General Classic Insurance for Classic Panda!

[Phiz]

You are probably correct about age coming into it, (I'm a coffin dodger at 73!). Also, this is not my main car and it is garaged at night.
Another interesting fact; My last Panda, bought on Ebay for £2700, as it was in good nick, was insured with NFU Mutual. Unfortunately, I wrote it off! NFU paid my £6000 because there was no 'like for like', as the policy stated they would replace my car with. When the NFU and I searched the Internet, the only other Panda Country Club, in the same nick, was in Italy. That's why I went to Italy and paid the ridicules price of 8500 euro for the one I now own. At the time of purchase, 8500 euro equalled £6300. I provided my current insurer with proof of purchase and a few photos to get the agreed valuation. In truth my car has still cost me the original £2700 and a holiday in Italy.
I can't wait to write it off and get my money back!!! (joke)
Keith

I wonder at what point insurance starts going back up again? When I was 18 I remember thinking about how cheap insurance would be when I was in my 30's and it just doesn't seem to have happened!

Our Panda will be garaged, 4 miles from home and we have a regular modern car, though only one between us. We only need one though really as we live and work together so it's rare we would both need a car at the same time (and even then my motorbike steps in!).

Nice to hear about insurance actually working for someone, I did pretty well with an insurance breakdown policy putting me in a hotel in Nice, sorting me a hire car for a week and then flying me home once, but nothing on a Panda based upgrade

 

[FDNY21]

As a 17 year old, I paid £1k for the Panda Fizz, fully comp 1 year with almost 10k miles allowed, and £400 for the Sisley - fully comp, 7 months with about 5k miles allowed I believe. I could have bought another lush Panda for that 1.4k

Just the way it goes for young drivers, doubt I'll be able to get onto any classic policy for a few years... Pandas are my daily drivers too so that narrows me down a lot as well!

Lots of stuff comes into it, glad to hear you got a cheaper quote, hopefully I can get onto them one day as well

 

[Phiz]

As a 17 year old, I paid £1k for the Panda Fizz, fully comp 1 year with almost 10k miles allowed, and £400 for the Sisley - fully comp, 7 months with about 5k miles allowed I believe. I could have bought another lush Panda for that 1.4k

Just the way it goes for young drivers, doubt I'll be able to get onto any classic policy for a few years... Pandas are my daily drivers too so that narrows me down a lot as well!

Lots of stuff comes into it, glad to hear you got a cheaper quote, hopefully I can get onto them one day as well

Yeah insurance premiums can be pretty shocking, I could buy a house with the amount I've paid in insurance over the years! You might well find you can get some other form of specialist policy despite your age, think from looking through forum Dragon Man changed to a 'modified' policy to get off standard insurance premiums? Might even be a 4x4 policy out there for the Sisley?

 

[onemanmade]

You are probably correct about age coming into it, (I'm a coffin dodger at 73!). Also, this is not my main car and it is garaged at night.
Another interesting fact; My last Panda, bought on Ebay for £2700, as it was in good nick, was insured with NFU Mutual. Unfortunately, I wrote it off! NFU paid my £6000 because there was no 'like for like', as the policy stated they would replace my car with. When the NFU and I searched the Internet, the only other Panda Country Club, in the same nick, was in Italy. That's why I went to Italy and paid the ridicules price of 8500 euro for the one I now own. At the time of purchase, 8500 euro equalled £6300. I provided my current insurer with proof of purchase and a few photos to get the agreed valuation. In truth my car has still cost me the original £2700 and a holiday in Italy.
I can't wait to write it off and get my money back!!! (joke)
Keith

this is one of the coolest storys ive ever heard

"particular model i wanted was in Italy, so i went there to get it"

awesome

 

[FDNY21]

Yeah insurance premiums can be pretty shocking, I could buy a house with the amount I've paid in insurance over the years! You might well find you can get some other form of specialist policy despite your age, think from looking through forum Dragon Man changed to a 'modified' policy to get off standard insurance premiums? Might even be a 4x4 policy out there for the Sisley?

Hmm, modified with Adrian Flux was no help as they wanted 3k for just the red one, Admiral was better as it was multicar and mods could be added to the policy for a fee and they don't charge too extortionately for them compared to others, still a bummer though. Did plenty of research when trying to get a quote and Admiral always came up cheapest! Don't think it gets much cheaper until those specialist policies think you're old enough

If you find anything crazy cheap for someone under 20 then give me a buzz

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Typical, normally adding a lady driver to your policy is a good thing, seemingly not so in our case.

Not since gender nutural came in.

Well.

I took out a normal fully comp' policy with my 1981 MG Midget as I had modified the car. Chrome bumper conversion and wire wheels. A few months down the line I swapped the Midget for a 1979 BGT.

I also swapped the policy and was not informed verbally that the new car would be insured as a "Classic" as it was a 79 and not an 81 so I would no longer be covered to drive other vehicles when I changed the policy over the phone.

I was informed an hour after I was hit head on by a pillock overtaking on a blind bend driving my dads car.

No insurance IN10 and because I was driving an uninsured vehicle the collision was my fault as well.

This wouldn't be the case, liability and wether you're insured are two different things. You're not automatically at fault just because you're insured. Must be a lot more to this than meets the eye.

 

[Liquid Knight]

The main argument was if I knew I was not covered I would not have driven the car and therefore not occupied that space in that time. The overtake would have been just as reckless but the outcome would have been significantly different. Simple logic.

Even though I had been riding bikes for twelve years I was still considered an inexperienced driver and up against someone who had been driving for twenty odd years, the cyclist who was being overtaken failed to appear in court and no dash cameras back then meant it was my inexperienced word against his. Turns out he had three separate injury claims for collisions in the three years leading up to the one he had with me and had served time for theft, aggravated theft, fraud and theft by deception (so not a very good thief turned insurance fraudster) but as he was not "the accused" it was not deemed relevant to the case. (I have been keeping tabs on him and his last two claims were thrown out because he was on some kind of insurance watch list and they investigated it properly. He has also spent more time in prison for ABH. Nice guy all round eh?)

My taking out a loan and selling my MGB to replace both cars was considered an admission of guilt. I did admit to not being insured but was not allowed to explain the circumstances until mitigation. Even then...

"Ignorance is no defense".

I did well in court to only get a two month ban, no fine and no points but it has financially crippled me, ruined my credit rating as MIB sold the debt to a collector who I was paying only to find it had been passed on to another firm and without my knowledge took the debt to a County Court on the other side of the country. The first I knew about it was a letter from the court demanding an attachment of earnings order was made. No communication with the second firm or court what so ever. :bang:

So yeah, there was more to it. I kept it relevant to the thread and the fantastic service I got from Footman James.