***NOTE ABOUT INSURANCE***

[Ares Helix]

It'd be appreciated if someone could Sticky this.

Insurance for any form of performance vehicle, especially for younger drivers is a total nightmare.

Whilst there are a few places I'd recommend, I'll start this off by saying DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES INSURE YOUR VEHICLE WITH STATE.
I'd say this goes for their subsidiary company, National Auto Club.
We've moved away after they've treated both me and my wife like total shit.

My wife is now with AMI, and I'm with Clic car insurance, AMI's equivalent of NAC.

Whilst my excess and premiums went up a bit with Clic, they've covered all mods on my vehicle and accept that it's been tuned, as opposed to most insurers.

AA is another good choice, but they ended up being quite pricey.

Anyhow, hope this limited little bit of advice helps people out!

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Thanks for the advice.

It's important to pick a good insurance company.

[mattnz]

Clic is a lot cheaper for me than NAC, with a slightly higher excess.

State won't insure cars with mods worth more than 20% of the insured value, and they also didn't allow me to increase the amount it's insured for without a valuation :/

[Ares Helix]

With the added bonus of being complete tossers at claim time! YAY!

[.osiRiS]

I find state to be ok however don't have an extremely modded car.

[Codex]

Lol paying less than half what NAC wanted to charge me with lower excess too

[camy205]

If your a young'un and have a car you don't care too much about just get 3rd party. When you drive into that enevitable porsche you won't be in debt for the rest of your life and it costs like 100 bucks a year or something.

[Plasma]

Clic is a lot cheaper for me than NAC, with a slightly higher excess.

State won't insure cars with mods worth more than 20% of the insured value, and they also didn't allow me to increase the amount it's insured for without a valuation :/

 
Same applies with AMI (I suspect most insurance companies will be the same), I needed to get an valuation when they decided to under insure my car.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

If your a young'un and have a car you don't care too much about just get 3rd party. When you drive into that enevitable porsche you won't be in debt for the rest of your life and it costs like 100 bucks a year or something.

Totally Agree.

It would be silly and irresponsible not to get 3rd party.

[Ares Helix]

Same applies with AMI (I suspect most insurance companies will be the same), I needed to get an valuation when they decided to under insure my car.

Yep, but at least that value won't decrease (apparently, if it does, you can ask them to put it back up)

[Lias]

My insurance experiences:

State are horrible full stop
Protecta are horrible to try and make a claim. Will do damn near anything to get out of paying a claim out.
NAC are overpriced but will actually pay out claims with a moderate amount of effort required.
Classic Cover are cheap for modded/tuned/classic cars and motorbikes etc, but will only insure fully license over 30 drivers.
NZI were alwasy really good at paying out, but when they tried to increase my excess by 250% and put my premiums up too I told them to fuck right off.

Currently with AA for contents/car and Classic Cover for my bike. Havnt had any issues with either yet, but havnt had to make a claim yet either.

[henno]

Daughter had a cheap car, made her get third party which she did thru AA.

Car was written off when an uninsured driver hit the side of her.

She got value of car $2500 from AA as they have a clause in their third party covering no  accidents caused by an uninsured third party.

Did whole thing oevr phone in the week before Xmas and money was in account 6 days afetr accident.

Fantastic service going to look at them when I get quotes for redoing all my cover.

[broncos]

why would you mod a car...............

[Spigalau]

why would you mod a car...............

to make it go Pssssssssh Wah ! look at me, I have no penis.

[Plasma]

Yep, but at least that value won't decrease (apparently, if it does, you can ask them to put it back up)

 
Mine has been decreasing every year.

[Donkey]

to make it go Pssssssssh Wah ! look at me, I have no penis.

My car goes pssh and wah and I also have a penis! Winning!

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

My car is just a tool which I used to reach a location in a shorter time then it would take walking there.


I don't see any advantage in making it louder.


What's up with those idiots who have their number plate hanging on an angle, can't they afford an extra screw?

[Mayhem_Lee]

haha the screw was taken to hold some other part of the car together sm/ They watch to much TFTF and still think they in the 90's

[DeeUnit]

NAC insured my car over the phone this morning, no problemo.



Pretty nice gentleman I spoke to, I'll let you know if anything arises that ain't kosher.

[toofast]

All i can say is state is terrible. Will really make you sweat come claims time, dont do common sense things like realise everyone ages, meaning you have to tell them you have aged, so your premiums/excess should change.

[9unk]

I've had no problem with state... Car was broken into while we were away on holiday.

They stole pretty much nothing worth mentioning and due to the excess I decided to just get the window fixed and as I have glass it was free. They gave me a number I called the glass company and dropped the car in. They fixed the window and that was the end of it...

[vedds]

Brokers - worth their weight in copper or some sort of other semi-precious metal

[Craigor]

I didn't really have any Issues with state, I was Insured with them for about 9 years and had two claims, one for vehicle being broken into, the other for someone sideswiping me and scratching all the paintwork, they paid out on both with no hassles (the latter they billed the guy who hit me), the only thing that pissed me off about them was that stupid valuation thing "your car is insured for $18k this year" .. "But I couldnt buy a new one the same for anything close to that" "but thats the market value" "then your market value is fucked up"  .. etc ..
 
went to ASB, they had no issues insuring my car for what I wanted, and the premiums were less, and the comprehensive cover is pretty much the same (minus the 'roadside rescue' but i'm an AA member anyway)
 
So I guess I would also have to agree with the 'don't use state' purely on the valuation basis

[Xt1ncT]

Brokers - worth their weight in copper or some sort of other semi-precious metal

Haha - best not comment
 

I didn't really have any Issues with state, I was Insured with them for about 9 years and had two claims, one for vehicle being broken into, the other for someone sideswiping me and scratching all the paintwork, they paid out on both with no hassles (the latter they billed the guy who hit me), the only thing that pissed me off about them was that stupid valuation thing "your car is insured for $18k this year" .. "But I couldnt buy a new one the same for anything close to that" "but thats the market value" "then your market value is fucked up"  .. etc ..
 
went to ASB, they had no issues insuring my car for what I wanted, and the premiums were less, and the comprehensive cover is pretty much the same (minus the 'roadside rescue' but i'm an AA member anyway)
 
So I guess I would also have to agree with the 'don't use state' purely on the valuation basis

Asb if memory serves use IAG for their private motor cover. And unless you have agreed value cover with them, if you have a total loss the settlement will be the lesser of the sum insured and the market value. So it really doesn't matter what you want to insure it for, the settlement would always be less if the car isn't worth that much.

Vero have even stopped putting a value on their comprehensive cover as the wording and basis of settlement is market value.

Basically because cars depreciate so quickly it's harder to get agreed value. Some companies offer it, but it's worth pointing out that you read the t&c's before taking it out. For instance the questions I'd ask are: How often do I need to provide a valuation? Will the insurer reduce the value at renewal? If so, how do they come up with a value? What if you don't agree with what they come up with?

For private motor you'll always get cheaper premiums going direct. But if its important to get claims settled quickly and efficiently, and if you want help at claim time to make sure the insurer doesn't pull a fast one, use a broker.

Same goes for home and contents - however, direct insurers have considerably worse wordings. An example is alternative accommodation. This is something a colleague of mine is seeing in Chch - their clients have a years worth of cover for alternative accommodation. This is where your house is unlivable, and the insurer pays for an hotel, or a rental etc. And some of the "other" covers are only 6 months. That's a huge difference and really important in large losses. And of course the broker is there to help smooth things through, plus of course an insurer like AMI will have thousands and thousands of people calling them and being in the queue, whereas a broker would have considerably less.

Lastly, if you're in business, it's very advisable that you use a broker. For instance, my company gets better wordings from a number of providers due to the amount of business we and our group have with them. Plus you get the advice about the correct amount of cover - things like business interruption aren't as simple as companies like Tower seem to think. Also, liability covers aren't all made equal - an example is one of my clients needed cover for sea testing boats he repairs, and only one company I went to would offer the cover without going to a really expensive ship-repairers policy.

Anyway, some advice is always better than no advice - and an insurance specialist is always going to be your best option

[Growler]

What the Pom said.