Golf R Comprehensive Car Insurance renewal - options

[Call me Al]

Hey R Wagoneers, we are both 66 and no history, no accidents, no fines etc of any kind.

Insurer increased last year's premium of $751.82 with basic excess of $600, to $958.46 same excess.

We do not wish to increase the excess.

Maybe there are some similar aged owners who can comment on their own renewal offer?

Is it reasonable and what other options for good insurers are there worth getting a quote from?

Cheers Al

[nibose]

I'm not in the age group but here are my recommendations:

1. The premium is correct
2. Increasing the excess is the main way to reduce the premium
3. You could try to reduce the "Agreed Value" or set to "fair market value"
4. Make sure to deselect any unwanted options

[amunra]

Hey R Wagoneers, we are both 66 and no history, no accidents, no fines etc of any kind.

Insurer increased last year's premium of $751.82 with basic excess of $600, to $958.46 same excess.

We do not wish to increase the excess.

Maybe there are some similar aged owners who can comment on their own renewal offer?

Is it reasonable and what other options for good insurers are there worth getting a quote from?

Cheers Al

insurer will say its based on your area / statistics.. either increase your excess or shop around.

insurers are doing KM / per year now to reduce premiums. budget direct or woolworths

[Guest001]

I get quotes for insurance EVERY year and rarely stay with the same one. A new policy is almost always cheaper than a renewal.

You should be looking at ones like National seniors, Australian Seniors.

NOT Budchit Direct or Youi or Woolworths or Bingle,and Apia and Suncorp are probably the most expensive


I pay about $720 for agreed value of $53000 with windscreen option for a 2019 Rline Tig 162 and has been roughly the same since new but only by changing each year

[Sharkie]

Just as an FYI, not all insurance policies are the same. The reason generally for price differences are inside those policies' fine print. Choice of repairer, length of guarantee after a repair and most importantly, quality of parts used all makes a difference. The reason the Suncorp companies (Suncorp, Shannons, AAMI etc) are more expensive are down to those differences, even between these companies themselves.

Like everything, you get what you pay for in insurance ....

On a car with a 5year + warranty, read the fine print very carefully. Most cheap insurers will only fit new parts to cars younger than 2 years and after that the policies allow them to fit secondhand or aftermarket parts. Now this sounds fine, except it invalidates the remainder of your manufacturer warranty on the car (again in the fine print, only this time in the manufacturers warranty).

So saving money on insurance, going cheaper by shopping around without doing the necessary deep dive into the terms, may get you in a spot where your 3 year old car (with a 5 year warranty) will lose its warranty (on the damaged components) if a secondhand or aftermarket part is fitted.

I worked for the largest insurance company in Australia for over 7 years, cheaper is almost never better ..... So, when you pick, don't just pick on price, pick on what you will actually get and then make a value decision on what is acceptable for you. I, personally picked somewhere in the middle, with the balance of manufacturer warranty, guaranteed repairs and price making it into the equation.

For what its worth, $950 odd is about right for a Golf R of less than 5 years old in Brisbane. Any less and you compromising something in the equation. You cannot compare it to a Tiguan as a Golf R is a car that is 1) more expensive, 2) superior in practically every aspect, and more importantly 3) significantly more risky to insure (it is a performance car after all and as such carries an extra loading on the premium). If you want cheaper insurance, buy an Alltrack or a Tiguan/T-Roc.

[Guest001]

Just as an FYI, not all insurance policies are the same. The reason generally for price differences are inside those policies' fine print. Choice of repairer, length of guarantee after a repair and most importantly, quality of parts used all makes a difference. The reason the Suncorp companies (Suncorp, Shannons, AAMI etc) are more expensive are down to those differences, even between these companies themselves.

Like everything, you get what you pay for in insurance ....

On a car with a 5year + warranty, read the fine print very carefully. Most cheap insurers will only fit new parts to cars younger than 2 years and after that the policies allow them to fit secondhand or aftermarket parts. Now this sounds fine, except it invalidates the remainder of your manufacturer warranty on the car (again in the fine print, only this time in the manufacturers warranty).

So saving money on insurance, going cheaper by shopping around without doing the necessary deep dive into the terms, may get you in a spot where your 3 year old car (with a 5 year warranty) will lose its warranty (on the damaged components) if a secondhand or aftermarket part is fitted.

I worked for the largest insurance company in Australia for over 7 years, cheaper is almost never better ..... So, when you pick, don't just pick on price, pick on what you will actually get and then make a value decision on what is acceptable for you. I, personally picked somewhere in the middle, with the balance of manufacturer warranty, guaranteed repairs and price making it into the equation.

For what its worth, $950 odd is about right for a Golf R of less than 5 years old in Brisbane. Any less and you compromising something in the equation. You cannot compare it to a Tiguan as a Golf R is a car that is 1) more expensive, 2) superior in practically every aspect, and more importantly 3) significantly more risky to insure (it is a performance car after all and as such carries an extra loading on the premium). If you want cheaper insurance, buy an Alltrack or a Tiguan/T-Roc.

Whilst I agree with most of what you say I doubt the practicality of a car would affect its insurance rating and as for prices my Tig was over $60k and a Golf R woulndt be a lot more would it???
How can fitting a second hand panel affect warranty if for instance the DSG had its usual failure.???

We have had questions on here about this sort of thing and it has generally been accepted that if such an event had no bearing on the problem causing the warranty claim it would, or at least should not make any difference.

EG 3 years into 5 year warranty and had a minor ding and front bumper replaced and no mechanical damage and 6 months later something goes wrong in rear end like an ABS sensor or a taildoor motor fails. Why would the warranty not still apply to them???

[Sharkie]

A R is closer to $80K and is classified as a performance car and carries a premium as a result. Even if it was only $60K, that performance premium would add quite a bit to the price. Typically, performance cars also carries extra excess amounts marked as a "Performance car excess." Both my Mustang and R has this.

As per my post, perhaps read all of it (makes me worry about many pages of finely printed insurance terms being read carefully),

Now this sounds fine, except it invalidates the remainder of your manufacturer warranty on the car (again in the fine print, only this time in the manufacturers warranty).

So saving money on insurance, going cheaper by shopping around without doing the necessary deep dive into the terms, may get you in a spot where your 3 year old car (with a 5 year warranty) will lose its warranty (on the damaged components) if a secondhand or aftermarket part is fitted.

Clearly calling out that the loss of warranty only applies to the damaged components. On a body panel, nobody would really care, but what if it was a hit to the front that affected engine mountings and suspension components? The manufacturer would very likely be successful in denying a claim on anything related or affected by those 2 components even if those 2 components were replaced perfectly. What about unseen internal damage to the gearbox for instance? The manufacturer would not be covering that ....

Whilst I agree with most of what you say I doubt the practicality of a car would affect its insurance rating and as for prices my Tig was over $60k and a Golf R woulndt be a lot more would it???
How can fitting a second hand panel affect warranty if for instance the DSG had its usual failure.???

We have had questions on here about this sort of thing and it has generally been accepted that if such an event had no bearing on the problem causing the warranty claim it would, or at least should not make any difference.

EG 3 years into 5 year warranty and had a minor ding and front bumper replaced and no mechanical damage and 6 months later something goes wrong in rear end like an ABS sensor or a taildoor motor fails. Why would the warranty not still apply to them???

[Manaz]

except it invalidates the remainder of your manufacturer warranty on the car (again in the fine print, only this time in the manufacturers warranty).

To clarify - it only invalidates the warranty on the part that they replace with a non-genuine part.

[EDIT: Sharkie's later pointed that out. I should read the entire thread. ]

The manufacturer's warranty is then (as always) secondary to Australian consumer law. This part is a bit different to what Sharkie's said - the manufacturer has to prove the association, they can't just look and say "oh, you had a crash, we're just not covering that any more".

[Manaz]

Supporting Sharkie's point on the quality of insurers - I could get a cheaper annual premium, but I've found that sticking with GIO is worthwhile - the policy inclusions are some of the best out there, and the new for old for the life of the vehicle (if you bought and insured with them from new) is well worth having, especially if you have the vehicle on finance (mine is a work vehicle, on a chattel mortgage, so yeah, this helps). Their premium increases year on year have also not been terrible thus far...

[doc_777]

We've got all our vehicles insured with Suncorp. Have had the misfortune to require some claims over the last few years and they have been wonderful to deal with.

Insurance is something you pay for hoping you never need to claim, but when you do need to claim the cheapest policy may not always offer the best results.

Suncorp have demanded new, genuine parts on the repairs we needed on two of our vehicles.

[Sharkie]

To clarify - it only invalidates the warranty on the part that they replace with a non-genuine part.

[EDIT: Sharkie's later pointed that out. I should read the entire thread. ]

The manufacturer's warranty is then (as always) secondary to Australian consumer law. This part is a bit different to what Sharkie's said - the manufacturer has to prove the association, they can't just look and say "oh, you had a crash, we're just not covering that any more".

Yes, fully agree that they have to prove the association, however ... damage to a component that is not detected at the time OR your cheap insurer won't fix, that may well lead to premature failure of that component will always be assessed under the "reasonableness" rule. As in ... is it reasonable to deny a warranty claim if the failure of said component can with a high likelihood be attributed to the accident. The answer may well be in favour of the manufacturer ....

Now, in this case, luckily all is not lost, as the above finding will then open an avenue to pursue the insurer to actually "redo" the repair and replace the faulty component (that they should have done in the 1st place). The only problem with this is the time that you will be without the car fighting to get it fixed properly.