Insurance for a private test drive

Eoin

Hi Folks, quick question for you:

My gf has just bought a new car, and still has her old car, which she is now putting up for sale (look out on the For Sale: Motors forum). She is obviously moving her insurance over to the new car, and her old car will therefore be uninsured.

Is there any easy way to organise a test drive if someone is interested? Any tests will have to be out of working hours, so she, or the person test driving the car, will not be able to ring up an insurance company.

Any thoughts?

thanks,

Eoin

the evil belly

if the person buying it already has fully comp insurance they may well be covered to drive it on their own policy regardless of whether anyone actually has insured the car. i know my policy has it anyway

prospect

Not an ideal choice, but you could go to a private road for the drive, e.g. an industrial estate!!!

Cheers

Seth Brundle

the evil belly wrote:

if the person buying it already has fully comp insurance they may well be covered to drive it on their own policy regardless of whether anyone actually has insured the car. i know my policy has it anyway

I suspect that your policy allows you to drive other cars on third party only. If the OP allowed other drivers to drive on their policies using this, and crashed, then their insurance company is not liable to repay the OP for the damage to their car.

De Hipster

the evil belly wrote:

if the person buying it already has fully comp insurance they may well be covered to drive it on their own policy regardless of whether anyone actually has insured the car. i know my policy has it anyway

Perhaps yours is an exception but the norm is that the vechicle MUST be insured for your insurance to cover you in it.

Eoin

De Hipster wrote:

Perhaps yours is an exception but the norm is that the vechicle MUST be insured for your insurance to cover you in it.

This is how I understand it also. I have 3rd party on any other car, but that car must be insured and can not be a motor industry car (rental car, owned by a garage etc).

Not thrilled about the idea of driving uninsured - gf lives just off quite a busy road, so would be hesitant to go down that route.

Seth Brundle

De Hipster wrote:

Perhaps yours is an exception but the norm is that the vechicle MUST be insured for your insurance to cover you in it.

I would advise that you re-read your policy. Your car does not need insurance - hency policies that offer either third party only or those that offer 3rd party, fire and theft. Only comp policies cover your car.
However, on comp policies that allow the driving of other peoples cars, usually the car is not covered (everyone else on the road is)

Seth Brundle

Just re-read De Hipster's post.
I initially interpreted it incorrectly. However, from memory I don't think it stiulates that it must be insured. However, I don't have mine to hand so can't state for sure.

Eoin

kbannon wrote:

Just re-read De Hipster's post.
I initially interpreted it incorrectly. However, from memory I don't think it stiulates that it must be insured. However, I don't have mine to hand so can't state for sure.

I am 90% sure the car must have an insurance policy, otherwise people could get insured on a Ford Fiesta (incidentally what the gf is selling), and then have 3rd party cover on an insured 3 litre Supra or the likes.

Seth Brundle

yeah - you may be right - I initially thought De Hipster was saying that your own policy must cover the car you are 'borrowing'

prospect

I looked at my policy, and from what i understand (i hate reading this legal cover your ass mumbo jumbo) it works like this.

I have fully comp on my car.
I can drive any other car with third party cover under the following conditions:
1. The car must be covered buy an insurance policy other than my own
2. The car cannont be a rental car, indusrty car etc.
3. My car must not be in use by anybody during the time i am driving the other car.

Cheers

De Hipster

prospect wrote:

I looked at my policy, and from what i understand (i hate reading this legal cover your ass mumbo jumbo) it works like this.

I have fully comp on my car.
I can drive any other car with third party cover under the following conditions:
1. The car must be covered buy an insurance policy other than my own
2. The car cannont be a rental car, indusrty car etc.
3. My car must not be in use by anybody during the time i am driving the other car.

Cheers

That's exactly my understanding, I can drive any car, my policy will cover me to drive so long as the car has an insurance policy attcahed to it.

I was involved in an incident whereby the driver of the other vehicle had insurance but the vehicle had none...he was prosecuted for driving wothout insurance. However this occured in N.I., but I imagine it's the same here.

Eoin

Hmm, suppose the only thing to do is arrange temporary cover once we get enough notice of someone coming to look.

Thanks for all the responses folks

Ivan E

Easiest and best thing is to ring your insurance company and see what they say. Ideally they don't seem to like swapping your insurance between 2 cars regularly but it can be done. Because of your circumstances, they may have some sort of solution.

the evil belly

one phone call to the insurance company later and i know the following, i'm covered to drive anything my licence covers me for, i'd only be covered third party(so no good for the O.P.) and whatever i'm driving does NOT have to be insured by anybody else but cannot belong to me and can't be a hire car or other motor trade vechicle. handy to know anyway.

prospect

the evil belly wrote:

whatever i'm driving does NOT have to be insured by anybody else

Eois_s, seemingly the definitive answer is: 'it depends on your individual policy' so you'll just have to give em a call..

Cheers

Seth Brundle

yayy, so I was kind of right then

the evil belly

looks that way. might come in handy anyway if i ever have to borrow a car or anything

Seth Brundle

the evil belly wrote:

looks that way. might come in handy anyway if i ever have to borrow a car or anything

I would still double check with the policy before I hop into another car though

the evil belly

section 5(b) of my hibernian insurance cert: vehicles or classes of vehicles the use of which is covered

"any motor car (or motorcycle) being driven by the insured, provided such vehicle does not belong to him and is not hired to him under a hire purchase agreement or under a contract of lease hire or contract hire provided such vehicle has not been stolen or obtained by violence or take without the consent of the owner or other lawful authority"

Eoin

the evil belly wrote:

section 5(b) of my hibernian insurance cert: vehicles or classes of vehicles the use of which is covered

"any motor car (or motorcycle) being driven by the insured, provided such vehicle does not belong to him and is not hired to him under a hire purchase agreement or under a contract of lease hire or contract hire provided such vehicle has not been stolen or obtained by violence or take without the consent of the owner or other lawful authority"

OK, so the chances are that someone test driving the car will be able to do so under their policy. (Though that rule there sounds open to abuse, like the one I posted earlier - having an insured fiesta and driving an uninsured 3 litre monster "owned" by a non-driving friend or relative...)

Once again, thanks for all the replies folks - this is all presuming that someone will actually be interested in the car though :rolleyes:

the evil belly

but it's only third party afaik so your car wouldn't be repaired if they crashed it

comanche

Am confused - if you are cover under 3rd party to drive someone else's car with your policy. Then if you damage that persons car can they not claim off your insurance seeing as they are the 3rd party?

Don't know how well thats explained! But how'n'ever

prospect

Don't think so comanche...

They may, however be able to claim off their own policy though!

This s just my opinion/thoughts, i do not claim the following to be fact:

If you drive my car, under your own policy, and have an accident with bertie ahern!, then bertie is the third party. This is because, your cars policy has transferred to my car, (which you are driving), but it has been reduced to third party cover.

Apologies if i just made things more confusing!

Eoin

What prospect said - you are not really a 3rd party as you have given permission for someone to use your car.

jhegarty

my poicly with quinn direct covers driving other cars only if they their own insurance ...

rooferPete

Hi,

I normally wouldn't post where a legal issue is concerned in case I gave bad or totally wrong advice.

Personally,

I pay a lot of extra money every year on insurance because I insist on keeping the open driving option my policy, the PMPA (AXA ?) have been my insurer for a loooong time.

Basically it means any person over 25 with a full licence can drive my cars covered comprehensive, even if they crash I get paid under the comp section.

The side effect is I lose my no claims bonus if the driver has an accident, when they were trying to get me to drop the extra cover this year I was told all third party policy holders are insured to drive any car they don't own with the owners permission.

I was in a similar position with a car for sale a few years ago, they issued a seperate policy for a small amount to cover test driving.

My advice is call your insurance if you ever have a doubt, we pay enough for cover without finding ourselves breaking the law on a technicality

damo605

Word of warning about this - I'm with Hibernian and have the driving other cars option and my policy says NOTHING about the other car needing to have insurance but after a debate with someone about this and after examining my policy inside out I rang Hibernian and asked them and they said "of course the other car must be insured" before I can drive it.
I think they should have made this clear as I drove an old car (With no current policy) belonging to a mate of mine for a month or two some time back feeling fully confident I was insured - Thank God nothing happened :eek:
Be sure to check with your (or the test driver's) insurance company instead of taking a chance as more than likely the person testdriving the car isn't going to be used to driving this particular car so there's an even greater chance of something going wrong!
Other option is that if you have a mate in the trade who has garage insurance someone test driving your car might be covered under his garage policy if he accompanies them on the test drive.

sceptre

eoin_s wrote:

and her old car will therefore be uninsured.

Unless she's specifically got an open driving policy on her car (and while they're not that nucommon, they're not that common) her car has never been insured in the first place for other people to just drive it. She's been insured to drive it (and perhaps other cars) but johnny nocurrentcar wouldn't be insured on it anyway. So (and I realise this has been pretty much said anyway), you may want to check that any test drivers actually have insurance that covers them to drive the thing (as well as temp cover for your girlfriend on the car so that there's insurance for someone on the car)