I am thinking about getting a mini as a first car. I would use it for road, trackdays and hillclimbs so I have two questions, what would the insurance difference be between a modified 998 and a modified 1275. My dad also came up with the idea of having a 998 engine for on the road and then have a 1380 monster for the weekend. I would have engine, gearbox, driveshafts etc. to make it as easy as poss. to change them and have a fibreglass removable front. What would the insurance company think of that?

Adam

For a first-time driver? Oh, they'd probably just laugh until they puked!

put a bike engine in, and insure it as a kit car!

assuming your a young driver (first car maybe doesnt mean you are young i guess!) the word modified will shaft you! does a grasstracker/track car need insurance? if not, i would get a slow cheap car for the road, do limited milage (they never check with me anyway...) and aim to build up no claims bonus. i've just reached 2 years and premiums have dropped from 1200 to 500. thats for a 1.1 citroen ax anyway, so still a lash, but atleast its dropping.

[Edited on 3/7/04 by JoelP]

You still have a while till your 17 dont you? I would get a pretty basic mini a year or so before your 17 and make it mint. Leave the standard 998 in there so the insurance wont be too high. But make it as clean as a whistle. Use the locost as the hill climb car and save the mini for posing! it dont have to go fast!
My mate got a standard city with a good shell and made it into a stunner, gorgeous blue paintjob, he took a year to do it and had a very nice car when you pass.
It also means you can take time over it and make sure its done properly.

[Edited on 3/7/04 by greggors84]

This week I got an insurance quote for a Mini Estate we have had for years to include my daughter who will be 17 in December. I have (today) put a 998 engine back in after running with a 1275 for a few years in the hopes the insurance would be OK. Quote was for the standard engine but modified with disc brakes (fitted when it had the 1275), wider steel wheels, wheel arch extensions (legally needed because of the wider wheels) and a one piece fibreglass rear door. TPF&T - £1850 Fully comp - £2700

I don't have a no claims bonus to use but this is crazy. I might put the original brakes and wheels back on, take the arches off, but can't do anything about the back door really as it has been like this for probably 19 years!

I have only managed to get one quote so far, everyone else I tried said they wouldn't quote because of the mods and a 17 year old driver. I think it is even worse for male than female young drivers.

That's way worse than when I was 17 :/
I know minis are expense to insure for their power but that's silly. I ended up with a 999cc Fiat Panda as my first car because it was group 1 insurance (you pay a little premium on the forecourt for that it seems) and effectively only cost £150 to add me to my mum's policy on it (I was still living at home at the time).
I take it the quote was for your daughter as a named driver, not a policy it it's own right?
Some insurers appear not to be stupid and give *discounts* if you upgrade the brakes, some are dumb and claim that a roll cage is a performance enhancement
My insurance is up for renewal in a couple of weeks. I'm not looking forward to shopping around but I'm guessing i'll will be paying less that I am now since I'll have 1yr no claims and i'll be 25 in the beginning of august. Hopefully...

That is with her as a named driver rather than the insurance in her name - trouble is as soon as you add a 17 year old the premium is based on them totally anyway. The Mini is only group one insurance in standard form anyway (as a 998cc anyway).

I gather a roll cage is a real no-no in insurance terms these days. Presumably you fit it so you can crash more in their eyes!

insurance companies even charge you more for uprating your brakes, go figure!

TGhey obviously think yo;'re gonna brake later rather than just reduce the brtaking distances and increase the safety of your vehicle!

Ned.

Insurance companies are very scared of roll cages. "Why do you need it?" would be my first question if I was in their shoes!

From what I hear from mates, Tesco are very cheap if you are insuring a standard car but as soon as you mod anything they get silly. I've always found Adrian Flux good, especially once the spanners have been near the car. I'm paying £540 for my standard XR2 and they've quoted £720 when I get around to transplanting my old XR2's engine which had 158bhp at the wheels plus 25bhp of nitrous. That's TPF&T, 5k miles, driveway parked, 2nd car, clean licence, but no NCB applied as it's already in use on my Cabrio.

Herts are also supposed to be good for Minis. A mate of mine swears by them!

Chris

Elephant gave me pleasingly sane quotes for various mods. New wheels, brakes, cams, map, exhaust and induction would only add around £250 - 300 to my anual premium which is pretty much fine.
I haven't done anything to it yet though

My theory if you were to do any mods, as long as they're reasonably moderate try using standard parts from higher spec models from the same manufcaturer, this way you're using factory parts and if you were to have an accident an asessor might not notice them. even if he did you could argue it was like that when you bought the car as you didn't know and they were standard parts.

Ned.

Well, for example I could upgrade my brakes with Mondeo ST24 fronts and Escort RS2000 rears, the bluefin remap is undetectable and reversable, new springs are denyable, as are cams etc etc.
Problem is they can happily refuse to pay if they catch a whif of something fishy. Better not to take the risk.
What does seem odd is that they don't expect you to declare different tyres. Someone could replace their nice Michelin OEM superduper-expensive-to-replace good ones with crappo plastic "you wanna stop in the wet? you're 'avin' a larf!" budget tyres and that is exactly the kind of thing that can cause an accident where they wouldn't have happended before.

What's your everyday car then Mackie?

Chris

Back in 1980 I turned 21, my cortina was £60 a year on my dads insurance. So I thought I get my own insurance now I'm 21, lets find out how much they will charge. So I went to a brokers & said, this is what I am thinking of doing to my Cortina (mk1), How much would the insurance be me the ONLY driver fully comp, Listing everything that I had done (Full race engine & box, Modified & uprated brakes & suspension)?

First We would need an engineers report. Said he.

Lets assume thats ok cos it would be done right, said I.

I'll do some sums said he and disapeered............................................................................................................................................ ............................................He comes back and says £325.

Hmmmm not bad says I.

A QUARTER Says He.

Closely followed by the sound of me closing the door behind me.


A couple of years ago I was after insurance on my Granada, With dealer/factory fitted spoiler & skirt kit. Insurance companies said it was modified so I said I would take them of cos it added a £100 to the price. They said that the car would them also be modified so the price would stay up.

Insurance Companies. Your insured until you make a claim & if they can get out of it.................

go figure

Enjoy.

My brother recently tried to re-insure his landrover and was told that because he had replaced the front bumper with a steel one (standard LR part but not original) they would not insure him... at all.. and that's with 20 years driving & ful ncb !

not wanting to name drop but I was with elephant last year (poor level of cover but cheap) and this year i filled in a web site and it emailed back a list of quotes which were over 20% cheaper than any other I could find.

Confused? if you fancy getting a quote

quote:

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Originally posted by ChrisW
What's your everyday car then Mackie?

Chris

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Ahh yes - you told me before duh!

As you're in St Albans you should come down to the 3 horseshoes pub (up the road from R-Tec) first Sunday of the month for a pub dinner and a chat with some other Ford mad people

Chris

ChrisW, I don't suppose you are on passionford.com are you?
I wouldn't say I was Ford mad but I do like performance Fords and have pondered modifying mine.

I'm a member on passionford but I find it's too full of bullshit to spend the time trawling through it every day. I'm in the FordSport club though (who organise the pub meet) and hang around on xrtwo.com

Chris