Japanese import car insurance

Hello all, 

Bit of help here for anyone looking to get car insurance for their Japanese imported vehicle. I've rang them all, been told they have to approach other insurers to get quotes back. You don't get the quote straight away.

Adrian Flux 0800 369 8590

Keith Michaels 0800 542 2141  / 0208 1150

Mark Richards 01275 792270

Jap Cover 01275 792270 

Performance Direct 01708 564 143

I personally tried the usual route of the comparison insurance sites in England, but none of them recognised the actual vehicle model, and having called many high street car insurers direct, they also, have never heard of a Toyota Voxy for example, it may be the same for many other imported vehicles too. 

If anyone else can add to this, i.e any reputable English car insurers who can offer quotes for Japanese imported cars. I'd be interested to know. Being told I'd have to wait to see if anyone would insure the vehicle or not is a bit daunting. 

Companies like 'Admiral', 'Elephant', 'Diamond', 'Churchill' don't recognise nor will insure these imported vehicles.

Many thanks for reading and replying. 

No idea where you are based but my Estima has been insured through A. Flux for 7 years now...never a problem....no issues from day one.

Moved to the 'Toyota Insurance Discussions' forum.

When contacting Adrian Flux, mention one is a member of Toyota Owners Club, and they usually provide a discount.

That's a good shout - I forgot to do that... I wonder how much I'm losing out on!

Maybe Dan can sort me out...?  

Hi.

If you need any help with insurance then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.

Just an update.......tried many attempts to get quotes from other specialist car insurers for Japanese imports.

Acorn, Complete Cover Group, Brentacre, Jap Cover same as Mark Richards, Performance Direct, Swinton, Autonet and Advance Insure !! Been on the phone and online all day.

As for mentioning being a member of the 'Toyota Owners Club' to AF, it didn't carry any weight!

Some insurers came back with stupidly astronomically laughable high quotes, some wouldn't even entertain at all.

These companies are the brokers and they rely on the final quotes coming from their underwriters. It's all down to the underwriter what the quote cost is. Discounts of any kind don't come into it.

For example, I called Adrian Flux to find out what the quote was and the customer rep told me the quote was generated by a computer, not a person. Asked me what other quotes I'd had to try and better it by asking a human to do the job. The quote didn't improve.

Already spoken to your team today, Dan from Adrian Flux. Thanks all the same.

Presumably the quotes are for the Voxy rather than the Corolla in your profile, but as always quotes are dependent on a variety of factors - driving history, occupation, usage, postcode, repair costs, etc, etc.

Insurance companies will have categories of customer they deal with, and where you don't fit with their customer groups, they quote high to effectively say 'we don't want your business'.

As regards the discount mentioned previously, this was only for Adrian Flux.

From January 2022, legislation came into effect preventing insurers giving new customers first year discounts at the expense of existing customers. So quotes you're receiving currently will be more inline with what the policies actually cost, rather than being discounted to obtain the business.

36 minutes ago, Chunka said:

Just an update.......tried many attempts to get quotes from other specialist car insurers for Japanese imports.

Acorn, Complete Cover Group, Brentacre, Jap Cover same as Mark Richards, Performance Direct, Swinton, Autonet and Advance Insure !! Been on the phone and online all day.

As for mentioning being a member of the 'Toyota Owners Club' to AF, it didn't carry any weight!

Some insurers came back with stupidly astronomically laughable high quotes, some wouldn't even entertain at all.

These companies are the brokers and they rely on the final quotes coming from their underwriters. It's all down to the underwriter what the quote cost is. Discounts of any kind don't come into it.

For example, I called Adrian Flux to find out what the quote was and the customer rep told me the quote was generated by a computer, not a person. Asked me what other quotes I'd had to try and better it by asking a human to do the job. The quote didn't improve.

Already spoken to your team today, Dan from Adrian Flux. Thanks all the same.

 

With AF it might be worth checking back with them in a few days; My initial quote from them was very high, but I checked back a few days later and they had one that was something like £200 less so I jumped on that!

Imports are often a bit tricky to find reasonable insurance quotes for depending on where you live; You'll just have to try as many as you can find, maybe branch out.

One of the youtubers I watch is sponsored by https://www.footmanjames.co.uk/ and while they mainly do classic cars, might be worth a try if you don't have luck with the specialists...

On 2/1/2023 at 11:41 AM, Chunka said:

Hello all, 

Bit of help here for anyone looking to get car insurance for their Japanese imported vehicle. I've rang them all, been told they have to approach other insurers to get quotes back. You don't get the quote straight away.

Adrian Flux 0800 369 8590

Keith Michaels 0800 542 2141  / 0208 1150

Mark Richards 01275 792270

Jap Cover 01275 792270 

Performance Direct 01708 564 143

I personally tried the usual route of the comparison insurance sites in England, but none of them recognised the actual vehicle model, and having called many high street car insurers direct, they also, have never heard of a Toyota Voxy for example, it may be the same for many other imported vehicles too. 

If anyone else can add to this, i.e any reputable English car insurers who can offer quotes for Japanese imported cars. I'd be interested to know. Being told I'd have to wait to see if anyone would insure the vehicle or not is a bit daunting. 

Companies like 'Admiral', 'Elephant', 'Diamond', 'Churchill' don't recognise nor will insure these imported vehicles.

Many thanks for reading and replying. 

Hi all,

I brought my Lexus RX 300 from Ukraine and registered it here in Jan 2023. Also, I exchanged my UA license for a full UK license. I am trying to find an insurance company for import cars as my model is not available in many databases. I spoke to several brokers at Adrian Flux who provided all the information and adjusted the Quote, but in the end there was some misunderstanding as they did not include the information about my car accident in Ukraine, which I definitely mentioned in the first conversation, and gave me a Quote without this information. I didn't notice this right away, but the next day and when I called and asked for more adjustments, they said they couldn't provide any insurance because of this accident and the price of the car being too high. Therefore, still in search... 

23 hours ago, Olena said:

Hi all,

I brought my Lexus RX 300 from Ukraine and registered it here in Jan 2023. Also, I exchanged my UA license for a full UK license. I am trying to find an insurance company for import cars as my model is not available in many databases. I spoke to several brokers at Adrian Flux who provided all the information and adjusted the Quote, but in the end there was some misunderstanding as they did not include the information about my car accident in Ukraine, which I definitely mentioned in the first conversation, and gave me a Quote without this information. I didn't notice this right away, but the next day and when I called and asked for more adjustments, they said they couldn't provide any insurance because of this accident and the price of the car being too high. Therefore, still in search... 

Hi.

I'm sorry we were unable to sort your insurance satisfactorily. I hope you manage to get it sorted.

Regards,

Dan.

Hi,

I'm struggling to find reasonable insurance for my Toyota Voxy. A.Flux had quoted me more than 1k for it last year,  I'm assuming it'll be even higher this year. 

Hi.

We'd be happy to take a look for this year if you wish.

Regards,

Dan.

Hi

I am quoting Toyota Voxy 2009 for my insurance this year. However been told quoting 1.5K GBP with my 4 years NCB.. Any insurer would do cheaper or is that the trend they are just quoting as high as possible? thanks to hear

JK

Just called around for my new 2018 Toyota Voxy...

Both Advance Insurance and japcover.co.uk were polite, fair and gave quotes of just over £1000 underwritten by Prestige.

Adrian Flux (Luke) were very pushy and quite blunt. Luke insisted that he couldn't take my 14 years NCB into account as I still had my current vehicle (which I am disposing of this week) and that he wouldn't be able to send me or hold the quote as it is on a "live system" which would increase the price of the quote if I called back at a later time / date. He then quoted me £1700 with a minimum excess of £1000 per claim! He kept pushing for immediate payment and insisted that the cost would increase. I was unimpressed by the pushy sales technique - poor form Adrian Flux - a definite NOT recommended!

Thanks; Always good to hear more about peoples experiences getting insurance for imports.

On 2/26/2024 at 4:15 PM, Amit Patel said:

Just called around for my new 2018 Toyota Voxy...

Both Advance Insurance and japcover.co.uk were polite, fair and gave quotes of just over £1000 underwritten by Prestige.

Adrian Flux (Luke) were very pushy and quite blunt. Luke insisted that he couldn't take my 14 years NCB into account as I still had my current vehicle (which I am disposing of this week) and that he wouldn't be able to send me or hold the quote as it is on a "live system" which would increase the price of the quote if I called back at a later time / date. He then quoted me £1700 with a minimum excess of £1000 per claim! He kept pushing for immediate payment and insisted that the cost would increase. I was unimpressed by the pushy sales technique - poor form Adrian Flux - a definite NOT recommended!

Hi.

I'm sorry to hear about the experience you had with ourselves. I would appreciate it if you could PM me your details so I can feed your comments back.

Regards,

Dan.

I was trying to obtaina quote from A.Flux for a potential purchase (21 reg Voxy) but was given a really high price (£2.6k)

I wonder if that's the newness of the car (21 reg) or it is just not the right price!  Really want a Voxy but struggling to find a decent quote. Any advise? I want to make sure I can find insurance cover at a reasonable price before I even commit to test / purchase.  And still need to sell my current car if going ahead! 

On 2/1/2023 at 11:41 AM, Guest said:

Companies like 'Admiral', 'Elephant', 'Diamond', 'Churchill' don't recognise nor will insure these imported vehicles

I managed to obtain decent quote from MoneySuperMarket (underwritten by Admiral or Bell) by quoting using Noah, but I can't even get Voxy with the correct year (17 reg plate).

Does that mean the "decent" price is an illustion? 

Hi Everyone,

It's quite difficult to find a company to insure a Voxy so just wanted to share my findings to help current or potential owners.

Comparison websites: Don't bother, the Voxy is not listed(only Noah).

Admiral: They were the cheapest for the Noah so I decided to call them about the Voxy. Unfortunately they don't offer insurance on the Voxy even after checking internally..

A.Flux: Ridiculous quotation!

Performance Direct: I got them to check with their underwriters but non would insure. 

Japcover/Mark Richards:  They have Voxy on their database and provided me with a reasonable first quotation which I asked if they could do it for cheaper. 30 mins later I get a phone call with a slightly cheaper quote which I accepted!

Hopefully in the future the Voxy will be listed on the comparison websites just like the Noah so we can have more options and cheaper insurance!

Hi.

Sorry we were unable to offer you a competitive insurance quotation.

Regards,

Dan.