Paul P

i consider every question asked by an insurance company to be a potential trap and they are fastidious when it comes to compiling your "big picture" - but not so much the other way around.... I have a multicar policy all the family plus the dog's car 5 in total - I used to have an Audi A4, about 18 months after I sold it, and took it off the policy I got a letter from my insurer telling me they had opened a claim regarding the undeclared incident with "my car". I called and inquired and they were vague.... the incident was I had hit a parked car, in a place I had never been to on a day I was about 150 miles away from..... more questions, and it was "the Audi" - I said I didn't own or insure an Audi with them, they replied, oh it must be one you are a named driver on...... I asked again for more details - suggesting that they were referring to the Audi I used to own - they then confirmed the reg..... I pointed out again that it was not insured by me with them and they said "can you prove you sold it" - to which I replied - yes, but ownership isn't the issue, its more the proof that I don't have it insured - to that end here is your email confirm the change of vehicle and your email confirming the vehicles covered. They said I had to prove I didn't own it - I replied that I didn't own most of the millions of cars in the UK - would they like proof for EVERY car I didn't own and didn't insure, if they didn't mind hanging on the phone for the next 5 years I would run through all the cars I saw that I didn't own. At that point they said "ok our mistake, our system just gave your name as the insured for this car"... so either they hadn't ever taken it off risk or the new owner had never insured it...." - I got written confirmation that it was nothing to do with me and moved on, expecting it to come up again at some point because they are simply a law unto themselves - I hope one day the motor insurance industry and the "approved repairers - owned by insurance companies, who inflate the repair prices" get the same reaming that the banks had.

How do you get on with picking up "switched power" and "lights on" without a canbus adapter - I didnt think those were available in the standard loom?

Glad its sorted - interesting there's something unusual in the original setup - the DRL's on 987.2 as standard are the thin LED strips at the bottom of the foglights - but there is a PIWIS coding setup that changes that to side lights - I have seen one car coded like that - and now it seems there is the same config on yours - I wonder what/why/when that is different.

Sounds right - I have PDLS / Xenon on my current car - and the DRL's are pretty bright on their own - I have to say I haven't checked what "sides" actually are but for sure there's less light for sides than DRL's. I wonder ( and it's easy to check now I think about it ) what happens at the front when the rear fogs are on - since there's no actual front fogs with xenons/pdls on the .2 ......

They do. It's a different light if you have xenons/pdls ( you don't have front fogs with that setup). The drls are the whole unit in that case. On standard lights the drl is a small led strip at the bottom (if I remember correctly). you can control them via the on board computer I have seen a couple of coding variations, one car had been coded with piwis to the side lights not the leds, another had the function removed from the menu on the cluster.

Thats an interesting point - council license them, council "own the pavements", so does the council have any liability here. As per others - if you have legal cover on the insurance then I would unleash the dogs and let them have their fun, you have given everyone a chance to play nicely.

Just pay the money - the insurance company will screw you for it if you claim - they don't have anyone else to blame so its straight out of their profits - they will increase the premium, and when you go for a quote next year all their insurance company mates will count it against you and they will want you to use "we - fix - a - lot " buy are owned by the insurance company repairs who will I tell you - " of course panel gap isnt the same, they dont line up properly in new cars anyway " Their ball, their rules and they are thieves.....

Pet hate of mine - so please excuse the rant...... Insuring the insurance by taking out more insurance - got to admire how the insurance industry gets away with it. Bit like the fact that a couple of the big insurance companies own the major body repair chains out there, and the ambulance chasing legal expenses cover outfits, so they can dictate what the going repair rate the public are quoted, what they actually pay, and who they chase to get their money back and if they have miscalculated then "its a write off and the book value is 10 quid" or "sorry you parked it 10 metres away from where you told is you would, we can't honour your claim" ... I feel better now

Nice write up. Thanks for sharing. @Araf move to “how to” ?

I get that the vehicle spec should be fact checked. A plan seem to do it differently to anyone else. ok. Point taken. As to the cyclic windscreen question once again the response has been WHO not WHAT but since i am not taking up the cover it’s no longer relevant to me I am sure A Plan provide a fantastic value for money service and deal with only the best insurers out there and their procedures are totally appropriate and for those that choose to take up the cover the exact terms of their insurance cover is clear to them.

Yeah. Ok. Many owners won’t. So ask “any modifications” then drill in. same as all the other the specialist insurers do. someone on this thread was rejected because they had spacers - which could even be a factory option. but that’s not rally the point. Still don’t know if I can have a Porsche windscreen let alone cover my nitrous supercharged cigarette lighter and the person I spoke to didn’t know either. I am not confortable with a broker who doesn’t understand the product they are selling if it works for anyone else great. it didn’t for me, and I won’t ask them again for slightly more money for slightly more restrictive conditions for potentially no better cover.

You really have to ask if a boxster is diesel ? Honestly - not had that from any other broker or insurance company, yes, some do say "2 door, 3.4ltr, uk car" ? but nobidy has ever asked the specific questions - OK, doesn't matter - it's just process, but it was a surprise. Yes - I called Thatcham. As to genuine parts - conversation went like this "If it needs a windscreen, will genuine porsche part be used" "The insurers say which places you can go" "Yes - they have approved fitters, but what part will be used" "We can ask them if you want to use somewhere else" "Don't care so much about who, it's what, say for example I have an accident and damage the suspension, do I get pressured into having "what Eurocarparts" have on the shelf, or do I get genuine parts" "I will ask the car parts people and phone you back" .... "I spoke to them and they said "yeah" That's the bit that didn't inspire confidence - I would expect that type of info to be essentially the value add of specialist insurance. So, if I was to take out insurance I would want that defined clearly, as part of the schedule of insurance exactly what the policy was on parts and which repairers, because honestly, there is no real point to specialist insurance if you don't get clarity on that kind of thing. For what it's worth - the wording in the quote I received specific to windscreens says Windscreen/Glass –unlimited cover provided our approved glass supplier is used and is subject to a standard compulsory windscreen excess That doesn't say "we will cover fitting a genuine manufacturer screen, that says "we will pay to put in what we think is fine" But - the quote was competitive, but not special, I am not confident in what the value add of the policy would be based on the above. Not a problem, but not for me.

Not a consistent thing I found over five insurance companies, the others managed to get all they needed from reg number. A plan were the only ones who asked those questions. Do they quote for many 5 door 7 seat boxster diesels or was it a test ? Others just said “uk car” ? A few reeled off the spec. even admiral were ok with the reg number and a confirmation that their lookup was the car I was talking about. Each to their own but other brokers were able to give specifics on repair and replacement cover as opposed to “yeah they said yeah” wouldn’t want to be having to remind the broker of what they committed the underwriter to in a phone call a good few months back if it mattered whilst i don’t equate cost to value also more mine than current insurer others are happy with what they got Great Just not for me

Was a bit surprised when the questions after reg number and “Porsche Boxster” went. “ how many doors?” “ how many seats” “petrol or diesel ?” didn’t feel that specialist to me. Quote was ok (10 quid more for essentially same as I have but I don’t currently have a mileage restriction ) but seemed to get complicated when I said “so if it needs a windscreen can I get a Porsche Oem one”. Took a good 10 minutes to explain I wasn’t asking where I got it fitted I was asking what would be offered after a check with the underwriters that came back as “ yeah they said yeah”, not exactly a firm contract then I said “ so if I hit a kerb and bent the suspension could I have genuine parts fitted”, “yeah they will be The right parts we will make a case for you” Not confidence inspiring so once again not this time, likely won’t ask again next year