Car Insurance - Not 406 related

[benczuk]

So,

I have found my self in possession of a Renault Twingo.

The car is registered in the EU so I need to register it with the DVLA. As the car is over 10 years old, registered in the EU and a "normal" production vehicle this presents little problem (no SVA, type approval or similar, just tax, mot, insure and pay £55 to register and buy a set of plates)

The car cost me nothing, is not worth a lot, but I always liked the look of them (yes i know it's a bit Marmite) it's completely rust free, well spec-ed, and would make a nice little economical run around for the wife (and me when the cambelt goes or similar!).

Here's the snag; It needs to be insured to be registered, and as it doesn't have a number plate yet I need to insure it on the chassis number. The best I have been quoted is £500 3rd party for a year. Comparison sites quote me £210 Fully comp for a year if it had a numberplate (declared as EU import etc, surprised to see they would quote so happily actual, but that's off topic).

Cancellation fees after a month would see me get less than 50% of the £500 back. Does anyone here have any experience in importing / registering vehicles and thus have any better suggestions as to how I can achieve the insurance requirement?

Does anyone know on average how much a trade insurance policy costs?

Anyone know how a dealer registers a "new" car for a customer without them having insurance on it?

Anyone know how long a registration is likely to take (under 14 days and within the cooling off period??)

Long shot I know, but thanks in advance.

Ben

[lozz]

Sorry not much help,

ionly know people that import Jap vehicles,

they use Quotiva its simalar to compare the Meerkats etc but the Search Magnets will only pull in insurers that specialise
in the import side of things iirc,

[benczuk]

I hate unanswered posts so in case anyone hits this in the future the answer is Admiral.

After a lot of googling I found them mentioned on another forum and ran up a £180 quote online. I called them and explained the need for it to be on a chassis number and they were very happy to go ahead provided i told them then new registration number within 14 days of the policy start.

Took my docs to the local DVLA office and 2 days later a letter with the registration number, authorizing me to have plates made up assigned arrived in the post! superb service

[Welly]

Thanks for the update, very useful, and sorry there was no other help at the time

Sometimes threads quickly drop down the list if no-one participates and it gets kinda forgotten about.

Sounds like you got a great deal anyway. I like the Twingo's they are very quirky and they don't pretend to be anything other than a cheap city car (very popular at the moment) might turn out a money-maker for you

[benczuk]

Thanks for the update, very useful, and sorry there was no other help at the time

Sometimes threads quickly drop down the list if no-one participates and it gets kinda forgotten about.

I fear my comment may have been misconstrued, it wasn't aimed at the members here, more that I hate it when people post a question and never post a full answer if and when they find it for others. You wont believe how many unanswered version of this question I read on other forums! By the law of averages 50% of them must have found some solution to the question, they just didn't share it after the event! so this was me following my own advice

[Welly]

Yes I knew what you meant, the topic would have laid unanswered which doesn't help others.

Sometimes though it helps to post a clearer topic title; something like - Insuring an EU import *resolved* that sort of thing. Your title may not have attracted the attention it deserved at the time. If you are the original author of a topic then under the 'edit' function you can change the title and save it.

To be fair when I read the title I thought it was just about some other car but your Twingo is much more interesting so deserved a bit more 'bigging up' from the start I think