Cali as a second vehicle

Chunkymunky · Jan 7, 2020

Hi. As per my other thread- taking the plunge, I’m now getting extremely close to a big expensive lump of German engineering sitting on my drive.
Due to one thing and another, this will not be a daily driver ( yet). So wife and I have our own cars and separate insurance policies in our own names. Each of us has our own NCD ( both maximum). My wife tends to get better quotes than me ( she’s a professional driver). Before I start enquiries with the insurance companies I thought I’d do some background research and haven’t found the specific info in any of my other searching of the forum. what are my options? Anybody in similar position
Looking at European cover and 5-7 k miles pa with the option to just use it whenever. Social / domestic with no business. Prefer legal protection and windscreen cover. Don’t need breakdown
- is it possible with multi car insurance to insure two vehicles on the one policy ( we insured with direct line and LV).
- do I need to start thinking of changing the Cali to a main vehicle policy and insuring the car separately ?

- are bespoke Motorhome policies of any benefit versus traditional car policies ? What happens with NCD?
- broker or direct?
- recommendations ?
- I’ve separate GAP on the other two cars, but wasn’t thinking about it with the Cali with it being seconds hand and at a reasonably high residual with no finance. Is it worth entertaining ?

thanks all.

MartG · Jan 7, 2020

You are about to get a load of opinions!
I have multicar with LV, which I am happy with, fully covered (with underwriter confirmation), but others here have confirmed theirs haven't been fully covered with them.
I used to be insured with Direct Line, they quoted multicar, fully covered with habitation, but didn't have some of the benefits.
Check out the forum adverts, Comfort here offer discounts.
Because of your personal situation & requirements, you need to ring round.
Your NCD may be taken into account, but normally only applied to ONE vehicle, choose which vehicle will give the biggest discount...
I wouldn't bother with GAP personally...

Well done & good luck! :thumb

Legin · Jan 7, 2020

As above you will get loads of opinions. My opinion as you are with LV already is go with them as they have favourable rates in my experience. I have claimed twice on LV (cars) and never had a problem so have no worries about my Cali. You may find it best to swap the cali onto your current policy then start a new policy with no NCB on the lowest cost to insure vehicle, this is what I did so now have three policies all seperate and my wife has a fourth. We like cars !
Dont bother with GAP its very expensive for the extra cover you get imo.

Chunkymunky · Jan 7, 2020

Thanks both.
That’s just want I want- loads of opinions before I start calling round.
I had a really bad smash about ten years ago and it’s true to say you only realize how good your insurance is when you need to claim , so the cost is secondary to cover for me ( within reason obviously !)
The cars are on finance so got two lots of ( non dealer gap ) for £250 when they both came out of the period for “ return to invoice”. Made me sleep a bit better knowing I wasn’t going to be stung for a balloon if anything happened to them ( for the sake of £250- I have another friend who claimed off his gap to good effect when his car was taken)
I’d always assumed the multi car related to his and hers ( or whatever!) policies in a household so it interests me about tagging on the Cali to any existing policy. The habitation info I could see as being quite vague from a renewal point of view ( but I’ll wager they find the information in the blink of an eye on the event of a claim !)
I do like the LV policy because of the European cover but it’s in my wife’s name so I might have to get her to share the ringing round which is handy!

subthree · Jan 7, 2020

I am currently waiting for our T6.1 to arrive, hopefully in a few weeks. I have already had a quote from Comfort, because my brother-in-law has his T5 insured with them. We already have 2 cars on a multi-car policy but we will not be adding the Cali to that policy. We had a no fault accident 4 years ago where our insurer (Admiral) turned out to be utterly useless. I now insure with companies who provide good cover and service rather than trying to save a few pounds.

There will be many opinions but I am currently favouring Comfort because they offer new for old for the first 3 years, which I appreciate is not applicable for you, and someone on here had their Cali stolen/written off a few months ago and they had a cheque within a few days. I will NOT be insuring with LV as I had a quote from them but there was confusion as to what was covered. When i have £50-60k of Cali I am not going to quibble over a few ten of pounds, given my previous experience with Admiral, to have any ambiguity. I did have both cars insured with LV for a couple of years, but didn't need to claim so no idea what they are like when it goes wrong.

That is my opinion, open the flood gates!!!

subthree · Jan 7, 2020

Also, Comfort gave me a quote based upon my NCD even though I will not be transferring that across. I think that is very fair.

Ting Tong · Jan 7, 2020

Be careful: It’s been widely discussed on here that the LV policy doesn’t cover the habitation parts of the vehicle. I was originally on an aviva policy and that didn’t cover fire if the vehicle was equipped for cooking! I’d stick with specialist motor home insurers like safeguard or comfort.

LV Insurance Again

After initially Insuring in February my T6 Cali with LV but only to find out 2 weeks later that the habitation area is not included, canceled it. Then received a call from them to say it may not say it on the details but in the event of an accident we would insure it, to late already cancelled...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

AlisonF · Jan 7, 2020

I used multi car insurance when I just had the estate car and convertible. But since I sold the convertible and bought the Cali I have 2 policies. The Cali through C&CC (or C&MC as I think it now is) as they seem to offer a good package for a Cali. The estate car I change insurer each year looking for the best deal from one of the better known insurers i.e. not simply the cheapest I can find. Most of these car insurers won’t consider the Cali hence the 2 policy decision.

Jontymo · Jan 7, 2020

We have 2 cars and the Cali, the wife’s car is a company car, I phoned around and got cover from Admiral in the wife’s name with me named for £380. My car goes back next week so will then look to cancel the wife’s insurance and take out in my name with my no claims on it.

subthree · Jan 7, 2020

Jontymo said:
We have 2 cars and the Cali, the wife’s car is a company car, I phoned around and got cover from Admiral in the wife’s name with me named for £380. My car goes back next week so will then look to cancel the wife’s insurance and take out in my name with my no claims on it.

Admiral - We had a no fault accident 4 years ago. Our car was written off. The third party insurer, RSA, was fantastic and sorted everything asap.

We were mid-term with Admiral so we had to cancel the policy - they refunded the remainder of the policy LESS £50 cancellation fee!!! It is not the £50 that winds me up, it is their attitude that it was my choice to cancel the policy! Never, ever will I insure a car with Admiral again. And I will take every opportunity to let people know that story

Jontymo · Jan 7, 2020

subthree said:
Admiral - We had a no fault accident 4 years ago. Our car was written off. The third party insurer, RSA, was fantastic and sorted everything asap.

We were mid-term with Admiral so we had to cancel the policy - they refunded the remainder of the policy LESS £50 cancellation fee!!! It is not the £50 that winds me up, it is their attitude that it was my choice to cancel the policy! Never, ever will I insure a car with Admiral again. And I will take every opportunity to let people know that story

I will let you know how we get on when we do the same

Chunkymunky · Jan 9, 2020

Ok - started the ringing round and have been quite encouraged. - comfort were very nice - cover sounds good too. European cover , legal cover and windscreen. annual mileage 8k - £340 10k £414 - obviously want to flog me breakdown too but I have that with European cover with the bank. A good start and the cover looks decent too ( as did the excess). Looking through the policy details I like the look of it.

direct line- main insurer for my car ( a1) not so good: They didn’t know what the vehicle was, then couldn’t find the specific model, then told me it was £1200 on multi car ! And a £500 excess! I wasn’t paying that for my Capri when I was 18! Might be giving them a miss...

WelshGas · Jan 9, 2020

Chunkymunky said:
Ok - started the ringing round and have been quite encouraged. - comfort were very nice - cover sounds good too. European cover , legal cover and windscreen. annual mileage 8k - £340 10k £414 - obviously want to flog me breakdown too but I have that with European cover with the bank. A good start and the cover looks decent too ( as did the excess). Looking through the policy details I like the look of it.

direct line- main insurer for my car ( a1) not so good: They didn’t know what the vehicle was, then couldn’t find the specific model, then told me it was £1200 on multi car ! And a £500 excess! I wasn’t paying that for my Capri when I was 18! Might be giving them a miss...

Make sure you are happy with Comforts 48 hr “ Parking “ clause. You cannot leave it unattended without their permission.

Chunkymunky · Jan 10, 2020

Yes thanks WG
I saw the previous threads.
I can’t see a time when this will apply to us. I asked about long stay parking- no prob if secured car park.
they did seem quite keen for information regarding my driveway deeds- I presume so I’m not parked on the road etc
They seemed to know what they were talking about and I think I prefer a geared policy for motor homes rather than a car policy
Caravan club just quoted me nearly £600 so looks like comfort for me

Chunkymunky · Jan 21, 2020

Update : took policy out with comfort £360 on 8k miles with European cover too. SDP and commuting. And legal cover. With three named drivers. They Wanted £60 for European breakdown too but I already have it.
Note a “motor home policy” was cheaper than a “ camper van” policy and also had a £200 excess as opposed to a £ 250 excess , also allowed five named drivers which camper didn’t ( it wasn’t really elaborated on any other differences in policies but might be worth others considering !)
I also enquired re the “ 48 hour” rule as we have a static caravan and may be leaving it there. They took the details and went to the underwriter- Absolutely no problem , no extra charge and I don’t need to call them every time ! They were very helpful !