Car insurance for cars over 10 years old

Damien360

What is the truth behind the current insurance problem for cars over 10 years ?

I have an 07 petrol avensis with 92000km on the clock running well with no loans outstanding and serviced yearly. It costs me maintenance, insurance (about 450) and tax which is due this month. We have it since 08.

My only reason to change is a perceived inability to insure it next year.

With that in mind I went looking at i30 1.4 petrol deluxe and Ford Focus 1.0 ecoboost. I cannot find second hand ones so my hand is forced down the PCP route which is expensive.

What are the real insurance changes people are seeing for their cars over 10 years ? Leaving aside the increases we are all seeing across all cars (new and old), what is the extra percent loading for cars over 10 years (if any).

athtrasna

Lack of modern safety features and people caring less about wrecking them in an accident so I was told. I have a 04 Focus and this year was the first year I found it more difficult to get quotes. In the end my previous insurer AIG came up with a decent price when pushed

FortySeven

I moved from an 04 fabia 1.2 to a 00 fiesta 1.25 and my premium increased by 257 Euro. I am buying a 2011 fiesta titanium 1.4 and my insurance will drop 211 Euro. Go figure!

TrailerBob

It's a poor enough excuse for 10 year old cars. Whatever about yokes from the 90s. Most cars around 05/06 have multiple airbags, abs, crumple zones, and a lot have things like ebd or traction control. Not much has changed on your run of the mill car. It's still the human at the controls that causes most issues

ravima

Your current insurer will renew the policy. You might have a difficulty if you want to transfer from current insurer.

Damien360

athtrasna wrote: »

Lack of modern safety features and people caring less about wrecking them in an accident so I was told.

Even your 04 is decent in a crash and besides, the least of anyone's worries in an accident is the metal/plastic. Cars of the 90's might be valid for lack of safety features but who wreaks a car for the heck of it. The excuse they gave you makes no sense.

curiosity

The quotes/ renewals thread stickied on top should help you. Went from €390 to €460 on a 2003 Ford Focus, after a good bit of looking,

punisher5112

Policies are on the rise anyway.

Op you have no worries it really only affects some insurers where they are not taking new policies.

Pmpa levy
Quinn levy
Soon to be Setanta levy.

The last few years policies were given away underpriced and it is now coming back and hitting us all.

Bogus claims are high and pay outs in general are outrageous to say the least.

Charles Babbage

I have an 05 Focus, soon to be replaced with 161 1.0 Ecoboost. The insurance went up a lot this year, but the 05 is a little bit less than the quote for the new motor (Allianz).

wonski

My renewal was pretty much the same comparing to last year for a 01 car.

Getting new policy very difficult and pricey, though. Times of shopping around are gone for me.

billy few mates

Is it cars older than ten years or fifteen years that the insurance companies are starting to refuse cover on...?

I'm currently on the hunt for a suitable first car for my daughter and there are a lot of ideal cars between 10-15 but no point in going after one if she can't get a quote on it (as if it wasn't going to be difficult enough to get a starter policy quote).
It also means I'm going to have to come up with more money for a newer car which will push up the value of the car for insurance purposes and eat into the budget for insurance...

zl1whqvjs75cdy

billy few mates wrote: »

Is it cars older than ten years or fifteen years that the insurance companies are starting to refuse cover on...?

I'm currently on the hunt for a suitable first car for my daughter and there are a lot of ideal cars between 10-15 but no point in going after one if she can't get a quote on it (as if it wasn't going to be difficult enough to get a starter policy quote).
It also means I'm going to have to come up with more money for a newer car which will push up the value of the car for insurance purposes and eat into the budget for insurance...

Yeah they have you both ways. Too old and it's not safe, too new and it's valuable. It's a total scam.

homingbird

No matter how many air bags you put in a pram of a car you wont walk away uninjured if a truck hits you the best you can hope for is wind up in a wheelchair that is why i drive a large car.

Dravokivich

homingbird wrote: »

No matter how many air bags you put in a pram of a car you wont walk away uninjured if a truck hits you the best you can hope for is wind up in a wheelchair that is why i drive a large car.

eh.. your car won't help if the truck hits you because "it's a large car."

dastardly00

homingbird wrote: »

No matter how many air bags you put in a pram of a car you wont walk away uninjured if a truck hits you the best you can hope for is wind up in a wheelchair that is why i drive a large car.

Eh... WTF?

BohsCeltic

My car is 16 years old and most places won't quote and if they do it's extortionate.
My car is well maintained and passed NCT no problems.
It has ABS and multiple airbags.

Lekrub

I drive a 99 merc and I have got insurance no problem through Chill.ie. Its with Kennco (not coffee) I think.

I think the main thing with older cars are insurance companies know the person never gonna go more than 3rd party and pay the minimum. Where they want you to go full comp. Its such a bollix of an industry!

BohsCeltic

Lekrub wrote: »

I drive a 99 merc and I have got insurance no problem through Chill.ie. Its with Kennco (not coffee) I think.

I think the main thing with older cars are insurance companies know the person never gonna go more than 3rd party and pay the minimum. Where they want you to go full comp. Its such a bollix of an industry!

Kennco won't insure cars over 15 years old, just tried on their site.

Kintarō Hattori

Ah the joys. The missus drives a 05 320i which has multiple airbags, traction control, ABS etc- all the safety stuff you could want. It's well serviced and hasn't missed an NCT yet. Her policy with me as a learner driver at the time was around the €700 mark for comprehensive. Can't wait to see what they put it up to now

tom petty

BohsCeltic wrote: »

Kennco won't insure cars over 15 years old, just tried on their site.

Yes they will, I got a reasonable quote from them in the post yesterday for a '99 Omega .

BohsCeltic

tom petty wrote: »

Yes they will, I got a reasonable quote from them in the post yesterday for a '99 Omega .

It says Vehicles up to 15 years old on their site and when i put my reg in i got the same message.

wonski

tom petty wrote: »

Yes they will, I got a reasonable quote from them in the post yesterday for a '99 Omega .

Was it renewal, or a new policy?

tom petty

Gentlemen , I have to apologise it was not Kennco , it was Munster .
I ,like you all, have been in touch with so many companies I'm losing touch with reality.
Sorry for the confusion.

CiboC

I'm insuring 2 cars this month:

99 Alfa spider. Was with 123, got a renewal quote for 610 euro fully comp with full ncb protection (increase on last year of 140 euro). I got a quote for the same cover from AA insurance for 592 euro (including AA member discount).

05 Jaguar S-type. Was with Zurich through a broker, got a renewal for 736 euro fully comp with full ncb protection (increase on last year of 130 euro). I got a quote for the same cover, again from AA insurance, for 651 euro (including AA member discount).

Quotes via the AA website, didn't get any '10 year old car' warnings.

tanko

I've a 99 Corolla which is used as a second car but the insurance is more than the car is worth, I'm thinking of changing it for a jeep or a van.
Has the insurance on ten year old plus, jeeps and vans gone up to the same extent as older cars?

BohsCeltic

CiboC wrote: »

I'm insuring 2 cars this month:

99 Alfa spider. Was with 123, got a renewal quote for 610 euro fully comp with full ncb protection (increase on last year of 140 euro). I got a quote for the same cover from AA insurance for 592 euro (including AA member discount).

05 Jaguar S-type. Was with Zurich through a broker, got a renewal for 736 euro fully comp with full ncb protection (increase on last year of 130 euro). I got a quote for the same cover, again from AA insurance, for 651 euro (including AA member discount).

Quotes via the AA website, didn't get any '10 year old car' warnings.

I can't get anywhere near them prices, cheapest so far was my current insurer allianz at €865.
123 and chill won't quote me and aa are looking for over €900

CiboC

BohsCeltic wrote: »

I can't get anywhere near them prices, cheapest so far was my current insurer allianz at €865.
123 and chill won't quote me and aa are looking for over €900

Very pleased with that now, just off the phone to the AA and they reduced the price for the Alfa to 527 and the Jag to 634, both fully comp and full no claims protection.

No 10 year + problem for me for another year anyway!

billy few mates

So even if I found a decent eight year old car it might be worthless in two years time if she tries to sell it on...

ShaunieVW

So hang on last year it was 15 year old cars priced out of the market now it's down to 10?? 2006 is still a new car to me, fair enough regarding 90s design cars etc. Perhaps car insurance should be based on NCAP then if they want to use this excuse.

To Elland Back

ShaunieVW wrote: »

So hang on last year it was 15 year old cars priced out of the market now it's down to 10?? 2006 is still a new car to me, fair enough regarding 90s design cars etc. Perhaps car insurance should be based on NCAP then if they want to use this excuse.

Insurers have never said that older cars are unsafe. They have taken this stance because older cars have been a feature where there has been a disproportionately high number of expensive claims

tanko

To Elland Back wrote: »

Insurers have never said that older cars are unsafe. They have taken this stance because older cars have been a feature where there has been a disproportionately high number of expensive claims

Where is the evidence that older cars have featured in a disproportionately number of expensive claims?

To Elland Back

tanko wrote: »

Where is the evidence that older cars have featured in a disproportionately number of expensive claims?

Insurance Companies have the evidence in their claim statistics. It's not a whim, if they thought they could make any money on older cars, or even a manageable loss, they would continue to cover them.

And before you ask, they don't have to prove it, just like any private business

Liam McPoyle

tanko wrote: »

Where is the evidence that older cars have featured in a disproportionately number of expensive claims?

Insurers are not obliged to disclose sensitive market information.

If challenged they have to be able to prove the reasoning for their pricing. They cannot simply decide to stop quoting a certain demographic, they have to prove the demographic they are not quoting has proved problematic from a costs point of view.

I would urge people, as I have been doing for months, if they think they are getting a raw deal or are being treated unfairly to appeal the relevant body asking them to investigate.

Those avenues are there for a reason so people need to use them.

Greenmachine

The insurance market is gone mental.

cruizer101

There seems to be a lot of confusion about this, people saying older cars are unsafe and the likes, that doesn't matter.
The majority of your premium is based on the damage you can cause to a third party and the risk of you causing that damage. Hence why bigger more powerful cars attract bigger premium, more damage. And younger unexperienced drivers more risk.

What is happening here is insurance companies are profiling you based on the age of your car, this is no different to the profiling they used to do based on sex, or if they were to profile based on shoe size.
There is no logical link between these things however there is correlation. Generally younger inexperienced drivers will drive older cars so older cars will have more crashes, this does not mean people who drive older cars are more likely to have crashes but that is what the insurance companies are saying.

Now the insurance companies know this, or at least I would hope the people generating the equations they use to generate premiums are at least that smart. So there is some other reasoning behind this, do insurance companies have some interest in us buying newer cars, do they have shares in car companies, I don't know. At the end of the day it comes down to money there is some result of this that ends up in insurance companies making more money but being able to say it is because of the correlation.

The problem with all this is that insurance in mandatory, given that the statistics should be open to public viewing or ideally government should provide third party insurance.

FortySeven

Changed my mind about buying a 2010 fiesta and am now going from a 2000, 1.25 fiesta, to a 2007 1.8 civic vtec type s. My fully comp will be just under 300 a year cheaper.

Chris_Heilong

An insurance company should not be allowed refuse anybody for 3rd party insurance IMO, It is a legal requirement in this country. The private business end should only come into play if we then decide to also insure our cars and then we the customers call the shots, things are very skewed in this country at the moment.

The Reader of Dictionaries

AXA or AA insure old cars and you will save at least 1200 euro on depreciation each year. Mechanics are knowledgeable...get a comprehensive service with checklists more often and safety inspected then nct'd, serviced and maintained. You can buy quality tyres on oponeo.ie if you check with your tyre workshop and read carefully. Get quality tyres. I have a full license 18 years and 10 years no claims bonus. A car is a subsidised machine and you work a few days per week for it so no need to waste resources or be ostentatious. The cost of transportation equipment is massive in the Policy age. I prefer excercise and public transport and car share now. THINK and don't crash.