Modifying cars could become more difficult

Aerial Andy944

The Torque Meister
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VW Golf GT TDi 200
http://garagewire.co.uk/news/depart...d-straight-on-vehicle-emissions-modifications
Article on Garagewire about mechanics who modify vehicles beyond emissions regs could face unlimited fine but ultimately it's still down to the driver to make sure their vehicle is legal.
@Lunchmoney how do insurers view modifying? Do they inspect cars that have been crashed to see if its been modified and not declared i.e DPF removed or remapped ECU? I would of thought if they found something not declared it would mean the driver has been driving around without a valid insurance
 
personally think this is another scare article. there is no way they could ever do this in practice after all any non oem exhaust is potentially suspect with stainless exhausts outlawed as well as they all flow better
And of course then there is the vw farce - every owner to pay £1000 i dont think so.

still acording to the article the stagea will be fine because it didnt need type approval when I imported it :p
 
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Big Q for me.
It depends if you've declared your mods. Some insurers wont cover some mods and if the mod makes the car non road legal that is likely to cause a decline for cover in the first place.
As far as crash causes go, again it depends. Nearly all insurers operate a model called Fast Track Total Loss (FTTL). If, when reporting an incident, you describe significant damage they wont even inspect your car, just offer a valuation and pay out (less any excess and retention fee).
If they need to inspect for any reason they should only be looking at the damage for purposes of assessing the cost of repair.
The only reason an inspector would go looking for mods would be if someone has reported that the incident was caused by said mods. Of course, you are never going to say that and the other driver is very unlikely to know about them, so they won't either.
All in all, it is unlikely an inspecting engineer will give two damns about your mods.

Dont quote me if you get into a crash and your insurer does pick up on your mods :lol:
 
When it comes to DPF removal/DE cat and similar mods.
MOT testers will look for recent work around the cat for example, shiny bits of metal, new screws, recent scuffs consistent with removal and tampering, fresh welds etc... then unless you can prove that work was carried out to replace the cat or repair it you'll be looking at a fail.
 
As many of you may know my car is highly modified and road legal with 1 possible exception an atmo BOV ( they were ok when it was fitted way back but now frowned on) BUT all mods that require an engineers inspection and approval have a BLUE PLATE with the codes fitted in the engine bay as required by law.

My insurer has all of them noted on my policy details and I EM them whenever I change or upgrade anything and they send out a new cover note with the changes noted.
 
Lunchy I have always told people that should one crash the insurance assessor was not my mate and would be looking for something to deny the claim.

PS my no 2 son who works in the industry says they would only deny a claim if a mod was unsafe and was a factor in the crash.
 
Big Q for me.
It depends if you've declared your mods. Some insurers wont cover some mods and if the mod makes the car non road legal that is likely to cause a decline for cover in the first place.
As far as crash causes go, again it depends. Nearly all insurers operate a model called Fast Track Total Loss (FTTL). If, when reporting an incident, you describe significant damage they wont even inspect your car, just offer a valuation and pay out (less any excess and retention fee).
If they need to inspect for any reason they should only be looking at the damage for purposes of assessing the cost of repair.
The only reason an inspector would go looking for mods would be if someone has reported that the incident was caused by said mods. Of course, you are never going to say that and the other driver is very unlikely to know about them, so they won't either.
All in all, it is unlikely an inspecting engineer will give two damns about your mods.

Dont quote me if you get into a crash and your insurer does pick up on your mods :lol:
And...........Boom. Got a case in front of me right now.
Young driver hits another car in the rear. No issues on who is at fault.
However the garage that was going to repair his car sent photos of the damage (as it was borderline write off) and the inspecting engineer saw the stretched tyres.... So they went looking.
On just the visual look around, without opening the bonnet, they found stretched tyres, carbon fibre body panels, and racing tow hook.
They opened the bonnet and see K&N air filter, high performance electrical condenser system, non OE oil breather, xenon HID kit, non OE suspension sticking out of the pillars, strut brace across the top of the engine, and a silly carbon oil filler cap.
All blindingly obvious stuff, I have the photos that I obviously wont share, but they wouldn't have seen it if the owner had proper tyres!
Suffice to say my company have voided his insurance from inception. That means that if the owner had declared the mods we would not have offered cover in the first place. We are now going to pay for the other cars damage and then go after our, former, customer to get every penny back. With resulting court action if he doesn't pay. Suffice to say it's going to be expensive. He now has a cancelled policy on his insurance record that all future insurers will see and ask about. He will be paying for this mistake for a very long time.

Moral of the story - declare your mods, folks. |B
 
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I really don't know why people don't notify insurers, it's so risky to take a chance. It is pretty unusual if you can't find an insurer who can offer reasonable terms to you.
 
Well just think about the repair costs if you should run up the back of something like a Lambo and you had your insurance cover wiped due to mods that were never declared to the insurer :eek:
 
Thankfully the new tougher MOT test should make things safer for everyone and will hopefully deter the nighmare DIY modders we see around.
 
Better late than never BUT there are the smarties out there who will for instance throw on a set of factory wheels and refit the cat to pass the MOT and refit them again after getting a clean bill of health.
 
It is never easy but it's the challenge that makes it worth it. We all want the best upgrades for our cars that's the reason why we're willing to do research and learn about modification.
 

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