[Raymondo111]

Morning all,

I have just had my new Tiguan delivered and very pleased with it but as I wasn't sure what time it was being delivered I left informing my Insurance Company until the car had actually turned up, I have hit a problem, I had to cancel my existing insurance last week as I had sold my old car, fair enough but I explained that I was getting a new lease car this week and would be taking out a new policy.

Just spoke to them and as the car is a lease with VWFS as the owner and me as the registered keeper they said that they wouldn't be able to cover me!!
So now I have to try and get somebody to insure me WTF is going on, from research that I had done I didn't think it was going to be a problem and certainly when I spoke to my Insurance Company last week they didn't indicate then that it was a problem.

Can anybody advise me what the best course of action to take, the annoying thing is that I still had 3 months to go on my old insurance but they kept this as a cancellation fee but promised me that this would be given back when I took out a new policy, to say I am royally pi**ed off is an understatement.

 

[salmonfisher]

Appalling service - who was your insurance company so we can all avoid them?

 

[hmrc804]

well, I had to go through quite a bit of research when i got mine.
basically quote around with your circumstances, it will come back with a few quotes.
companies that covers you for example aviva, privilege etc

what surprised me was when I took my delivery just before xmas, the insurance quote was £300-400 more than usual if I started on 23/12, if I start around 27-29th it is £300-400 cheaper, then I thought wait a minute, VW gives like 5 days free insurance, so yea guess what i did lol.

what some people say is get GAP insurance, but I'm still confused whether I need it, because my insurance will replace it with a new car if I totaled it in the first year. so thats basically what GAP is right?

 

[Ed1]

hmrc804, will you insurance company cover the cost for a brand new car like for like? As soon as you drive a new car out of the dealers it has depreciated.

 

[Raymondo111]

Appalling service - who was your insurance company so we can all avoid them?

M & S Car Insurance had been ok up until now, I ended up going on Compare the Market and put in the fact that it was a lease car and LV came back with a reasonable price, I phoned to check and was told that Leasing was now very common and not a problem so I took out a policy with them.

 

[hmrc804]

hmrc804, will you insurance company cover the cost for a brand new car like for like? As soon as you drive a new car out of the dealers it has depreciated.

from my understanding, is that they will replace it with a brand new exact car. (or I guess of same value)

this is what I can see on the policy, be grateful if someone could kind of interpret it?

We will replace your vehicle with a new vehicle of the same make, model and specification (if one is available in the UK) if, within 12 months of the main policyholder (principal policyholder), main drivers of each vehicle (eg vehicle policyholder) or a partner buying your vehicle from new:

Any repair cost or damage in respect of any one claim covered by the policy is more than 60% of the vehicle's UK list price (including vehicle tax and VAT) when your vehicle was purchased, or
Your vehicle is stolen and not recovered.
We will only replace your vehicle if the main policyholder (principal policyholder), main drivers of each vehicle (eg vehicle policyholder) or a partner:

Purchases it under a hire purchase agreement or other type of agreement where ownership passes to the main policyholder (principal policyholder), main drivers of each vehicle (eg vehicle policyholder) or a partner and the Financing Company agree, and
The main policyholder (principal policyholder), main drivers (vehicle policyholders) or a partner becomes the first registered keeper of your vehicle, or the second registered keeper of your vehicle where your vehicle has been pre registered in the name of the manufacturer or supplying dealer, provided at the time of purchase the mileage was less than 250 miles.
Vehicles sold as 'ex demonstrators' and 'nearly new' do not qualify for replacement under this section.

 

[Malcm59]

I'm insured with LV with VW finance as the owner and me as the main driver - Not experienced any issues - there is a clear option to be able to do this when you go online for a quote. Make sure you get a gap insurance policy to cover any shortfall between the insurance company write off valuation and the cost of a replacement vehicle though (I would recommend ALA and you can get a discount through this forum)

 

[salmonfisher]

Most decent insurance companies do replace like for like with a new car for first 12 months - so no problem there. The issue is in years 2 onwards where none do. Personally I think the cost of GAP is a rip off and not worth it but I own my cars outright. If you lease or are on HP it might be different but the firms make a bomb so on average you will be worse off but you might need it.

 

[Raymondo111]

I'm insured with LV with VW finance as the owner and me as the main driver - Not experienced any issues - there is a clear option to be able to do this when you go online for a quote. Make sure you get a gap insurance policy to cover any shortfall between the insurance company write off valuation and the cost of a replacement vehicle though (I would recommend ALA and you can get a discount through this forum)

I read up a lot of information on the Piston Heads Website re leasing and saw some horror stories on the problems with Insurance Companies and not paying out the full value of the car plus people losing a lot of money on their initial deposits, I have gone with Totallossgap.co.uk who were recommended to me, it was a fair bit cheaper even taking into account the 10% discount. I paid £99.00 for 2 years cover including the initial deposit.

 

[hmrc804]

I'm insured with LV with VW finance as the owner and me as the main driver - Not experienced any issues - there is a clear option to be able to do this when you go online for a quote. Make sure you get a gap insurance policy to cover any shortfall between the insurance company write off valuation and the cost of a replacement vehicle though (I would recommend ALA and you can get a discount through this forum)

I read up a lot of information on the Piston Heads Website re leasing and saw some horror stories on the problems with Insurance Companies and not paying out the full value of the car plus people losing a lot of money on their initial deposits, I have gone with Totallossgap.co.uk who were recommended to me, it was a fair bit cheaper even taking into account the 10% discount. I paid £99.00 for 2 years cover including the initial deposit.

Can I ask if you have a link to it? I would like to do some reading.
I'm guessing it might be with smaller companies, or companies that doesn't replace new with new in the first place?

 

[SlimPollack]

hmrc804,

The way I read this (and my Tiguan is leased as well) you are not registered owner nor a keeper. You won't see V5C at all as I specifically called VWFS and Fleet Dept of the supplying dealer to clarify that when I wanted to insure my Tig. Even for my recent trip to Europe I didn't get it. I had to apply for VE103 Foreign Travel Authority certificate.

Therefore, in my opinion, you won't get replacement car when yours is written off as the ownership of the car was not passed to you. See the small print you mentioned earlier:

We will only replace your vehicle if the main policyholder (principal policyholder), main drivers of each vehicle (eg vehicle policyholder) or a partner:
Purchases it under a hire purchase agreement or other type of agreement where ownership passes to the main policyholder (principal policyholder), main drivers of each vehicle (eg vehicle policyholder) or a partner and the Financing Company agree, and
The main policyholder (principal policyholder), main drivers (vehicle policyholders) or a partner becomes the first registered keeper of your vehicle, or the second registered keeper of your vehicle where your vehicle has been pre registered in the name of the manufacturer or supplying dealer, provided at the time of purchase the mileage was less than 250 miles.

 

[tonymar]

A policeman told me 35 yrs ago when i had my first car accident (which was not my fault ) that insurance companies are a law upon themselves , ive always remembered this and found it to be true ,
get what you can out of them because that is exactly what they do to you ! .

 

[Raymondo111]

I'm insured with LV with VW finance as the owner and me as the main driver - Not experienced any issues - there is a clear option to be able to do this when you go online for a quote. Make sure you get a gap insurance policy to cover any shortfall between the insurance company write off valuation and the cost of a replacement vehicle though (I would recommend ALA and you can get a discount through this forum)

I read up a lot of information on the Piston Heads Website re leasing and saw some horror stories on the problems with Insurance Companies and not paying out the full value of the car plus people losing a lot of money on their initial deposits, I have gone with Totallossgap.co.uk who were recommended to me, it was a fair bit cheaper even taking into account the 10% discount. I paid £99.00 for 2 years cover including the initial deposit.

Can I ask if you have a link to it? I would like to do some reading.
I'm guessing it might be with smaller companies, or companies that doesn't replace new with new in the first place?

The problem came about when one of the Forum users had his house broken into and 2 expensive cars were stolen, one of them was a high spec Tuareg which had a list price of around £50K, his initial deposit was around £3K and although the car was only a few months old the payout from the Insurance Company was nowhere the £50K. Luckily he had GAP insurance which made up the shortfall but he didn't have the extra insurance that covered his initial deposit so at this point he was £3K down and no car. There is a 34 page thread to his story so I having read this I opted for the combined GAP Insurance that covers everything, believe me this is the first time I have ever taken out GAP Insurance but most of the PH forum members on the leasing thread seem to have taken GAP Insurance up.

 

[plusmore]

I have had insurance on my Personal Contract Hire car through both Aviva and Direct Line who are happy to insure lease vehicles and I always get gap insurance through ALA (ala.co.uk) via Quidco to get the cashback.

 

[gareth78]

I've gone with gapinsurance123, £199, 4 years cover, maximum payout £25,000.

With regard to having a full first year replacement with you insurance i did some reading on this, since you are generally only able to take out GAP insurance on a new car, most of the GAP insurance companies recognise you have a full replacement on your standard car insurance so allow you to defer the start of the gap insurance for up to a year. Hence if you want 3 year cover, take 2 and defer for a year relying on you standard insurance in year 1 and gap in year 2 and 3.

Personally i would only go for return to invoice cover but since my last car was written off and can very much see the value in it.

 

[plusmore]

If you have a lease or Contract Hire vehicle you can get a specific version of gap insurance for them (as opposed to a PCP or regular purchase) as you need it to cover your rental payments for the full duration of the lease/Hire deal rather than the the invoice value of the car purchased by the lease company fleet team.

 

[Lawrie]

M&S don't insure leases where the lease company is the registered keeper. I had to cancel my insurance with them for this reason when I took out my first lease three years ago.

If VWFS are leasing you the car THEY will be the registered keeper. They keep the V5. Make sure you get the right policy!!!

 

[hmrc804]

I didn't know that at first too, I thought I was the registered keeper but like you said I've not seen the V5 and it is with VWFS.
Updated my insurance policy to reflect that so i'm glad they are ok with the change.