Just seen this post on my facebook feed. It seems the police are seizing cars that are 'uninsured' due to undeclared mods, which is long over due in my opinion.

It cost me £20 more to declare all my mods and it probably won't cost you much more. Declare your mods or don't modify your car!

Link : https://www.facebook.com/northumbriapolice/photos/a.384561501308.165727.26145041308/10152792407246309/?type=1&theater

Story

Northumbria Police

This Vauxhall Corsa was seized by the Op Dragoon team at a meet at the Team Valley on Sunday night.

It is registered and insured as a standard 1.4litre vehicle, however, after being examined by police it was found to have been fitted with a turbo charged 2.0 litre engine.

It also had undisclosed modifications on it including a straight through wide bore sports exhaust system, a sports air induction system, modified and lowered suspension and after market alloy wheels.

The car was seized having undisclosed performance modifications on his car and the driver has been reported for road traffic and fraud offences and will be summonsed to court in due course.

Chief Inspector John Heckels said: "If you don't disclose modifications to your insurance then it isn't valid. That means you are on the roads without insurance and that is an offence.

"The Op Dragoon team are working with modified car enthusiasts in our area and we have no problem with groups of friends gathering in their cars. People have a right to do this and as long as it doesn't lead to disorder, anti social behaviour or reckless driving then we will try to support and facilitate this where we can.

"We do not want to go down the route of wholesale banning of car cruises. This just punishes everyone, including the safe and responsible majority of drivers that cause no problems.

"We understand that people have a passion for cars and driving but we have to deal with the consequences of dangerous driving.

"There is a minority who seem to think that they can do what they want on the roads and that the law does not apply to them. These are the people that the Op Dragoon team are targeting.

"Keep it safe, keep it legal and behave responsibly behind the wheel and you will not have to worry about us."

+1 i have everything from the engine conversion right through suspension and even steering wheel declared on my insurance, absolutely not worth leaving things un-declared and getting caught

Why am I not surprised that the car in question is a Corsa? I think that says a lot from the off...

I declared my coilovers and my alloys for the grand total of about £38. Not really anything, when the consequence could be having your car taken.

It's definitely time they did this, too many people drive around heavily modified (usually buckets) and basically uninsured.

The only thing with my insurance that ever makes it go up is performance mods, suspension etc cost me nothing but a £15 "Admin" fee

its those admin fees that annoys me. usually means 2mins tapping the new info into the computer :/

I don't think the fact that it's a Corsa says anything at all. I've been a member of this forum for 13 years now, and the old e-groups before it, and in that time I've seen enough threads to know undeclared modifications are rife among Polo owners too.

Sorry that's come out as a snappy response. Young people in modified cars get a bad reputation, assumed to be chavs, by a lot of other motorists. It's a cliche, and it's an incorrect one. I don't like seeing the same prejudices between parts of the same scene - which we are, regardless of how we style our cars or the badge on our keys. Having a Corsa doesn't make you more or less of a chav than having a Polo.

Doesn't change the fact I've seen far more chavs in Corsa's than Polo's! :p

Maybe its just where I live. The local Tesco is always full of about 20 tw*ts in 1.0 Corsa B's 'drag racing' up and down the car park. Rarely see anything else in there

Edited 14 March, 201511 yr by mbusby993

thats the corsa b owners club

Don't think it has anything to do with it being a corsa either, I think its the same with every modified car group there's always stubborn teens that will try to get away without paying a bit extra

Happens everywhere. You get the typical threads that consist of 'lowered 120mm, 19" rims and 10000k HID's yo' regardless of what car they're driving. There's a point where mods stop being fun and start being unpractical and tw*tty...

All mods should be declared and there will be loads of cars out there with undeclared mods. But insurance companies and young drivers don't really help one another.

When I was 17 I went out and bought a car with aftermarket alloys already fitted. I got a quote for the car as standard 'third party only' for something stupid like £2000. Then when I said the car had alloys and I wanted to keep them on the price went up by £500....for a set of alloys worth about £200....on a third party only policy. I got the car on the road legally in the end but I did think what is the point?

But then on the other hand you have young drivers who clearly have a highly modified car where pretty much the bare shell is the only standard part. Yet when they get questioned they try and claim they bought the car like that and they were sure it was standard. The way I see it is, if you're spending a serious amount of money to make your car stand out then surely it is worth the extra few quid to insure it properly to save any hassle.

Hahaha somebody replaced his 1.4 with a 2.0 Liter and turbo, doesn't declare anything to the insurance and when the police takes his car, people are screaming that the police should do much more important things...... that is the funny thing for me.

Haha here in G. we have to tell the insurance when we have more power. Then we have to pay more.

That and everything other not original stuff has to get declared/listed in the cars registration papers, so the gay/guy that makes the TÜV (your MOT) decides whether it is ok or not ok to drive.... whats not listed in the papers makes the insurance invalit.

So you over there on the island are still in heaven and you are crying on a very very high level i think.

cheers

Christian

Hahaha somebody replaced his 1.4 with a 2.0 Liter and turbo, doesn't declare anything to the insurance and when the police takes his car, people are screaming that the police should do much more important things...... that is the funny thing for me.

Haha here in G. we have to tell the insurance when we have more power. Then we have to pay more.

That and everything other not original stuff has to get declared/listed in the cars registration papers, so the gay/guy that makes the TÜV (your MOT) decides whether it is ok or not ok to drive.... whats not listed in the papers makes the insurance invalit.

So you over there on the island are still in heaven and you are crying on a very very high level i think.

cheers

Christian

to be fair, that's what it's meant to be like over here, but people always push and push it. I think they need to clamp down hard on it all and maybe people will start to learn a lesson or two from it!

I know of some one who had a car which had something like Corsa SRI wheels on a lower spec Corsa which he genuinely didn't know weren't standard. As far as he was concerned they had a Vauxhall badge on and he'd seen them on other Corsas. He flipped his car over and had to pay for road closure, repairs and got nothing paid out for his car. Now that's bad of the insurers.

But on the other hand people with a 1.8T engine in a Lupo which is slammed with bucket seats and a full sound system wondering why their car's not insured is just stupid.

With regard to it being typical it's a Corsa I know there's probably quite a few people on here who don't declare mods. Luckily this forum doesn't applaud people for not declaring mods/engine conversions like other forums.

Yeah you don't get many 'chavs' driving polo's... Plenty of of kids who would probably struggle to tie their laces without help, but very few 'chavs'

I'm not surprised by this been a corsa featured, but as Alex says further up still rife in polo owners too. I always use Brentacre for my polo and declare all mods.

So i've got a question 2 all of you.

One example, nearly the best example i could find for this topic, is the following.

The following pics are from ps05 and were taken from a 1.8T mk4 polo.

Now be honest, do you all think that this could/can be or is a reasonable brakesystem?

If you are driving around and you would know the car behind you has got that brakesystem on board, will you feel better, or will you feel bad?

Sometimes i really think some people don't feel any pain in the brain.
Here in germany this would be so very very very illegal, what about that in the uk?

I mean to take hoses which i have in my garden for give water to the flowers and so very very unprofessional protected against cutting metal into the hoses....

Do you think that this "brakesystem" can be that reliable than one from factory on?

Does anyone wants such bullshit on public streets?

I do not.

What about you?

(Btw: that example shows me that even the cars featured in the PVW Mag (this car was featured) have got shit behind the beautyful mask, but thats just my opinion)

cheers

Christian

Edited 17 March, 201511 yr by Christian6N

Quite worrying that it takes a chavvy corsa with a big undeclared engine conv to get seized for people to start telling others to make sure you declare your mods

That was obvious from day one

I think by now every one knows you need to declare your mods otherwise your uninsured. But I think a lot of people are in the mind set 'I won't crash any way and if I do I can remove them. So there's no way I can be caught' Now the police have started to take action it may make them think twice before saving £50 on insurance.