Anyone have a turbo fitted?

[chapel]

Just wondering if any of you guys have a turbo fitted (either factory or aftermarket)

Does fitting an aftermarket turbo kit to a car increase your insurance in the UK? (it doesn't here)

I've got a turbo kit planned for my car with a goal of 300bhp on stock electronics and 300whp with custom electronics.

[RetroMat]

Fitting a turbo in the Uk is likley to double insurance cost, if you can get insured in the first place

[chapel]

Just wondering... how would they know?
My insurance company has only seen my car once. They took photos of it the first day i bought it (and only of the VINs).
They haven't seen it since.
I could have thrown a 400bhp engine in and they never would be the wiser... I'm sure if I even brought it in for them to see they still wouldn't know what is under the hood...

[HoTWire]

Yes but if you crash it and they investigate and find your car has an un-authorised modification, your insurance in null and void and you don't get a penny/cent in payout.

[Pillock]

i want US insurance!!

over here ANYTHING you do to your car is likely to bump your insurance up. Most 'classic' or 'modified' policies have a threshold, like my VW Fastback costs the same as a standard one cos none of the mods affect the power output but if you're talking standard motor insurance then they'll take you for a ride.

My GF's Mondeo - boring, boring, boring. Costs £45 a year more to insure with a rear spoiler on, and a little more again with 17" alloys (not boy racer curse word - proper Ford ST220 wheels). Don't declare it and it gets stolen then found smashed up they'll look for anything that hasn't been declared and use that to invalidate your policy and not pay out.

My old Polo - £55 a year more for the lowering kit and exhaust. handles much better (i.e. SAFER!) and hardly any more power, but suddenly i'm a big risk cos i modify cars.

They'll even open up your ECU to see if it's been chipped, matching part numbers and so on to the original manufacturers items.

[BenzBoy]

I'm fitting a turbo to my v8. My insurance won't go up because they won't know about it!!! ;D

[chapel]

wow, your insurance agents are dicks.

The only problem with my car is that if I were to modify the hell out of it and didn't have receipts for the modifications, I won't get any more money than the car is worth.

HOWEVER, if I have a receipt for the turbo and a professional install, they'll cop me the cost!
I had an amplifier stolen from my car a few years back and because it was professionally installed and I had my receipt, they copped me the entire cost of the amp and install .

[Revolution 9]

chapel said:

wow, your insurance agents are dicks.

Most of them are, but then so are our government, our vehicle licensing agencies, and the eejits running our police! ;D ;D ;D

True though, if you do anything to your motor, then they find out that you've done it without telling them, they instantly use it as an excuse to not pay and scrap your insurance policy. The other issue is fighting over what your car is worth when you've modified it, even if you were to spend £10K on a car worth £2K as standard, then unless you've convinced your insurance company that it's now worth the extra money, then they're only going to give you £2K for it and you lose what you spent on modifiying it down the plughole.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

chapel said:

wow, your insurance agents are dicks.

don't disagree with that! They are silly-billies. But, it does seem logical that if you are gonna whip your engine out then replace it with another one twice as powerful, youve gotta be an increased risk to them! So they should know about what youve done and logically you should pay more! Otherwise you must already be paying for the minority who do this stuff!!

[BenzBoy]

Hmmm, I ain't so sure - do faster cars have more accidents? Maybe they do, I don't know. But to me they ought to concentrate on who is driving not what they are driving. I could quite as easily stack a 900cc Seat Marbella into another car as I could a V8 engined Cortina - both are perfectly able to break the national speed limit, and both could therefore have a high-speed accident.
I suppose there's the desirability of the car to consider - the V8 might get nicked before the Seat would but a quality security device should sort that out.

Insurance is a total rip-off, and because we have to have it by law, they know they can shaft us up the ar$e and get away with it

[chapel]

We got the WRX in 2002 and the insurance companies didn't "catch on" to what they really were