Inusrance Question - modified cars

[V6Exec]

I was talking to one of the guys at the office who has a bimmer and an escrote tubby.

On his MOT he was given an advisory on his bimmer's exhaust, we were talking about the price of parts. Stealer prices bad and stainless as a comparison. He was dead set against the stainless because of his experience with the ecrote. Having put on a regular stainless system he told his insurers. Best quote "modified" was £100 more than best without.

With this in mind are stainless exhausts a good thing or a bad thing?

[Tiny Tim]

Difficult one... I fear insurers are putting two and two together and ending up with a sausage. 'Performance exhausts' are made from Stainless Steel... however, not all Stainless Steel exhausts are performance exhausts.... S/S is a good thing, they last alot longer... for example, Powerflow systems have a lifetime garauntee.

[DaiRees]

My insurance went up 10% when I fitted a stainless system made by Longlife Exhausts. The annoying thing was that I'd rung the insurance before I had the job done and they said that as long as it didn't affect the performance then there'd be no increase. Then after it was fitted they asked if it looked like the standard exhaust, which on mine was a normal 2" straight pipe, the answer is no, it now has a 3" chrome oval (as fitted to some models as standard), but that was considered a "cosmetic enhancement" and therefore renders the car more likely to be stolen....apparently Idiotic money grabbing bastards!

[V6Exec]

My insurance went up 10% when I fitted a ... 3" chrome oval

Does that mean my V6 is 10% less likely to be TWOC'd if I take the oval off the exhaust

[Andreus84]

I had 5" S/S exhaust never had any probs with it, apart from the extra £50 on insurance

[Tiny Tim]

I had 5" S/S exhaust never had any probs with it, apart from the extra £50 on insurance

And small children getting lost inside it?!

[pugsport]

There are plenty of insurers who specialise in insuring modified cars, they have a better understanding of what components do and do not effect performance, exhausts rarely increase performance if they do its usually insignificant and these people understand that, also when joe blogs spends £5000 kitting his car out, they also realise he will not drive in a dangerous fashion and along with a CAT1 security system its not likely to get nicked more than a bog standard car, as it sticks out like a sore thumb!
I bought my SRI in 2000 and fully comp cost me £320. In 2001 I spent £5500 on modifications, my insurance went up £20.00!
I only paid £340.00 last year and thats with 3 points for speeding and 3 points on the wifes licence.
I have over 14 yrs no claims and do less than 7000 miles and am 42 yrs old. I have been with Adrian Flux for the last 10 yrs, my previous car was an MI16 4X4 which I had a stainless exhaust system fitted to, only because the standard OEM was twice the price, I was only paying £240 insurance with Adrian Flux, others were quoting £500+.

[mjb]

I had 5" S/S exhaust never had any probs with it, apart from the extra £50 on insurance

How much was the insurance in the first place to support the 15+ litre engine that of course you had to require the 5" exhaust? What was the torque like on that thing? Don't listen to the others, they just assume that anyone with a 5" exhaust must be a complete muppet who's stuck it on a pathetic little engine to make it sound/look "better" and results in them looking like a complete nob, but I know better. How did you strengthen the chassis to cope with the power from (and weight of) the massive engine?

[adam03031980]

I work in insurance and was once a senior underwriter for the largest insurer in europe luckily i also had some motor experience and do agree some insurers can be over the top about some things and are given lists sometimes with hundreds of different mods however our stance is that for things such as stainless steel exhaust, induction kits, dump valves etc and basic mods are ok and will not load we generally tend to only load if its had thousands spent on it or people have fitted different stage turbos increased power drastically. The problem you have is a lot of underwriter dont know what these parts do and only go by lists or just tend to stereo type people.