I recently bought the Indian Red Coupe that Purple Tom converted to a GT and did the ABD conversion.

It is still a 1043cc on the log book, and as I only had a month left on my policy for my old 1043cc Polo I just

told them the new reg number and that was that. (naughty I know but I would have been forced to accept

whatever ridiculous premium they decided to add on the spot!)

Now my renewal is up and I want the car to be fully covered legally and it all done right.

I've got loads of quotes and here are a few observations that you may find interesting and maybe helpful?

Here's a few of my details just to help with making the figures relevant.

I'm a lad (duh), 27 years old, driving for 10 years and have 2 years no claims bonus.

One claim March 2007 (hit parked car - value £200)

2 convictions, both SP30's in April 2006 and March 2008.

Darlington area, car garaged, 6000 - 8000 miles per year.

Girlfriend as additional driver, she is 27 and has no claims or convictions.

Here is what I have found so far,,,,,

1) FULLY COMP CHEAPER THAN 3rd PARTY FIRE & THEFT

Yes, it makes no sense to me either but when using confused.com, simply changing from 3rd party to fully comp

dropped the cost from the £300 area to more like £250. (This was based on a factory built GT just to get some initial prices)

It's not like it was a mistake made by just one company, pretty much every one was cheaper and it's not just me.

A girl I know who did hers a couple of weeks ago found the same thing. I spoke to a guy at Brentacre today who said

that this is happening a lot, but it IS a mistake, but the company has to honour the price as you have been given a quote.

2) GT CONVERSTION - MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE THAN FACTORY GT TO INSURE

I wasn't sure if this would be the case or not. TBH, I didn't care as I wanted the car no matter what but it's safe to say

that if you are thinking about a converstion over buying a GT, you will pay quite a bit more to insure it so be prepared!

Like I said before, I got loads of quotes for a GT that were about all way less than £300 fully comp.

Now lets leave the ABD bottom end out of this for now. When I phoned a few companies and said

"well the thing is, it's not a GT, it's a 1043cc with a GT engine" they all gave me new figures in the region

of £700 to £900. The Co-op who had been the cheapest quote even refused to quote for a 'modified' car at all.

Lets' start talking MODS!!!

On confused.com you can add mods. For the first time I ticked the YES box which then asked me to say what it had done

so I selected alloys, suspension, air filter, S/S exhaust, even engine capacity increase! etc etc.

Doing this caused a few companies not to quote but opened up a few new ones including one called PERFORMANCE DIRECT.

I thought at last, I found somebody who doesn't hate mods! I was wrong : ) Again, I phoned them to explain the conversion

and even though they would cover a GT with all these mods for a mere £270, as soon as I mentioned that the car was originaly

a 1043cc the price shot up to £1000. I tried to explain that the car I wanted to insure was every bit the same as a factory GT

with ABD bottom end, just with everything in a different shell but they were having none of it. They said they would have to class

it as a HEAVILY modified 1043cc, even stating that the larger brake master cylinder and discs add to the price!

(WHY? THEY HELP YOU SLOW DOWN FOR GODS SAKE!!!)

Once again, I pleaded that all this HEAVY modification still only takes the car to the same spec as a GT with ABD bottom end

(which they were happy to insure for £270) but they just said "it doesn't work like that".

I suppose that is the whole point to this, whereas you or me think in a logical way (the way of thinking that would place a GT conversion

along side a factory GT) the way the insurance companies think of a few BUZ WORDS like 'modification' 'engine swap' etc and

pluck a figure from the sky to add for each of these, so a GT conversion in tier eyes should cost the same to insure as a Civic R !!!

Anyway, they have been mention on clubpolo before, BRENTACRE insurance. If nobody here can think of anybody better then I

am going to go with them. You tell em what car you have and they set you a BHP limit and a price. You can do whatever you want

to the car, and although you need to tell them about it, they will NOT put the price up if you keep to the BHP limit.

I told them everything about the car with the GT engine, ABD, sub frame, Cup Kit etc etc and they gave me a price of (wait for it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,)

£439.00 FULLY COMP and this covers me all the way to 100bhp, so even with the chip and induction kit yet to be fitted I can

phone them about these mods knowing that they will not charge me a penny for them!

Because of the way they think, cosmetic stuff like alloys, body kits, window tints will never make a difference.

I'll stop now before everybody dies of boredom, but please let me know if you think you know the cheapest company to fully cover

a GT 'modified' POLO!

Cheers

Id rip there arm off mates thats a good deal considering your history on driving!

Grind all the engine numbers off and say its a 1 litre lol

Id rip there arm off mates thats a good deal considering your history on driving!

haha, yeah I did go through a pad patch. Not one of those 'things' was when I was being silly either.

You can take your car out on some country lanes and do 110mph and totally get a way with it, then

on the night before easter, pop out to the 24hour tesco at 2am to get some last minute eggs and

get caught doing 34 in a 30 zone with no other cars in a 10 mile radius by a copper who was out on

speed camera training!

At least if I got caught doing something reall daft if wouldn't be so bad lol.

So you reckon it's a good deal? It's pretty good I suppose when only 3 or 4 years ago I was paying almost £700

for a TD Escort, yuk!!!

As for grinding the number off, errrrr, no way (I know it was a joke) however, I was considering just saying it's a normal GT,

but then they will probably check it when they get the reg no, but maybe they would just be happy that I wanted to pay too much

to insure a 1043cc!

Yeah, think I'll go with the quote, it seems fair.

Have you tried HIC? they're a brokers but have pretty much the same policy as brentacre over HP limits and styling.

Might be worth seeing if they can beat it?

Should the logbook not be changed from the 1043cc to the new ABD 1400cc or the GT engine, then surely when it comes up on the system it will just be classed as having that engine rather than it being a large modification. Or am I getting this all wrong, feel free to correct me?

Brentacre have given me the best deal for my gt conversion - £275 full comp

(32 years old, driveway, sk4 postcode, no points or accidents)

There is a 100bhp limit on my policy.

Try the specialists/small guys like Brentacre, Adrian Flux. You could even try Endsleigh or a very helpful company called Geoffrey Simmons Insurance Consultants. It doesn't hurt to get a copy of PVW or even max power (shudder!) to find more options.

If you don't use a specialist, the mainstream companies take the piss out of you on price. Trust me I've been there. The big boys just want easy mainstream money.

Whatever you do, don't fill out an application form on the web, speak to someone.

DON'T use HIC, or any policy where the underwriters are Highway.

Good luck

Edited 17 September, 200916 yr by schneil

DON'T use HIC, or any policy where the underwriters are Highway.

Why not?

Should the logbook not be changed from the 1043cc to the new ABD 1400cc or the GT engine, then surely when it comes up on the system it will just be classed as having that engine rather than it being a large modification. Or am I getting this all wrong, feel free to correct me?

Yeh thats what i was thinking.. but i think maybe the 'trim level' would be different aswell. if the engine number showed it was the 1400 ABD but the trim level was just POLO CL instead of POLO GT (or whatever, I'm not up on these models lol) then maybe they would get suspicious..

Then again you could be right..

Either way - it's fucking ridiculous them quotes you are getting.. they must just pull these figures out of their arse cos they know it's your only option.

You could just play it dumb and say cos the logbook wasn't changed, you thought it was just a 1.0 and insured it as so? Being totally honest about being dishonest - that is what I would do.

When I bought my beetle, the engine code didn't match what the logbook showed. Had had a change for a recon unit sometime in it's life, but never found out when. I only ever found out after scouring through the S/H one night.. previous owner must have never known or just played dumb.

Point being.. unless you have a crash and want to claim for your car and insurance scour it over.. who's to know?

You could just play it dumb and say cos the logbook wasn't changed, you thought it was just a 1.0 and insured it as so? Being totally honest about being dishonest - that is what I would do.

And if someone is to claim off you? They will take one look under the engine bay and your insurance will be voided....

To the OP - Have you asked purple tom how he insured it?

Edited 18 September, 200916 yr by Olly S

And if someone is to claim off you? They will take one look under the engine bay and your insurance will be voided....

To the OP - Have you asked purple tom how he insured it?

Fair point.. although if someone is claiming off you and your insurance is 3rd party, insurance would have no reason to touch your car.. just the car of the person you went into? Or do insurance companies inspect your car anyway?

I know it is a dishonest option, but it is an option.. and in fairness the responsibility did lie with the prev. owner to correct the V5 before sale. For all the insurance company could know, you could know absolutely nothing about cars and not even realise that it is a different engine..

DON'T use HIC, or any policy where the underwriters are Highway.

Why not?

^^^What he said???

And if someone is to claim off you? They will take one look under the engine bay and your insurance will be voided....

To the OP - Have you asked purple tom how he insured it?

Fair point.. although if someone is claiming off you and your insurance is 3rd party, insurance would have no reason to touch your car.. just the car of the person you went into? Or do insurance companies inspect your car anyway?

Yep

I've had some bizarre quotes from HIC, one for my Silver GT converted loon, and one for the gold one, which is standard.

The quote for the standard was around £120 more.

Go figure.

Edited 18 September, 200916 yr by donnyburger

DON'T use HIC, or any policy where the underwriters are Highway.

Why not?

^^^What he said???

I had an uninsured driver reverse into me. She accepted blame, but when I had quotes of nearly a grand to repair the damage, she told me to fuck off.

I asked highway for advice, they advised me to claim on my insurance and they'd chase the other driver for the cash.

6 months of Highway doing fuck all and fobbing me off ensued. I think all they did was write her a letter saying you were involved in an accident with so&so, that's it!

I even got the insurance details of the car's owner from the police, Highway hadn't even reported the accident to the car's insurer (which is 100% why I know the driver was not insured, just her daughter)

Every time I rang Highway to ask on the claim, I kept being given the same bullshit, "yes we're chasing her up bla bla". Looking back on it I really should have gone and made a complaint to the ombudsman.

Seriously all they did was bounce the claim back on me, and I got stung with a £2200 premium at renewal time, as I had a fault accident on file.

At the time I told Keith Lee (ex head of club polo), he couldn't do much, but because I was so badly treated, he took HIC and Highway off the clubs list of preferred insurers.

So if you want insurance that is not worth the paper it's written on, go to Highway.

I've just taken out insurance with Highway using Brentacre, no I'm all worried, nice one Neil!!!!

brentacre were the best when i huinted about mate.

my Heck conversion is insured with them and they do a good deal and understand what a psd toothy set is etc and know a G conversion is a bolt in job so isnt really like putting a subaru engine in or shit like that.

and my GT loon is insured with them too for £350 a year with all mods declared.

Edited 20 September, 200916 yr by genesisGT

I'm, with highway too, Via Adrian flux

Hope I don't actually need to use them

Should the logbook not be changed from the 1043cc to the new ABD 1400cc or the GT engine, then surely when it comes up on the system it will just be classed as having that engine rather than it being a large modification. Or am I getting this all wrong, feel free to correct me?

Hi thought the same thing, and TBH I still don't know. I will eventually get around to updating the log book but the insurance was the most important thing for now. I still reckon it would be difficult to get a straight forward quote though as when they put the reg no in it will come up with a 1.4 polo that never really existed so they wont be able to work out a price without going over the mods anyway. I will know next year though, I'll do it that way and see what happens!

Hi everybody, it's been a few days since I've had internet and there have been loads of replies!

I haven't asked Tom but did ask the guy he sold it to (who sold it to me) and he said HIC.

I phoned them, not realising they were a broker but to cut it short, they were a bit cheaper than

Brentacre by putting me on a classic car policy with 8000 mile limit.

NOW I READ ALL THE 'AVOID HIGHWAYS' COMMENTS,,,,, TOO LATE lol

Didn't even know I was with thim till the paperwork came through, sure they are LV, the artwork and logo looks the same, anyway,,,,

I really wouldn't want to insure it as a 1.0ltr, but I think the reasons have already been covered.

Tell you what though, if they try to shove the price up at renewal time they can feck off and I'll go with brentacre instead : )

At least I can drive it now without that horrible niggling thought of 'what if i crash' at the back of my mind.

Even if Highways are crap, I have now done everything I can to make sure I am legally covered so the law

is on my side.

I'm with brentacre but with a company called QBE give them a shot

Hey,

I was originally insured through Adrian Flux when I had the car, as I changed to it halfway through the year when my old GT got written off.

What I did regarding the engine was told them:

- The car is originally a 1043cc VW Polo CL.

- It has the ENGINE from a 1391cc VW Golf CL (lowest insurance group mk3 Golf)

- It has the engine management and camshaft from a 1272cc VW Polo GT

It took the guy a few minutes to work it all out, but basically I paid a price based on the standard insurance premium for a Mk3 Golf 1.4 CL. This is because they quoted me based on the engine in the car, and then added around £50 for the rest of the modifications. I made sure everything was written down in the policy documents before they were sent out, and AF were true to their word. I was 23 with 4 years NCB when I had the car and I think it cost me around £400 F/C for the year.

It was exactly the same with my Mini, which has the standard 1.6 engine from a 1993 Vauxhall Astra GLS. I am paying a premium based on the normal price for an Astra, with a little bit more on top because of the modifications to the Mini - as a result I paid £200 F/C for a 1978 Mini with a 0-60 time of 6 seconds and a top speed of 130mph - result!!

Regarding the logbook change, I didn't get around to it because I sold it pretty much as soon as I'd finished the conversion. When I put a Vauxhall lump in the Mini (2006) it was just a case of popping to my local DVLA office with the new engine number and changing the cubic capacity to 1598cc. They didn't mind because it went up a tax bracket to the higher payments. When Steve (my friend who bought the Polo) tried to change the Polo's logbook to 1391cc they sent the V5 back with a letter requesting and engineers report etc. I think the DVLA must have changed their procedures because it never used to be like that. However its pretty obvious that it will need to be changed to be fully legal.

Hope that helps a bit.

Tom

Hi Tom

Dammit, the way you did it sounds much better.

I'll defo get the log book changed then to make it all totally 100% sorted!

I've changed the look fo the car ever so slightly but nothing drastic. It was perfect as it was but

it was never gonna feel like my own. I'll put up some photos soon, but all I've done is put the

de-badge grill that I already had on, put a exhaust trim on (not a £2.99 halfords one) and

replaced the wheel trims with some retro chrome wheel rings. It sounds pretty horrible I know

but the wheels actually look very good, the chrome things fit perfectly and give the steelies a

deep dish look. people keep asking me where I got my alloys lol. just need some corrado centre caps now.

ugh... can't belive people can be so picky about insurance quotes like this... makes me sick to know i'm paying £1200 a year for a 1 litre mk3, and there's people out there insured on G40's for about £200. lol. :(

ugh... can't belive people can be so picky about insurance quotes like this... makes me sick to know i'm paying £1200 a year for a 1 litre mk3, and there's people out there insured on G40's for about £200. lol. :(

c'est la vie..