A colleague has just bought a brand new Audi TT. Dealer is trying to push her GAP insurance.
I have looked at her own insurance and she is covered new for old for the first year.
So she is looking for new for old cover for the 2nd and 3rd years. And ideally not needing to actually take this insurance out until towards the end of the first year.
I will help with googling etc but has anyone any specific recommendations? Most seem to want you to pay up just now for it, even though you, in effect, will not be using or claiming against it for the first year?
(I read the other thread on GAP and interested to see that some ins companies cover you for the first 2 years on new for old as opposed to the majority only covering for one)
Any thoughts / recommendations?
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CSMA through Car Care Plan offers GAP insurance which, in the event of a vehicle write off, covers the financial shortfall between the purchase price (or vehicle value if you bought the car over a year ago) and your motor insurance settlement. Car Care Plan also sell GAP insurance over the web. Maximum shortfall covered is £ 10,000. Policies start from £ 169 for a three year policy, dependent on the value of the car.
I've bought GAP insurance through the CSMA for each of our new cars since 2001 (six cars).
If your colleague has a relative who is a member of the CSMA (i.e worked for the Civil Service or Post Office), she could purchase a policy through them. If she purchased the policy when the Audi is 11 months old, she should then get purchase price cover for three years - ie until the car is 3 yrs 11 mths old.
Alternatively she could get a quote for GAP insurance over the web and ask her dealer to match it - I have found that some dealers do quite readily.
I believe the AA does GAP as well.'Click4gap.co.uk' also offers GAP insurance from about £ 3.99 a month, compared to the AA which goes from £ 9.99 per month. I have no experience of these latter two.
Last edited by: Auristocrat on Wed 19 Jan 11 at 17:37
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Have done some quotes and the cheapest I can find is through AutoTrader Gap.
Purchase price of £28300, assuming that even towards the end of the 3rd year the car will still be worth more than £8300 means insuring for a max claim of £20k.
For that, the cost is £157 which, unless I am missing something, is excellent value and compares favourably to the £400 odds that I think the dealer was wanting!
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I have found previously that privately sourced GAP insurance is often half of what dealers charge. I've looked at the Autotrader GAP insurance and that appears very competitive.
Some dealers won't be able to match the Autotrader cost - some may.
For example when I bought my current Toyota in 2009, the dealer matched the cost of the GAP insurance without batting an eyelid.
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You can get it for 50% or less than dealers charge.
Only time we actually claimed was on a dealer policy from a company with a capital city in their name - they tried to wriggle out of part of claim and obbudsman found in their favour. Would not recommend them, others we have bought have not led to claim so cannot comment on how good the companies are.
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On what basis were they able to wriggle out of a claim?
From what I have read, GAP seems very black and white, especially for insurance?
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>> From what I have read, GAP seems very black and white, especially for insurance?
>>
Many stories on t'internet of GAP being a con.
I still so not see why people think it is worthwhile to pay the size of premium for the risk involved, or indeed why anyone wants such insurance - although I accept that some people may think they need it to protect against "negative equity" on finance deals.
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A colleague had his 18 month old car written off in a motorway accident back in December. No GAP insurance. Insurance have settled at market value - his outstanding finance has eaten up the settlement and he is left with no money to use as a deposit to buy a similar age car. He is now looking around for a banger.
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>> in December. No GAP insurance. Insurance have settled at market value - his outstanding finance
>> has eaten up the settlement and he is left with no money to use as
>> a deposit to buy a similar age car. He is now looking around for a
>> banger.
>>
No, there is no logic to that. He just needs to go and get new finance for a new car - as he had done before.
Last edited by: John H on Thu 20 Jan 11 at 18:40
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Whether or not there is logic to it - that is what has happened. If he wants another vehicle of a similar age, he is looking at a large amount on finance, which in today's economic climate he is not too keen on.
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I still do not see why people think it is worthwhile to pay the size of premium for the risk involved, or indeed why anyone wants such insurance - although I accept that some people may think they need it to protect against "negative equity" on finance deals.
For £157 I think it is great value to be able to get, in effect, new for old cover on your car for 3 years. A close to 30k car.
Do you have new for old policy on your house contents or have you specifically requested a policy that will replace your items for similar, used, old items?
Last edited by: BobbyG on Thu 20 Jan 11 at 20:51
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>> For £157 I think it is great value to be able to get, in effect,
>> new for old cover on your car for 3 years. A close to 30k car.
>>
No it is not insurance for £30k, it is just for the GAP, and only if your car gets written off - a very unlikely event. It is money for old rope. Why should anyone suddenly feel the need that the 2nd hand car they were quite happy with before it got written off must only be replaced by a brand new one, and that a like-for-like 2nd hand one is no good anymore just because the previous one got written off? Just plain bonkers to get insurance to cover a GAP on that basis. But then a fool and his/her money are easily parted.
>> Do you have new for old policy on your house contents or have you specifically
>> requested a policy that will replace your items for similar, used, old items?
>>
My contents policy is included with my buildings cover, and the contents part costs £50 pa for £40k of cover - including accidental damage. I would be quite happy to have it like for like, as I do not want any betterment cover. However, I did ask the insurance company about this when i renewed recently and they said they do not offer the like-for-like option, they only do new for old. They said that if they were to offer it, their quote would probably only be down by a couple pounds!
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>> >> For £157 I think it is great value to be able to get, in
>> effect,
>> >> new for old cover on your car for 3 years. A close to 30k
>> car.
>> >>
>> No it is not insurance for £30k, it is just for the GAP, and only
>> if your car gets written off - a very unlikely event. It is money for
>> old rope.
It may be a rare event but it happened to us, faced with an insurance payout of £9.5k for an 18 month old car which cost £17.5k the GAP payout was welcome - even if we did pay the dealers inflated price (since we have bought on the internet). It was a minor accident and the repairer's estimate was about 4k to fix but when the assessor was told it was an aluminium car he did nto want to know - someone bought the car off the insurer and had it repaired, a couple of months the accident he wrote to us and asked if we still had the second key.
>> Why should anyone suddenly feel the need that the 2nd hand car they
>> were quite happy with before it got written off must only be replaced by a
>> brand new one, and that a like-for-like 2nd hand one is no good anymore just
>> because the previous one got written off? Just plain bonkers to get insurance to cover
>> a GAP on that basis. But then a fool and his/her money are easily parted.
You pay your money and you take your choice - meant that she got the car she wanted. The 3 year RTI GAP policy for the £24k EOS that replaced it cost £150 - stupid not to buy it, but she has not written a car off since. Looking back she got a good deal out of the accident, no fault so had an Audi A3 SE 2.0TDI as replacement car delivered to her work the following day and got a better replacement car than she would have got without the policy.
No wonder insurance costs are rising.
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>> On what basis were they able to wriggle out of a claim?
They tried to limit the claim and failed.
They argued that dealer supplied extras were not covered despite being included in the total figure on the proposal form and the salesman telling us that "this is what you get back if the car is written off" as he pointed at the figure.
We were not supplied the policy document (which, setting aside the dealer's statement, supported their contention aboutr extras) until six months after we took out the policy (car ordered and policy paid for in August, car delivered December (Audi factory order) and policy arrived February) so we were outside the cooling off period when we saw the wording.
They argued that the dealer was not their agent - despite him selling us the policy and the proposal form having the dealer's name on it.
The ombudsman stopped them wriggling and they paid our claim in full plus interest.
We even got the money for the money for the paint protection back.
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GAP Insurance recommendations ? - Auristocrat
