Warning to those that dont declare mods to insurance

[RedRobin]

Tuners getting involved in this will only end up damaging their own industry.

....I don't agree. The point of any ECU investigation is to ascertain/confirm if such mods are existent when they have not been declared. If tuners are seen to be helpful in this their products will be better known by insurers and potentially more readily accepted.

[stealthwolf]

not much. mine went up by around £50 with all my mods

+1. I had a £50 premium for Stage 1, which I thought was pretty good.

I bet if I modded my car with Porsche breaks brakesmy insurance would go up but is my car not safer?

It is but only if the insurer is modfriendly. Remember the hoo-haa about winter tyres? I'm not sure about the other specialist insurance companies but I remember sky insurance stated there was no premium loading for safety mods such as brakes.

And what happens to those people who have no idea there car has had mods in the past?

and what happens iof i brought the car second hand and they didnt tell me or no themselves the car was mapped?? - same with things like non standard filters, unless your told about them, or you change them yourself your never likely to no about them untill your next service??

The onus is on the buyer to check the car is unmodified. I remember hearing about a guy who had fitted an aftermarket filter to his car, sold on the car which was then bought by a girl. The girl had no ideas about mods/tuning and thought it was a standard car. It was involved in an accident and the insurers got someone to check the car over. They discovered the aftermarket air filter, told the girl it hadn't been declared and hence her policy was void. The girl then went back to the guy who said "sold as seen" (though he had given them the service history which included the invoice for the air filter).

not being funny but if a cars been crashed bad enough for the insurers to investigate it, is it likely that it will run on a dyno??

and i thought it was hard to tell if a car had a map on it or altered software, thought this was one of the plus points for a map?? esp for cars under warrenty

I know VW can spot modified ECUs but only if they deliberately look for it. Why would you want to hide the fact that the car has had a remap? Unless you intend on not declaring it to the insurers? As for the dyno, could they not take the engine out and dyno it (provided it was intact)?

[Poverty]

Tuners getting involved in this will only end up damaging their own industry.

....I don't agree. The point of any ECU investigation is to ascertain/confirm if such mods are existent when they have not been declared. If tuners are seen to be helpful in this their products will be better known by insurers and potentially more readily accepted.

I think thats naive thinking tbh, insurers are only after one thing, and I dont blame them because its business.

[dnLcal]

I know that if you read the map on REVO maps they put a footer in it with the words REVO TECNIK. so with readily availble software and the correct OBD2 cable it takes seconds for anyone with a bit of nouse to see if a car has had a remap by any of the large tuning companies.

Havent modified my ED30 but i would declare mods on it (as i did with previous cars) as its my pride and joy and i want it to be legitimately insured!

Cal

[Hurdy]

I've always declared all my mods. No point otherwise at my age

Most of you knew how much modification I had done on the ED30 and even with the nitrous I only paid £520 fully comp with no claims protected

I can see why the younger ones on here may be tempted to not disclose mods on their cars as insurance for them can be horrendously expensive..........however I would not condone it in the slightest as if they are involved in an accident where they have injured a third party the consequences in terms of fines, being sued and even possibly a jail sentence are unthinkable.

[RedRobin]

I can see why the younger ones on here may be tempted to not disclose mods on their cars as insurance for them can be horrendously expensive..........however I would not condone it in the slightest as if they are involved in an accident where they have injured a third party the consequences in terms of fines, being sued and even possibly a jail sentence are unthinkable.

....Absolutely! If a third party has serious injuries or even loses their life and you are found to have an invalid insurance, you are in very very serious trouble indeed and possibly facing a custodial sentence. It's a thin line and gone are the days (as in my youth) when you could get away with all sorts.

[gazbutS3]

Declare your mods, most members know my modded ED30 met an early demise and if I hadn't declared the mods I would have been right up sh1t creek, so tell your insurance everythin, if they don't like it, find an insurance company that does

I'm 38 and payin a fortune because of that bump but it could have been much much worse

[cmdrfire]

ID TELL THEM TO FUUUUUK OFF!!! the police can go buy their own rolling road, they have enough cash! and just to point out, that this post may put people off coming to your garage for mods.

I didnt declare 1 of my mods on my last car! even had a ed 30 engine put in, simply because i didnt want to spend 10k per year on insurence.

que lots of negative comments..... dont care, i know LOTS of people on here who do the same as me! youd be supprised. im only saying this now because i have an r32, anybody who knows anything about cars knows there's no point in a remap!! 

1) If the Police buy their own dyno then it will be done with OUR (including yours) tax money. (You do pay tax, right...?) Sometimes outsourcing to a third party is more cost effective. Whether there's someone willing to take up the work is an entirely separate matter.

2) As I understand it, if you do not declare modifications, then the vehicle is likely to be classed as not insured, and possibly even classed as incorrectly registered (IIRC). Furthermore, I (and others) have to pay more for our insurance because people like you do not declare (it drives everyone's premium up). I don't like paying insurance - hell, I don't even like insurance companies, or the law that requires insurance* - but this nevertheless is the way things work.


*I dislike the law that insists on insurance because it is effectively a government-sponsored cartel with a licensed monopoly. It's a good business to be in, if your customers have to purchase your service or be prosecuted. Pricing is effectively set by a handful of reinsurers - hence the cartel. They do some sums and arrive at some rather arbitrary figures which dictate what the rest of the market can charge you - and of course, none of the other reinsurers will do anything to encourage price-cutting. By keeping things complicated, no one can effectively argue against said practice. But I digress.

[vRStu]

Who has been asking Dave??

I don't think that you need to be a rocket scientist to have realised that forum sponsored insurance companies will be assessing the clients via their postings.

I think your average ned who ram raids Halfrauds with his Nova/Corsa wouldn't even comprehend that he'd need to inform his insurance company.

[vRS Carl]

Your insurance doesn't always go up. It depends on your situation.

My insurance went down when i had my remap done. I was with More Than and they wouldn't entertain me so i went to Adrian Flux. Even now with all my mods im paying £78 less per year than when i had the car standard. Despite my actual insurance premiums going up as i have progressed mod wise.

[S2 Ant]

ID TELL THEM TO FUUUUUK OFF!!! the police can go buy their own rolling road, they have enough cash! and just to point out, that this post may put people off coming to your garage for mods.

I didnt declare 1 of my mods on my last car! even had a ed 30 engine put in, simply because i didnt want to spend 10k per year on insurence.

que lots of negative comments..... dont care, i know LOTS of people on here who do the same as me! youd be supprised. im only saying this now because i have an r32, anybody who knows anything about cars knows there's no point in a remap!!  

Its attitudes like this that piss me off....  If you cant afford to insure the car properly, then you cant afford the car, simple. Just because you know others that do the same, does that make it ok then? Or does that just mean you know a bunch of dicks as well as not insuring your car properly?!

I dont particularly want to pay for my insurance either, nor the road tax that comes with having a car given the state of the roads but its still paid. I dont like insurers as much as the next person with the rates they charge especially given the total lack of sense that sometimes comes with it, but thats part and parcel of running a car whether you like it or not.

Maybe im in the minority by declaring mods for my cars over the years, and ive had quite a few now, all of which pretty heavily modified with engine changes and the like, but rather that than get screwed cos someone crashes in to me and im not covered and get banged up or some huge fine that i spend the next 20yrs paying

[andrewparker]

You'll have to ignore him Ant, Joe is above the law

[GTIite]

With the Revo if you have the control box you can change between the standard map and the Revo map. If your running the standard map on the road and using the Revo for track days would this still count as a mod that needs to be declared?

[S2 Ant]

With the Revo if you have the control box you can change between the standard map and the Revo map. If your running the standard map on the road and using the Revo for track days would this still count as a mod that needs to be declared?

I'd assume not as if you'd been involved in an accident and they tried to imply it was tuned you could get them to test the ECU or engine to verify and prove it wasnt running a tuned map - even if its at your own expense, altho, bit catch 22, if the ECU was removed to be checked, REVO loses its setting anyway as the power would be cut to it. Either way, i'd mention it to see what they say.

[Hedge]

With the Revo if you have the control box you can change between the standard map and the Revo map. If your running the standard map on the road and using the Revo for track days would this still count as a mod that needs to be declared?

Actually you are using the Revo equivalent of the standard map so your car is still non-OEM therefore modified.