I'm currently insured with Endsleigh, who charge me about £400 for a stock
Ibiza FR TDI. It would be less, but I live in an insurance-unfriendly postcode.
My car is currently unmodified, but a remap is definitely on the horizon. Endsleigh are one of the few insurance companies whose website actually lets you declare modifications and it will still give you an online quote. If I choose "Engine tuned" from the list of mods, it quotes me about £180 extra. Does that seem reasonable - is that roughly the same price hike that other people have experienced?
I was thinking the other day about whether or not to declare the mod. My thinking was that you need to consider three things:
- How much benefit do you get from not declaring it?
- What is the likelihood of being caught?
- What are the possible consequences of being caught?
The benefit is clearly about £180 per year, which is not going to break the bank but it is a non-trivial amount of money. The risk of being caught is probably pretty small; it's difficult to imagine the insurance company spending the money to get your ECU investigated - much more likely that they'll either do nothing or just send someone to have a visual check (which will not reveal the mod).
But the possible consequences of being caught are quite serious. Obviously the insurance company will wash their hands of any comprehensive cover you thought you had, so you can wave goodbye to the value of your car or the repairs - possibly several thousand pounds. But it's conceivable they might also refuse to cover your third party liability as well, leaving you personally liable for the damage to other people's cars and property. Worse still, if someone else was seriously injured you could find yourself being sued for medical expenses, loss of earnings, etc. We could easily be talking tens of thousands here.
And the consequences don't stop there. I doubt the insurance company would go to the expense of prosecuting you for the fraud, but you can bet they will record the fact that you failed to provide accurate information and they will certainly refuse to insure you in the future. And insurance companies share information like this, so you're likely to struggle finding
anyone to insure you in the future - without charging you an enormous premium.
So on balance I've decided that I will cough up the money when the time comes. It's the right thing to do IMHO, though it won't stop me grumbling about it!