from a repair costs point of view the issue with it, but not sure why they wouldn't cover cars with it at all?

 

[gangzoom]

I can understand from a repair costs point of view the issue with it, but not sure why they wouldn't cover cars with it at all?

At the end of the day it doesnt matter what you, I, or anyone else thinks on the issue. The facts are you have made your insurer aware your car is potentially uninsurable on its currently policy.

You can probably take the insurer to the ombudsman if the worst was to happen, but having been through the hassel of a write-off claim a few years ago, with dash cam proof I was the innocent party, I would not want to risking the insurance over essentially some plastic tape.

Get it taken off, or change insurances companies. Am sure plenty of people 'forget' to declare previous accidents, or mods to their cars, but there are numerous cases in recent years when insurance companies have voided peoples polices on what you and I would call trivial issues.....which than puts you personally responsible for some massive costs if personal injures involved.

Remeber no insurance company is your friend, when the s**t hits the fan they will do everything in their power to get out of paying regardless if your their customer or not.

Car insurance VOID - where do I go from here?

 

[MorgenBlue]

Yup trying to find a new insurance company. But having a hard time finding anything reasonable. It would be a shame to have to take off the PPF due to insurance red tape since I'm loving how much it protects the car.

 

[gangzoom]

It would be a shame to have to take off the PPF due to insurance red tape since I'm loving how much it protects the car.

Not as much of a shame as having void insurance! Red tap or not, its you taking the risk, reassured if you have a at fault accident tomorrow Churchill will drop you like a lead balloon.

 

[pdk42]

Car insurance VOID - where do I go from here?

Fascinating reading. Confessions of an uninsured driver! I'm amazed that there are 7 pages of posts where people are trying to help the guy. For those who don't want to wade through it - here is the summary:

- Guy runs into somebody. At fault.

- First tries to settle with other party without involving insurers

- Other party make injury claim so he then goes to insurers

- Insurers want to void policy due to a previously unreported RTA (not this one, but some time earlier - and the guy admits it is true), plus undeclared tinting on front windows

- Thread discloses other issues with the guy - including a drink driving conviction and other accidents.

- Despite him being panicked about potential bankruptcy, he had an epiphany and decides to simply throw all the insurance correspondence away and ignore it.

- Re-insures car with another insurer and discloses none of above!

No wonder our policies are so high.

 

[Durzel]

Yes perhaps a bit naive to assume PPF wouldn't be an issue. I kind of figured it would just be one of those things that wouldn't be covered if I had a claim which I was okay with. I can understand from a repair costs point of view the issue with it, but not sure why they wouldn't cover cars with it at all?

I can sympathise. I wouldn’t naturally assume PPF wasn’t covered and wouldn’t consider it a wrap in the traditional sense of the word. Wraps to me mean colour changes etc - and I have experience having had a full white wrap on a black car. I had no issues insuring that but it was a few years ago now, and I did have it on an already expensive policy with another higher value car.

Unfortunately though the principal of PPF is basically the same as a colour changing wrap. It’s effectively the same material, only transparent. All of the processes involved in applying it (well) are the same, as well as the necessary skills and labour involved in doing it properly.

Pretty much any bodyshop can spray any car. They can get the paint code off the car, or their Pantene book or whatever, figure out how to remove the affected panels and crack on. Applying PPF to a car involves finding templates for that specific car and panel(s) and “printing” it out, or finding someone that can do them, and then trying to fit it - potentially messing it up more than once if unskilled.

What if the customer is unhappy with the quality of the paint finish underneath? Are you supposed to apply PPF to recently painted and not fully cured paintwork? It’s a minefield and adds a massive amount of complexity to what would usually be a predictable and manageable repair.

In terms of accepting a repair without the PPF reapplied, or some other personalised agreement, insurance doesn’t really work like that, at least not typical high street policies. The typical insurance companies eschew these arrangements because they fall outside the “package” deals they offer. You’d have to go to a specialist in the same way you would for a high value car or agreed value policy etc, but would pay handsomely for it too.

 

[gangzoom]

No wonder our policies are so high.

They are all catching on finding out about mods though, with my old 335i Admiral wanted me to send my car to one of their 'approved' garages to confirm the mods I had declared as the car was flagged as a 'high risk' for mods model.

Anyone thinking they can get away without declaring things like wraps need to be very careful, ultimately unless your taking the mick I think the obmusbsdmen will back the customer in extreme cases, but for the sake of a few £££ or essentially thick clingfilm its not worth the hassle.

Its not all bad news though, I ended up ensuring the 335i modified via a broker for a LOWER premium than a stock 335i with a big name company. The caveat was I had to have a 100% clean licence, no previous at fault RTA for 5 years, over the age of 30, and prove I had owned a RWD car with similar BHP before. The logic been I think even though the car was very quick, I would be so incentivised to drive calmly that any accident would be most likely a non fault claim.

Its all a scam at the end of the day though, all the rules are written to favour the insurance companies over customers, never assume your insurer actually care about you or your car, its just a numbers game for them, and they will find any excuse possible to help them win the numbers game, there is no room for assumption or common sense. So follow the rules to the letter if you don't want to be on the wrong side of the calculations!!