Sage advice - csar insurance

[Gryffindor]

Okay, not necessarily Berlingo related but this may be useful to know.

I have just changed the car on my policy - or at least I tried to but Swinton refused to quote for the replacement car!

They contacted other insurers for me who came up with a quote of around £850. For a 2008 C4GP!!! I had been paying less than £300 for my little Berlingo.

So I began the long tedious trawl today of getting online comparison quotes. After a couple of hours of repetitive typing I managed to get a quote about £680.
Every time, I asked why this car was so expensive to insure, and why Swinton would not insure it. Not one of them could offer a reason.

Almost as a last resort, I tried a local insurance broker. What a breath of fresh air! So much easier than all that online typing! And he came up with a quote of about £595 fully comp.

Then the final question  - why so expensive? "Oh that's easy" the guy said. "It's because yours is the seven seater model. Cars with seven seats have far more insurance claims than cars with fewer seats."

So now you know too. Buyer beware!

[notsofast]

"Cars with seven seats have far more insurance claims than cars with fewer seats."

Must be all the screaming kids in the back, distracting the driver.......

[cancunia]

Interesting stuff, and there was me looking out for a Berlingo XL! Maybe if you removed 2 of the seats?

[geoff]

Maybe if you removed 2 of the seats?

 No good as the insurers calculate on V5 details

[Gryffindor]

It's doubly painful for me as I only went for this 7-seater for other reasons - condition, history, mileage, dealer fb - and would much rather have had the 5-seater version. That's because on the C4GP the spare wheel is stored under the boot floor on the 5-seat models, but doesn't exist on the 7-seat models because the 3rd row of seats fold into that space.

I have no choice but to keep for now, but I will keep it tidy, treat it to a cambelt when service time comes, and resell it in 1 or 2 years.

[Gryffindor]

PS re removing seats - about a decade ago I had a 15-seat Tranny minibus, as you do. I had to insure it as a minibus even though I had removed most of the seats (3 of the 5 rows). But just before it died (rust) I found out that if I removed the seats, had the bolt holes welded up so the seats could not be reinstalled, and had the work inspected and verified (I forget how now - at a PSV MOT station?), then the bus could be reclassified as a van, and so get lower insurance.

[ffrenchie]

I had the same problem with a Nissan Vannette with rear seats and windows which was a factory option. In the end I went to the Co-op insurance who were £400 cheaper than anywhere else.

[Gryffindor]

Must be all the screaming kids in the back, distracting the driver.......

I was thinking that too - but see this new thread:

https://www.berlingoforum.com/thread-22175.html

Oooer!

I wonder how many kids ARE put in these seats?

The back row in my C4GP wouldn't fit anyone bigger than kids...

[notsofast]

Odd that they've installed a row of seats if they don't meet a certain safety standard.  Les Dawson would've probably said they're mother-in-law seats.......  

When I bought my new van one of the things that deterred me from buying the extended version was that it has a slightly reduced max payload (950 kg as opposed to 1000 kg on the standard length version), which made me think it's probably just been 'stretched' and isn't as robust.

[Gryffindor]

Mmmm... reduced payload... and then put two m-i-ls in the back too... that's make an interesting episode of Last of the Summer Wine!