Rip-Off-Britain re:Car Insurance

This is the Forum for all your Citroen Technical Questions, Problems or Advice.

Moderator: RichardW

Post Reply
B_Draper
Posts: 61
Joined: 16 Feb 2001, 17:51
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Rip-Off-Britain re:Car Insurance

Post by B_Draper »

I've been looking for insurance for my '94 ZX 1.9TD and the prices i've been receieving are nothing short of what I've come to expect of Rip-Off-Britain!!
I'm 23, 1 year NCD, had my license since 1996, live in the Wolverhampton area, no mods to the car, 1 accident - my fault (long story!)
Current insurers are Elephant.co.uk, but I'm expecting they won't be able to better the quote I recieved last year!
The cheapest quotes i've getting is approx £800 on TPF&T
My point is this - Does anyone know of insurers specialising in Citroens?
If not, do you know any decent! insurers for young drivers?
Cheers for any help in advance
Ben
NiSk
Posts: 1422
Joined: 24 Jan 2002, 20:11
Location: Sweden
My Cars:
x 1

Post by NiSk »

This doesn't solve your problem really, but my father (who has a ZX TD) found that the insurance for the exact same Peugeot (is it the 306/309?) was 20% cheaper than his Citroën! YOu could always try swapping badges!
//NiSk
B_Draper
Posts: 61
Joined: 16 Feb 2001, 17:51
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by B_Draper »

I've come to realise this as my mate has a Pug 306 TD as it seems to be a lot cheaper to insure - Unfortunately I don't have the financial means to change my car !
I can't figure out why this is as they are essentialy the same car (ie Same Chassis, Engine, Gearbox, etc) with a different suspension setup to each other - The Pug 306 has springs on the rear where the Cit ZX has Trailing/Torsion Bar setup - Sorry if my terminology is wrong, but I know they look vastly different !!
Ben
alab
Posts: 7
Joined: 06 Oct 2001, 21:29
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by alab »

I have a BX and an XM insured through Herts Insurance Consultants 08451 290 290. They have always beaten previous quotes for me by a lot, they are good on older cars. Could be worth a try. Hope this helps, Al
hardmanm
Posts: 73
Joined: 30 Jan 2002, 15:42
Location:
My Cars:

Post by hardmanm »

Tesco might be worth a try too, seriously they beat all quotes for me by a considerable margin.
Mark
Michael
Posts: 25
Joined: 11 Dec 2001, 01:35
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by Michael »

Try getting an online quote from www.tesco.co.uk, I saved nearly 40% on my insurance renewal with them, well worth a try
m chapman
JohnD
(Donor 2022)
Posts: 2632
Joined: 14 Mar 2001, 23:41
Location: Epsom, Surrey
My Cars: 2010 Citroen C5-X7 tourer
1998 Citroen Saxo 1.5D
2018 Citroen C4-B7
1998 Peugeot 306. 1.9D
2011 Citroen C1
x 72
Contact:

Post by JohnD »

I've never been able to understand why the insurance companies have such a down on Citroens. A few months ago my daughter saw a nice diesel Xsara she fancied. She phoned the insurance and was told what the premium would be on group 6. She finally bought a 306 with the same engine - a lower premium on group 4. Doesn't make sense!
B_Draper
Posts: 61
Joined: 16 Feb 2001, 17:51
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by B_Draper »

Thanks for all replies so far!
I agree that Citroens seem unfairly marked in the insurance game.
Whether the extra premium is forced because they seem to break down more often, I don't know.
What I care about is the fact that I feel I am getting ripped off left, right and centre for owning a Citroen.
While I'm having a bit of a moan here, there is another point I'd like to raise - Why can't there be a central database to be used for Insurance purposes only?
It should only hold the information required by insurers in order to work how much premium they would charge you. This way you don't have to repeat your personal information every time you ring up a compmny for a quote.
I'm not too sure where the Civil Liberties groups would sit on this as they were complaining about having a national ID card after the WTC tragedy. However I wouldn't mind my liberties infringed for this purpose though.
If you wish to respond, let me what your thoughts are!
PS: Apologies and thanks to Andy Spares for allowing me to type my tuppence worth!
Jon

Post by Jon »

Well, Bens got that off his chest! <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>
Couple of points. Traditionally, Citroens have been more expensive to insure due to the cost of replacement body and mechanical parts, also the labour costs to fit them, these costs are worked out at MRI at Thatcham who pass the estimated repair costs of a typical accident to the Insurers who use it to decide what insurance group a car is placed in.
As for the database, I admit that its a pain to enter your details every time you do an online quote. I have always assumed that this is because people's circumstances change, e.g. they get a conviction, or have an accident, or move house.So therefore maybe such a database will become inpractical.The only Insurers' database I know about is going to be held at the DVLA and Police will be able to access it with the vehicle registration number to check that the car is insured.
While we're on this subject, we moved house last week and my postcode changed from SN1 to SN3. This meant that my car insurance became £30 cheaper, despite the fact that the car is kept on an off road driveway at the old house and the new. Weird.
Jon Wood
IT Supervisor
GSF t/as Andyspares
alan s
RIP 2010
Posts: 2542
Joined: 26 Jan 2001, 15:53
Location: Australia
My Cars:
x 6

Post by alan s »

Living on the other side of the world, my hair stands on end at the size of insurance premiums over there.
Over here the same thing is starting but in other areas as the motor car is somewhat of a sacred cow over here due to the fact that option 2 is to bring our public transport up to world standards. I live about 3 miles from a major shopping centre and about 5 from the main business hub yet I need to travel by car at least 2 1/2 miles to access the nearest bus stop so as you can imagine, making car ownership too expensive an item is political dynamite.
Unfortunately we don't have enough Ralph Naders around to fight for a fair go and too many have been ridden into the ground by vested interests until they have lost interest due to lack of support caused through apathy.
As someone who just unashamedly cleaned up a major oil company out here recently, I would suggest that if you want to change things, lobby your local MP, embarrass any company caught out ripping off by informing any non-aligned media outlet with hard evidence that can be followed up (no rumours and inuendos) publicise things like the price to repair a Ford or Vauxhall after a prang in comparison to a Cit and the huge discrepancy in premium, after all, I would imagine an average BX repair would consist of using mainly second hand body panels etc. whereas the newer car wouldn't. The balance sheet of the insurance company and the size of payments and bonuses to senior executives always make good reading <img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle>
If enough Citroen owners made enough noise and embarrassed enough Politicians and big Insurance Companies particularly if as a show of support some big company made a gesture of changing companies in protest, you'd find these premiums would fall as sure as night follows day. I know some will argue but it doesn't matter where you are there are two common denominators to control; greed and politicians.
Alan S
Mikonood
Posts: 4
Joined: 14 May 2002, 01:00
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by Mikonood »

I have a 1996 Activa 2.0l turbo which was due its renewal early this month and received a massive 52% increase on the premium from NU drivers club.
I am 35 years old, no convictions, no accidents, married with 2 kids, 2nd car in family etc. etc. Pretty safe bet you'd think.
Insurance quote was over £600 Fully comp.
A friend suggested TESCO for a quote and I am now fully insured for £345 complete with all the frills. Excess is £150 and I have to pay for a green card when I go abroad but otherwise excellent.
Can't recommend them enough.
B_Draper
Posts: 61
Joined: 16 Feb 2001, 17:51
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by B_Draper »

Just an update
Going through Elephant again will cost me £575 fully comp for a year! Although this is higher than I wanted to pay, it is still cheaper by far than all of the online companies I've tried including Tesco who, on average quote me between 800 quid and a grand!
Might try calling them tomorrow to see if a verbal quote is cheaper than an online quote!
BLarwood
Posts: 4
Joined: 07 May 2002, 13:35
Location:
My Cars:

Post by BLarwood »

Hi,
I totally agree. Insurance companies seem to want to rip off all Citroen drivers. I currently own three citroens, my ZX cost 420 Fully Comp, my 2CV costs 120 TPF&T in my partners name, and my acadiane will cost approx 375 to insure TPF&T!!! because it is left hand drive.... :(
Ben
pwatson
Posts: 263
Joined: 22 Apr 2001, 03:02
Location: E Midlands
My Cars:

Post by pwatson »

Quite a lot of discussion on the BX site about insurance a while ago. There were some recommendations which might be worth following up since some were for 16v BX's and Turbo Ds. Why don't you post a message either to
http://www.bx16v.com/bx16v.htm
or
http://members4.boardhost.com/citroen_bx/
Phil
IanR
Posts: 89
Joined: 26 Apr 2002, 03:38
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:
Contact:

Post by IanR »

Tell me about it!
I got a surprise when I was quoted 50% more for the Xantia than for the BX it replaced, although the only real difference from an insurance point of view is the age of the car. The broker says that this is a general trend, and that I'm unlikely to do any better by changing company. Seems that for experienced drivers at least, they rate older cars as being less of an insurance liability, which is interesting.
Post Reply