The Desirable Car
If you are the kind of person that doesn’t just treat a car as a method of transport, and you take pride in going out on a sunny Sunday afternoon for a drive, then it’s likely you will chose to treat yourself to a high performance sports car or a classic model. There is no point in us trying to convince you to change your mind on the purchase of your new pride and joy – but you are still able to make some conscious choices to save money on the cost of your car insurance.Unfortunately insurance companies will always consider a desirable car as one that deserves a high premium due to the simple facts that when compared to a ‘practical car’ the chances of theft are higher, the costs of replacement parts are higher and with more power available to you, the more likely you are to have an accident.
However, even though it is highly likely that you will have your car placed in a medium to high insurance group, there are still things that can be done to help keep your quote under control.
Firstly, if you are not buying a brand new ‘desirable car’, it’s very likely that it would have been modified by the previous owner in order to improve performance and/or looks. Always ensure that you ask for the original parts to be included in the sale – as this gives you the option to get a quote for the car in its original condition and if you consider the cost difference significant enough, you can choose to re-install the original parts.
Secondly, check for the existence of both an alarm and immobiliser and ensure they are considered ‘approved’ by car insurance companies. This allows you to get a discount on your policy that can range from 4% to 7% (depending on insurer). If they are not fitted, another option is to go straight for a tracking device as these are now becoming more and more competitively priced and they can attract a higher discount on your quote from some insurers.
As with any insurance policy, you can opt to pay a higher voluntary excess to lower your quote, but remember that this will be in addition to the compulsory excess that most insurers now impose as standard. It can seem appealing to trim off increments of around £10 from your policy by increasing the excess figures by £100 increments, but this is an important decision. Statistics do not lie and they clearly state that if you drive a high performance vehicle, you are more likely to be involved in an accident. So saving money on your initial quote is one thing, but paying out a significant excess if you are involved in an accident is another and we recommend taking the middle ground on excess.
Another option available to you if you have made your car purchase purely for those weekend drives to the coast – possibly in a classic or vintage model, then consider agreeing to a mileage restriction on your policy. This is in addition to specifying that you only require ‘social, domestic and pleasure’ cover, and it can make a significant difference to your policy cost. For example, a reduction in annual mileage of 5,000 miles could save a typical 35-year-old female driver about £50 a year in premiums. A cut of 10,000 miles a year could save more than £100. However, you must be honest about your annual mileage, as inaccuracy will jeopardise any claim.
One of the most important options available to you if you have either a sports car or a vintage car, is to try contacting a specialist car insurance company for your quote. Most of these insurers are not on comparison sites, and can be easily overlooked – but they never should be as they specialise in these types of cars in their insurance policies and so can compete and usually beat the major insurers.
After digesting the above information relating specifically to your car and its relationship to your quote, hopefully you will have an idea of how you can bring your policy cost down. The next step is to look at our other tips relating to saving more on the quote itself.
