Ridiculous insurance renewal costs

[ColinS]

As a pre-cursor to my renewal, I got this from LV yesterday:

Dear Colin,
Before you receive your LV= Motor insurance renewal quote, we wanted to let you know about a new regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The change means we need to make sure your price is the same or cheaper than if you were a new customer with us. And that’s exactly what we’ll do when we calculate your upcoming renewal.
We’ll calculate your price:
•   on exactly the same cover you have today, including any add-ons
•   using the personal information we hold on your current policy, like your date of birth and occupation
•   compared to a new customer price on the same day your renewal was generated
Your renewal price could still go up or down depending on a variety of things like the cost of repairs, or if you’ve made any claims.
If you compare your renewal to a new price from us, they may be different if you've changed things like; voluntary excess, annual mileage, any add-ons, personal information such as your occupation, how you use your vehicle and how you set up your policy (e.g. online or over the phone).
You can be sure your renewal won't be more than if you were a new customer with us, based on exactly the same cover you have today.
You don’t need to do anything just now; your renewal invite will be with you shortly.
If you want to know more, we’ve put together a helpful summary for all our customers at LV.com/gi/fca-faqs
Kind regards,
Heather Smith
Managing Director, LV= General Insurance Retail

[Kremmen]

Yes, I got one of those

[Lord Voltermore]

NFU are quite picky about who they will cover  (NFU - National Farmers Union).  They are really only interested in customers in rural areas,  so anyone with a city postcode is likely to be rejected.  They won't even quote for me,  and I live in as rural an area as you can get,  but my postcode is shared with my nearest big town.

Postcodes    Its a shame that changing your house name to "FarNorthJazz Farm " wouldnt work  .
Cherry picking clients has its appeal if you are a  chosen one 

[sportse]

Although insurance groups are supposed to be standard, I think each insurer has their own internal weighting.

Aviva told me they rank the Jazz at group 40 instead of the official group 20 - maybe because they have had some claims and seen the price of parts?

£2,300 for an infotainment control unit is crazy when you can get a quality tablet that's larger, has higher resolution and more processing power for a retail price of around £300.

For the insurers charging £200-£250, that wouldn't even cover the cost of two plastic wheel trims if there was a claim

Aviva weren't even interested in looking at the price and if they could reduce it, although I had been with them for some years. It was just, here's the price... go away if you don't like it!

[BROC]

At the prices being quoted for spare parts, I can see more cars being 'written off' sooner as uneconomic to repair in the event of accidents.

[sportse]

At the prices being quoted for spare parts, I can see more cars being 'written off' sooner as uneconomic to repair in the event of accidents.

Yes, it's quite likely.

At least on the Jazz we have a separate screen and buttons for the climate control.

On some other cars I've had, the climate controls/window heaters/defrost were all through the central infotainment screen so you would lose all of those when the infotainment screen fails.

[DERMOT]

LV quote for Jazz  £192 today, compared with 10 yr old fiesta at £167.  Last year DirectLine was <£200 comp, £210 for comp + (European cover etc).
So don't think that that the Jazz is hard to insure. 
I would have thought insurance would be ahead of the lack to charge more to cover for inflation, cost of replacement cars.

[Kremmen]

£200 

Mine is nearer £400 due to a greater London postcode. Direct Line wanted nearer £600. That was even though I'd been with DL for 24 years and never claimed.

[sportse]

It does seem to vary a lot between insurers, with some charging large amounts.

What surprised me was that Aviva/SAGA wanted more for a Jazz than for a Polo GTI.

[Dtp5130]

I renewed my insurance with LV= at the start of this month. It had only increased by around £30 from last year.
I paid £342 for fully comp, me and the "missus" to drive with an annual mileage of 10K. Cover included legal, hire car and NCB protection.
My car is a Jazz Crosstar which I bought in October 2021.
Out of interest Saga quoted me £700 odd for exactly the same cover...so I'm quite happy

[Beaver]

I pick up my EX next week.   Admiral have quoted an increase of about £55 annually for the new model.

[Lord Voltermore]

At the prices being quoted for spare parts, I can see more cars being 'written off' sooner as uneconomic to repair in the event of accidents.

And more cars being stolen to strip for those parts.     Not Just Honda .  There is a you tube video of someone blowing up his  Tesla  with high explosives  because the cost of mechanical repairs exceeded its value. .  A bit of a stunt. The budget also  ran to hiring a helicopter to film it  (it wasnt just a drone)

My hope is the silly costs of replacing certain parts  after warranty  will see the emergence of third party alternatives  ,and businesses able to repair  them at sensible prices.  Or if  Honda really hold a monopoly and its  impossible to repair them at less than £2300,  there is an incentive to make  a compatible new  alternative.
     
In electronics some of the 'big names' make components used by many other lesser known brands and common to a variety of applications.  . LG supply the  flat screens used by many other TV brands.     Top premium brands sometimes include components made by  other lesser known makers,or supply some of the parts used by lesser makers.  The entry level TV's sold by some top brands under their own name  are in reality made by someone else entirely using the same components as a TV that could be bought much cheaper.   I'm not sure Sony play this game, but you cant always be sure what you are getting. 
 
I am not an electonics expert  but once saved myself £400 buying a new   flat screen TV  by replacing a sound card circuit board  that only cost me £10. It was widely used in a variety of TV makes and sizes.
And I  once replaced a leaking rubber shaft seal on a  washing machine.  Whirlpool wanted £25 for the 'original part'  .    I soon found they themselves had  used one from a third party maker, readily  available from bearing suppliers  for 90p  .   Is it a coincidence they also wanted 10% of the price of a new machine? 

we may find that under the skin  the infotainment and camera systems used by Honda in reality use parts common to lots of other cars and devices.   

[jaytee]

i cancelled my auto renew policy with Esure after a few years, I went online and applied to same and my offer was £75 pounds less, same details etc. It was convenient to auto renew but never again,dont know why they dont value loyal customers.

[Kremmen]

I don't understand it either.

I was with Direct Line since 1988, never claimed so I was money in the bank and the annual quotes were acceptable but they hiked my last renewal quote by just over 30% so I left.

As their expiry got closer they flooded me with emails that got stronger with each one telling me I wouldn't be insured, etc, etc, so I phoned them to tell them I hadn't forgotten to renew but gone elsewhere and saved £ hundreds.

They said I should have phoned and they would have reduced the quote. I told them they should have done that before posting it.

[R2D3]

i cancelled my auto renew policy with Esure after a few years, I went online and applied to same and my offer was £75 pounds less, same details etc. It was convenient to auto renew but never again,dont know why they dont value loyal customers.

That's actually illegal now - they have to offer the same terms for new and existing customers.