LED Tail lights and car insurance

[Pharkus]

Well to truth be told I LOL'd at this thread.

Stock all the way = no problems

That's why I bought an R32 that I consider to be the full package and not some other car that I would have to mod later to get what I wanted (looking at ricers with exhaust and aftermarket fri***n bright xenons etc )

[gerhard]

As a matter of interest, here is what I have declared to my Ins Company re my Jackaroo

1) Replaced factory stereo with aftermarket CD player with 4 replacement speakers
2) Towbar
3) LT 245/75-16 tyres replacing 245/70-16 (+4%)
4) CB Radio & Antenna
3) Heavier torsion bars and heavier & longer rear springs
4) Fridge fitted
5) Additional battery and charging circuit

The response from AAMI was - no problems, all is included, tyres are not a problem.

Didn't hurt a bit to tell them, and won't hurt if I need to claim

[orsegtsport]

As an Associate of the Australian Insurance Institute, and having spent 15 years in the industry earlier in my life, I can assure all these people who declare rubbish like "I can always revert to standard tune if I have to make a claim" that they are likely to be out of pocket severely.

I mean, how are you going to reflash your ECU to standard when you are bleeding from the head and have 2 broken arms. Someone else suggests you could claim your illegally tinted window was wound down, when your door is impaled and the window would only be moveable after a porta-power was applied to the door.

I will remind everyone that the purpose of insurance is to return yourself to the state you were in prior to an event - it is not a profit making scheme like many here seem to think. This attitude that fraud is OK as long as the wounded party is a large insurance company is endemic amongst people who think the world owes them.

Anyway, rant over. My suggestion is to declare all to the insurance company, and if they want too much money as a result, get other quotes till you find the cover you need at the price that is fair to the risk.

If you want to commit fraud, you are better off not buying insurance at all. The courts will only make you pay $1.00 per week, whereas the penalty for fraud can easily be gaol.

Well according to my friend who is rather high in the insurance industry (who, incidentally, suggested that you’re extremely unlikely to be caught out for an ECU remap), I have not yet committed an offence. I can wait until renewal time before disclosing the modification. The only potential problem arising from that would be if I made a claim between now and then, and my insurer decided that the remap had been a contributing factor in the incident for which I am making the claim.

As for the rest of your tirade, I think you need to calm down and put things in perspective. I appreciate that insurance fraud is a serious problem, but you seem to have missed the fact that there is a massive difference between non disclosure of some harmless car mods and someone throwing themselves down a set of stairs to claim compensation. Regardless of whether they technically both amount to fraud, as an offence, they are worlds apart in my eyes. So I do not appreciate having some disgruntled ex insurance industry employee cast aspersions about my character because I have an undeclared ecu remap. Reading between the lines, you are suggesting that I, and anyone else, who has an undeclared mod are low life criminal fraudsters who could easily end up in jail. Worse still, you come right out and accuse us of thinking the "world owes us a living".

You also seem to be suggesting that anyone with undeclared modifications will need to make a claim as a direct result of those modifications and attempt to rip off the poor old insurance giant. As I see it, there is a 99.9% chance that the undeclared modifications will have had absolutely no influence whatsoever in any claim being made, yet the insurer is in a position to deny the claim. The only “wounded” party in this instance is the person who didn’t declare the mods and ends up out of pocket. So how on earth is the insurance company the victim in such situations?

I’m not out to rip off or deceive anyone, I just wanted to avoid the potential rigmarole associated with declaring a particular mod, simple as that. I would like to make it abundantly clear, that I have no problem with insurance companies, and I’m not advocating non disclosure at all. But I wouldn’t feel the slightest bit guilty if I made a claim with undisclosed modifications if the claim had absolutely nothing to do with those modifications. And I’d also argue that an insurer denying a claim based on an undeclared modification that had absolutely nothing to do with the claim being made, is downright criminal.

[gerhard]

Well according to my friend who is rather high in the insurance industry (who, incidentally, suggested that you’re extremely unlikely to be caught out for an ECU remap), I have not yet committed an offence. I can wait until renewal time before disclosing the modification. The only potential problem arising from that would be if I made a claim between now and then, and my insurer decided that the remap had been a contributing factor in the incident for which I am making the claim.

As for the rest of your tirade, I think you need to calm down and put things in perspective. I appreciate that insurance fraud is a serious problem, but you seem to have missed the fact that there is a massive difference between non disclosure of some harmless car mods and someone throwing themselves down a set of stairs to claim compensation. Regardless of whether they technically both amount to fraud, as an offence, they are worlds apart in my eyes. So I do not appreciate having some disgruntled ex insurance industry employee cast aspersions about my character because I have an undeclared ecu remap. Reading between the lines, you are suggesting that I, and anyone else, who has an undeclared mod are low life criminal fraudsters who could easily end up in jail. Worse still, you come right out and accuse us of thinking the "world owes us a living".

You also seem to be suggesting that anyone with undeclared modifications will need to make a claim as a direct result of those modifications and attempt to rip off the poor old insurance giant. As I see it, there is a 99.9% chance that the undeclared modifications will have had absolutely no influence whatsoever in any claim being made, yet the insurer is in a position to deny the claim. The only “wounded” party in this instance is the person who didn’t declare the mods and ends up out of pocket. So how on earth is the insurance company the victim in such situations?

I’m not out to rip off or deceive anyone, I just wanted to avoid the potential rigmarole associated with declaring a particular mod, simple as that. I would like to make it abundantly clear, that I have no problem with insurance companies, and I’m not advocating non disclosure at all. But I wouldn’t feel the slightest bit guilty if I made a claim with undisclosed modifications if the claim had absolutely nothing to do with those modifications. And I’d also argue that an insurer denying a claim based on an undeclared modification that had absolutely nothing to do with the claim being made, is downright criminal.

Perhaps it's you that needs to calm down.

I did not mention any names, merely pointed out my views based on my experiences.

If my generalisations upset you, tough.

I did say "rant over", but you were so steamed you seem to have missed that bit.