Insuring a modified car

[zazou]

I have been looking at this nearly 20 year old midlife crisis car and almost convinced myself to go for it.
It's a sports car but to make it even faster it's been supercharged and brakes upgraded.
So in my naivety I ran it through a known insurance comparison site with the value of the car under £20,000 to get a quote and it came back with four FIVE FIGURE quotes,!

I'm new to the modified cars game but is this to be expected?

[northernladuk]

Yes. It's not something th3 standard guys on those sites want to touch so they make it to expensive. They just don't want this type of business. Check piston heads or google for specialist modified car insurers.

[kevpuk]

Could try people like ABC insurance who are often used by brokers for modified cars, or Adrian Flux possibly?
From my experience, a fair few years back with a chipped Saab 9-5 Aero, there are some (most!) who instantly either shy away when you mention modification, and others (fair few) who don't really want the business and charge a whacking premium.....then there are a small group who will ask pertinent questions and actually be reasonable.

[WTFH]

Try Adrian Flux

[Scruff]

Try Adrian Flux

at your peril...

A-Plan Insurance - Bletchley office. They insure my fleet, which is a mixture of German "sports" / "boulevard cruiser" / "leisure saloon" variety.

They will cater for an underwriter who understands what modified means, as opposed to the Web aggregator models

[VectraMan]

You just need to shop around. I've upgraded the suspension on the last 3 cars and when I did the current one I had to cancel the policy half way through because they refused to insure a modified car, but it wasn't too hard to find someone who would.

The comparison sites at least allow you to put in modifications now, which is a fairly recent thing. But really you need to prepare yourself for a lot of answering the same stupid questions on the phone, and it obviously depends a lot on the car, your age, the type of experience you've had etc. so it's a little pointless asking other people's experiences on the internet.

I'm currently with AIB, but I used Adrian Flux for years.

[anonymouse]

Adrian Flux used for years, modified and kit cars.

I've always found them to be cheaper for standard cars as well.

[DallasDad]

I had been running a couple of MG ZT V8s one with an aftermarket Kenne Bell Blower for several years.
even though a 'modern' MG it even qualified for Classic Car insurance

I had it insured through Perter Best on a CC policy and then latterly through A plan who have a specialist performance cars office at their Thatcham Branch

if you buy a limited mileage policy with the right insurers and you are the right side of 50 like I am then you will be surprised how cheap it is to insure powerful cars especially just for social use.

I was actually paying less for the MG than for our old 1.9dci Grand Scenic and considerably less than I am now for the 5 series. that I use for the daily commute.

[Intel]

I've never really understood the desire to mod the power on cars. It's a lot simpler to just buy the car with the power you want. I'm currently running an 18 month old 5.5L Bi Turbo V8 AMG Merc and the insurance is less than £800 fully comp. Even buying something like a Jap Import MR2 turbo and whacking a stage 3 turbo mod on it puts your insurance into the thousands and you'll still get less than 400BHP out of it.

[vwdan]

Adrian Flux used for years, modified and kit cars.

I've always found them to be cheaper for standard cars as well.

Ever claimed with them? They don't have a great reputation in the classics world.

OP - as above, you just need to try the right people. Most specialist insurers will be fine with it - I once enquired about switching a 70bhp VW engine for a 250bhp Subaru engine and they just wanted to charge me an admin fee.