Quote: Originally posted by omega I have put down on my quote (cooper) that the car is worth £15000. It will be picked up with it on, so as far as I'm concerned it hasn't been 'modified'.
You've just said it yourself. Your car is modified. The critical question is something like: "Is the vehicle modified from the manufacturers standard specification?" This would mean the bog standard £11,300 base price of a Cooper. It doesn't matter what figure you think the car is worth - it's more for the Insurer to get an idea of the maximum replacement value that they may need to budget for.
BIG WARNING:
A lot of Insurers have been stung in the past insuring cars worth £3-4k. They then accept an additional premium for say insuring a set of 18" wheels and tyres not realising until a claim that the set of replacement wheels and tyres for essentially a heap is going to be £2k.
A lot of Insurers have added a clause that says that in the event of a claim or total loss, they will only pay out to return the car to the manufacturers standard spec - so theoretically they could replace your £15k optioned to the max with a bog standard Cooper.
One of the worst Insurers indulging in this practice is Admiral who also own Bell Direct and Diamond amongst a few others. Therefore PLEASE PLEASE read the Policy Document online before accepting the quote.
Insurance is loaded against the customer, you need to minimise that and control the Insurers. I always give a full spec sheet to the insurers and include basic stuff like carpet mats, alloy tax disc holder, mini2.com sticker on rear window, first aid kit.
