Don't recall seeing the topic covered on here lately. No shortage of firms offering it on the net. My dealer did recently (I believe it was a 3 year plan and was about £600) and I declined - as I always have done. Admittedly, only been buying new cars since 1984 - the previous 15 years or so was limited to used...but never, actually, needed it. Did once have a 12 month old car stolen but the insurer paid out the full replacement cost - some (most?) companies do seem to offer new car replacement up to a year old.
Would be pleased to know if anyone does.
|
MB tried to sell it to me too when I picked up my new car; never bothered with it in the past and so didn't take them up on their kind offer. I'm with you; most policies give you new for old in year 1 anyway, so you're insuring the risk of completely writing the car off in years 2 and 3 - pretty unlikely, and not worth £5/600 of my money I don't think. An ordinary insurance policy would payout enough to replace like for like, which is good enough for me
Peter
|
Interesting thing, GAP Insurance.
I know someone who had it on a new car, then had a big accident in it. The car was scheduled to be a write-off, until it was discovered that it had GAP insurance on it. The owner was told (all unofficially of course), that because of the GAP insurance, pressure was bought to bear to fix up the car so that the GAP insurers didn't have to pay anything.
The car was repaired, rather than being written off.
Pure coincidence, of course. ;-)
Last edited by: Londoner on Fri 4 Nov 11 at 17:59
|
Sounds like the car insurance and GAP insurance company had the same holding company. My cousin wrote of his used Astra, didn't have GAP and was several £1k out of pocket.
Paid around £150 for the GAP for my brand new Panda.
|
|
I still don't really get why people take out credit on cars. I'd sooner buy a cheaper car for cash or keep the old one than borrow against something which depreciates so quickly. I know there are arguments for and against but something deep inside me won't let me do it.
|
It can be a lot cheaper. My Panda is cheaper than that 10 year old Corsa was plus at the end of it I will end up with a 4 year old car. There has been just two days I've had to write off due to the car, (one for service, the other for a warranty claim) with my Corsa it was in the garage every month.
Far too much risk with old bangers, and some people like me end up with all the lemons.
That said for my dad the Fiesta has worked out a lot cheaper than getting a loan for a newer car.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 5 Nov 11 at 00:26
|
>> I'd sooner buy a cheaper car for cash or keep the old one than borrow against something which
>> depreciates so quickly. I know there are arguments for and against but something deep inside
>> me won't let me do it.
>>
+1
|
>> Paid around £150 for the GAP for my brand new Panda.
>>
The thing is though Rattle, all you're insuring is the difference between what the standard motor insurance pays out based on the value of the car and the price you paid for it new.
Assuming that the term of the policy is three years, and a three year old Panda is worth c. 50% of its new cost, and the new car was £7k (all guesses, but not far off hopefully), then you're paying £150 for a max payout of £3,500. Odds wise that's around 1:23. Do you think the chances of you writing of a car are greater than that...
Now it might make more sense on more expensive cars, but the brief research I did indicated that most policies had a max payout of £25k, and that these cost around £500. So still odds of 1:50 of writing the car off. And the more the car is worth the less likely it is to be written off...
Peter
|
Don't forget when I got the car I was very inexperienced, I had done less than 2500 miles without L plates at that time.
Just took some of the pressure of driving a brand new car for the first time.
|
|
Like all insurance its value depends on whether you would find the loss financially catastrophic whatever the likelihood of the event. Thus insurance can be a good idea to one person but unnecessary to someone else. Generally the poorer you are the more insurance is a good idea.
|
>> Like all insurance its value depends on whether you would find the loss financially catastrophic
Very good point, and that's the crux of why I think its a waste of money. It's never going to be financially catastrophic if the car is written, since a standard insurance policy will pay you what the car was worth, so you'll always be in a position to buy a car similar to the one you had. You just won't be able to buy a brand new one, but then you didn't have a brand new one at the time anyway!!
|
|
It's also worth checking your insurance policy carefully. Most insurers, but not all, replace the car with a new one if it is written off in the first year, a few say tough, and a few replace for two years. NFU Mutual do two years I know.
|
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=4669&v=f
Previous discussion on the subject, coincidentally about this time last year.
I am still in the camp that its a good idea - if the premium is right. But that can be attributable to any insurance!
|
The deals discussed here seem to be about 'new for old'. The other, more worrying, GAP is that between the insurance payout and outstanding finance etc on a purchase with borrowed money.
Well worth considering I'd have thought.
|
GAP Insurance cover. - PeterS
