Hybrid car insurance refusals

This is becoming a very grey area indeed. Proper clarification should be worded in the policy about factory fitted extras etc. Seems to be something the insurers don't want to tell us so that they can nail you when the issue may rear itself when making a claim. Looks like another win win stitch up as if you tell them about factory extras they will bump up the premium anyway.

Lets look at this from a different perspective.

You are in your car waiting at a junction.

Boy racer back ends you,with enough force to make his car undriveable.

Boy racers car will be examined by the insurance company.

You didn't tell us about the wide wheels did you boy racer or the body kit.

Sorry we have cancelled your policy,you are not insured.

You have been hit by an uninsured driver.

How do you feel now?

Better or worse.

An extreme example,but not impossible.

Ye but he has been and done aftermarket stuff ... That's exactly what happened to me some Mong in his "my first golf" crashed into halforda thing he didn't get a payout but his insurance had to pay me off because it wasn't my fault he had lied to them about his car and boom new car for me ... My insurance told me that because something on my insurance in the small print in case of such events that they would have to pay out due to some insurance regulation body

From an insurance viewpoint, the insurers need to establish as accurate a picture of repair or replacement costs as possible should a claim be made, and if additional or non-standard items are fitted, this can affect this picture.

For example the fact that a car may have had a DAB or sat nav option fitted may not be apparant when an insurance assessor is evaluating an insurance claim, and some of these options are quite expensive.

At the end of the day the onus is on the owner to provide the insurer with an indication of a vehicle's value, and whether the vehicle has additional or non-standard kit. An idea of specs for older vehicles can be obtained from reviews on sites like Parkers, etc, and also from specs of similar cars on sale at dealers, etc. Obviously there will be some instances where it will be difficult to ascertain whether vehicles are to standard spec - in which case the best option would be to declare the vehicle has something fitted which may or may not be standard, and let the individual insurer decide whether it is a modification or not. Ignorance is no defence.

I would think the 3rd party aspect obligations are intact, albeit as was said earlier your insurer may sue you for it.

When I contacted Adrian flux for my mods they seemed more interested in what the mods were worth.

My Auris SR180 is chipped (205bhp), lowered\stiffened and has a pedal box.

Its now not far off the speed of light. Engine sounds sexy under acceleration too.

What pedal box is it

" it depends what your insurer is like and if they are bumping up the price for optional extras I would move on to another who takes the car as it comes from apart from aftermarket modification"

or alternatively mine is actually charging me as per my risk & a lot of others are charging people for cover that they don't really need.

Every year I do an exercise on my renewal & they have always been within the top 3 lowest quotes (& when I go back to them with a better quote they have always managed to get closer) with many well known ins. companies often quoting premiums that are multiples of theirs. To give you an idea, before extras like legal etc. my premium is £170 fully comp.

DTE systems.

Had a bit of a surprise this morning when shopping for car insurance renewal. LV, my insurer for several years (until I switched last year) point blank refund to quote as the current car is a hybrid. No discussion: just "underwriters have decided - we know not why" They quoted last year.  Haven't even loaded the premium if, as I suspect, they re wary of CC theft, which would be reasonable.  Wonder if Allianz, the LV owner, refuse to cover the German market?

Got insurance elsewhere and none of the potential companies made any comment online. 

Any views?

Article on EV and insurance. Repair costs are a factor.

John Lewis insurance have also stopped offering cover, according to other articles.

The Car Expert article December 2023

Idiots; It's a Toyota hybrid and one of the most reliable cars, not to mention the cheapest and easiest to repair hybrids! I hate that they tar all hybrids with the same brush because they're too lazy to do their research - I can understand it with e.g. the german and high performance ones as they are a nightmare to deal with, but not Toyotas - It's not been a problem for the past 2 decades yet suddenly now it is? Ridiculous.

The Battery in mine isn't even that much more expensive than a full clutch kit for my old Mk2 I think (i.e. pressure plate, friction disc and CSC!)

2 hours ago, jthspace said:

Article on EV and insurance. Repair costs are a factor.

John Lewis insurance have also stopped offering cover, according to other articles.

The Car Expert article December 2023

EVs are a whole different problem - The biggest issue is because the Battery is so big and is nearly the footprint of the car, it's very likely to get damaged in a collision, and because car companies are so concerned about the environment and sustainability they don't provide ways to repair them so the whole pack has to be replaced for even a small dent.

I'm hoping future vehicles will start to use modular packs so only modules the size of my Mk4's would need to be replaced when damaged rather than the whole thing, but we need a significant Battery capacity breakthrough before we can even look at that. Currently none of the current major EV players give a single thought to insurance and repairability when they design their EVs. It's not a "them" problem.

By the way, I've raised this issue with Which, who give prominence to LV as an insurer of repute. Not in my eyes judging by this farce. 

LV have been doing this for at least 12 months. I got a refusal to quote on a Auris Hybrid last year.

I have a multicar policy with LV covering both my Corolla Hybrid and GT86 which renewed in June of this year without issue so they definitely cover Hybrids.

Not for new, or in my case returning customers. Tried to get a quote again this morning  and got this  : 

Having to look around after a 57% increase on renewal from Direct Line.

Just now, MagicBoy said:

Not for new, or in my case returning customers. Tried to get a quote again this morning  and got this  : 

 

 

I'm guessing a change of policy (no pun intended) on their part since the end of June!

Just now, davidif said:

I'm guessing a change of policy (no pun intended) on their part since the end of June!

As said yesterday, I got the same same last year when I tried just as a sanity check against the Jan 2023 renewal quote.

I tried LV on 31st Dec 2023 and got a quote of £485. Didn't pay as I was only checking them out. Very strange as my hybrid was excepted.

I received an email from LV= Insurance company who I am insured with. This is an extract from that email:   

"We wrote to you recently about your car insurance policy for TOYOTA AURIS HYBRID ICON TSS HSD AUTO  to let you know that we’re unable to offer you renewal quote due to a change in our underwriting approach for your vehicle type"

Apparently, the TOYOTA AURIS HYBRID ICON TSS HSD AUTO has been targeted by car thieves nationally and there LV= decided it's not profitable to insure this model.

Has anyone else come across this problem?

Similar topics merged.

The theft angle is more likely the reason for the change in policy, rather than the fact it is a hybrid as mentioned in the first post.

Other cars with high theft rates (eg. Range Rover, etc), either of the car or from the car, have also been affected by insurers refusing cover.

I didn't think the Auris was that much of a theft risk; I can't remember the last time I heard of one being nicked! They're just not that desirable for theft as they're so common and not exactly expensive.

The only common risk with them is the catalytic converter, but with mitigation strategies like the protection plate, that should lower the risk substantially...

For some reason they're already on my blacklist along with morethan and axa so they wouldn't see money from me anyway  

yes it's been like this for years, most have a Cat theft clause in the policies, catloc's in standard form have little protection as they just cut the brackets unless they have revised the design

41 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Other cars with high theft rates (eg. Range Rover, etc), either of the car or from the car, have also been affected by insurers refusing cover.

Car theft doesn't just relate to the vehicle being stolen, but also theft from the car.

A lot has been going on with insurance this last year. They're finding that covering the cost of EVs isn't all that easy. With one off designs and parts and the general public finding new and exciting ways to damage Battery units / sensitive components, it's them who needs to foot the cost. Which is hilarious on the insurers until you find that they're passing the cost on to US!  Even us non-EV, reliable Hybrid driving folks. 

Funnily, my mum who has over 20 years of claim free driving and opted for Tesco Bank Insurance last year around 400 got a renewal quote of 750!  How on earth do they justify that?  

Easily resolved in her case. Quick look online. Around 400 ish prices came up first try. From one of the never heard of em providers, but who are on Compare The Market so must be legit (enough..).

Interesting move from the insurers... Given that allegedly, the country will become more flooded with EVs (Hybrids at least..) they'll find that they are locking themselves out of an increasing percentage of the general population. 

Probably temporary though. Until they or (the under writers) sort out how they're going to deal with the influx of inflated EV claims which, if the big green plan goes well, won't be going away anytime soon 

I've just signed up wit Toyota Insurance Services (Aioi Nissay Dowa) as of this afternoon, no other quotes got within £150.

Trustpilot reviews don't look stellar, but I'll take the risk.