Insurance and Trackers

[Davidandbev]

Hi All. Can anyone recommend a good insurance company for our new Cali due any day. It’s also been suggested that a Tracker makes a big reduction to the premium. If it does can anyone recommend a system and give us some idea what it costs. Thanks as always D & B

 

[ArunAlec]

Hi All. Can anyone recommend a good insurance company for our new Cali due any day. It’s also been suggested that a Tracker makes a big reduction to the premium. If it does can anyone recommend a system and give us some idea what it costs. Thanks as always D & B

Try Comfort Insurance. They will probably stipulate that you must have a tracker and will be able to recommend a make. I had a Scorpion already fitted, which happened to be one that they approved.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Hi All. Can anyone recommend a good insurance company for our new Cali due any day. It’s also been suggested that a Tracker makes a big reduction to the premium. If it does can anyone recommend a system and give us some idea what it costs. Thanks as always D & B

I would get insurance quotes with / without tracker before committing to the cost of a tracker. We don’t have one but believe there is also an annual subscription to pay.

 

[Hawthorn37]

We are with Comfort (from new), but they didn’t insist on a tracker. We wanted one in any case, and Comfort gave a small reduction in cost for this.

There are some good threads on insurance to look up. I’d caution though, any advice given is from a personal viewpoint, and lots of factors influence price and conditions of insurance. Also your acceptance of risk will influence your choice.

Insurance

Can anyone recommend an insurance company specialising in campers?

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[.Billy Ocean.]

Hi All. Can anyone recommend a good insurance company for our new Cali due any day. It’s also been suggested that a Tracker makes a big reduction to the premium. If it does can anyone recommend a system and give us some idea what it costs. Thanks as always D & B

Exciting times!

Our Cali (Ocean) is due shortly, so like you we’ve been speaking to a few insurers. We’ve taken on board info from this forum including the all important “what is covered if we set fire to the van when making a bacon butty?”

Due to the vehicle replacement cost, Comfort said we’d need to have a tracker fitted. As we weren’t planning to fit a tracker, this made the combined insurance and tracker cost uncompetitive.

LV have also been mentioned frequently here, with plenty of people happy with the level of cover. So far, we haven’t been able to actually speak with them…

Our current preferred option is NFU Mutual, just trying to pin down some of the details about the factory fit immobiliser and clarity around ‘roof open’. I can see from the Thatcham guide (link provided by VW Online Chat), the Cali has a Cat 1 alarm and immobiliser, so hoping this is sufficient proof for the insurer. Regards the roof, someone previously said roof open implies the panoramic window has been left open, as opposed to the roof being up. I totally agree with this line of thinking but it will be good to get it clarified.

We’d be very interested to know who you speak to / how you get on

https://www.thatcham.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/July-2022-OE.pdf

 

[dspuk]

LV. Cheapest (for me) by a country mile and zero stipulation on trackers etc.

 

[Davidandbev]

Exciting times!

Our Cali (Ocean) is due shortly, so like you we’ve been speaking to a few insurers. We’ve taken on board info from this forum including the all important “what is covered if we set fire to the van when making a bacon butty?”

Due to the vehicle replacement cost, Comfort said we’d need to have a tracker fitted. As we weren’t planning to fit a tracker, this made the combined insurance and tracker cost uncompetitive.

LV have also been mentioned frequently here, with plenty of people happy with the level of cover. So far, we haven’t been able to actually speak with them…

Our current preferred option is NFU Mutual, just trying to pin down some of the details about the factory fit immobiliser and clarity around ‘roof open’. I can see from the Thatcham guide (link provided by VW Online Chat), the Cali has a Cat 1 alarm and immobiliser, so hoping this is sufficient proof for the insurer. Regards the roof, someone previously said roof open implies the panoramic window has been left open, as opposed to the roof being up. I totally agree with this line of thinking but it will be good to get it clarified.

We’d be very interested to know who you speak to / how you get on

https://www.thatcham.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/July-2022-OE.pdf

Thanks everyone for your prompt responses. We are inclining towards taking gap insurance and wondered what the consensus was on its desirability and whether it should influence the insurance/tracker decision.

 

[WelshGas]

Thanks everyone for your prompt responses. We are inclining towards taking gap insurance and wondered what the consensus was on its desirability and whether it should influence the insurance/tracker decision.

Some companies , Caravan and MH Club have New for Old on new vehicles as standard, and they do know what a California is and what it is used for.

 

[Kernowboy]

LV. Cheapest by a country mile and zero stipulation on trackers etc.

Cheapest for who? Not for me.

 

[dspuk]

Cheapest for who? Not for me.

Fair point.

 

[Kernowboy]

Thanks everyone for your prompt responses. We are inclining towards taking gap insurance and wondered what the consensus was on its desirability and whether it should influence the insurance/tracker decision.

Comfort and some others cover new for old for first 2 years up to 15k miles so gap insurance for that period is not needed.
On the tracker with Comfort, they only needed a tracker if the declared value was over £75k; at least that was the case last year, doubt it’s changed.

 

[dspuk]

Thanks everyone for your prompt responses. We are inclining towards taking gap insurance and wondered what the consensus was on its desirability and whether it should influence the insurance/tracker decision.

A good insurance policy should mean you have no need for GAP insurance.

“You don’t need GAP if

• Your car's less than one year old and you have fully comprehensive car insurance
  
  Most fully comprehensive car insurance policies offer 'new car replacement' during the first 12 and sometimes even 24 months for new cars, so if yours does and you're still in this period, you won't need gap insurance.”

If you decide to buy in the second year, then don’t buy from a dealer. GAP has nothing to do with trackers but check the above is in your policy.

 

[dspuk]

Comfort and some others cover new for old for first 2 years up to 15k miles so gap insurance for that period is not needed.
On the tracker with Comfort, they only needed a tracker if the declared value was over £75k; at least that was the case last year, doubt it’s changed.

One of the reasons we went with LV. Comfort was steep (for us anyway) and because our Cali has a list price over 75K they wanted a tracker.

 

[andyinluton]

LV. Cheapest (for me) by a country mile and zero stipulation on trackers etc.

Same here & having been through the claim process with them on my Morgan which is on the same policy as the van, I still haven't found a reason not to use them.

 

[Hawthorn37]

For us, it was a choice between Caravan Club, AIB, Comfort and A-Plan. We have used LV for motor, holiday and home insurance in the past (still got one policy with them), and we’ve been very happy with them. However, I got more vague responses regarding the camping aspect from LV than the others. In any type of contract I don’t like vague, as it has the habit of coming back on you. Also, as the van was brand new, I took note of the 2 or 3 years new for old that the companies offered. When you look at the details, AIB, A Plan and Comfort all offer the same Motorhome policy from Aviva, so the fine print is the same although the brokers put some added rules on top. Caravan Club was the most money, although we like 3 years new for old (but only 30,000 miles). None of the insurers demanded a tracker (I think this is a combination of value plus your postcode), but all offered a small cost saving to have one. I looked at service quality stats, and how knowledgeable they came across to me.

In the end we went with Comfort as the rep was able to easily answer all questions (without having to refer to their manager etc), each time I called I was able to speak to the same named person, and the price was marginally better. They also seem to get a few votes on this forum.

 

[Californication69]

Hi All. Can anyone recommend a good insurance company for our new Cali due any day. It’s also been suggested that a Tracker makes a big reduction to the premium. If it does can anyone recommend a system and give us some idea what it costs. Thanks as always D & B

I use LV. Really good and they know what a camper van is ! They also paid out £3k to VW Bodyshop in Coventry when some A$$ H0le drove into my tailgate and then drove off in LHR car park.
I didn’t pay an extra excess.
I use a Global Telemetrics (globaltelemetricsdotcom) tracker that shows live all the time. You can set up zones (like home, work, train station, airport parking etc) so when it leaves or enters those zones you get an alert, wherever you are, in the world, as long as you have signal.

 

[kurienp]

With a Cali, even before insurance, a good security device is a must. You may have heard of the Ghost security device. I got a ghost fitted and along with the ghost got the tracker for free and then paid a one time lifetime subscription for the global telemetrics tracker.

My ghost was fitted by chris@immobiliserdirect.com . Check with chris and he will be able to tell you if there is a deal to be had on the ghost with a free tracker and a one payment lifetime subscription.

Always good for peace of mind.

 

[dspuk]

With a Cali, even before insurance, a good security device is a must. You may have heard of the Ghost security device. I got a ghost fitted and along with the ghost got the tracker for free and then paid a one time lifetime subscription for the global telemetrics tracker.

My ghost was fitted by chris@immobiliserdirect.com . Check with chris and he will be able to tell you if there is a deal to be had on the ghost with a free tracker and a one payment lifetime subscription.

Always good for peace of mind.

I’ve always struggled with security, statistically, because the numbers and likelihood don’t really stack up the cost and disbenefit of the hand hokey cokey when you get in and do the key presses. So things like bearlocks, wheel clamps etc I have found bizzare because the reality with a modern vehicles, and especially a Cali, is you can’t steal them without a key. Which means they have to break into your houses and steal them (most people hang them up in convenient locations!) or knock on your door and threaten you for the keys.

In the latter case I can see a ghost being useless, because they will just make you enter the code, or give it to them.

In the former case though, I can see the point and there was a blue Cali stolen last week on here or FB that had the keys stolen while they slept that a Ghost would have stopped.

All the above though is in a very small number of thefts - of the 100,000 vehcile crimes last year very few of them were new vehicle thefts, most were crimes from unlocked cars. Bizzare.

But…. I said the same about faraday boxes, and have succumbed as two of our cars are keyless starts and also about dashcams, and mine arrives today for weekend fitting.

A wheel clamp, never, but a Ghost - maybe, just maybe.

ps - you get “tracking” with the WE Connect app, just not likely one that will keep an insurer happy.

 

[kurienp]

I’ve always struggled with security, statistically, because the numbers and likelihood don’t really stack up the cost

a thought - maybe it does not statistically stack up now, because of the number of people who have security devices installed?

disbenefit of the hand hokey cokey when you get in and do the key presses

even I considered it, it very soon becomes a part of your startup routine.

bearlocks, wheel clamps etc

bearlocks, again OK. Wheelclamps, as I have seen, only used by people who do not use their vehicles daily. For daily use, wheelclamps are a no no.

especially a Cali, is you can’t steal them without a key. Which means they have to break into your houses and steal them (most people hang them up in convenient locations!) or knock on your door and threaten you for the keys.

it is not just for home, but when parked in a supermarket, or the times when you park it in a convenient place along with other vehicles when going on a day long walk. Professionals who want it, will take it. This can deter the chancers and the semi professionals.

Again, there is no foolproof method, your thing is to make it very difficult so that they start to look at the next vehicle in line ...

 

[dspuk]

a thought - maybe it does not statistically stack up now, because of the number of people who have security devices installed?


even I considered it, it very soon becomes a part of your startup routine.



bearlocks, again OK. Wheelclamps, as I have seen, only used by people who do not use their vehicles daily. For daily use, wheelclamps are a no no.


it is not just for home, but when parked in a supermarket, or the times when you park it in a convenient place along with other vehicles when going on a day long walk. Professionals who want it, will take it. This can deter the chancers and the semi professionals.

Again, there is no foolproof method, your thing is to make it very difficult so that they start to look at the next vehicle in line ...

Well, they can only take it with a key (and your ghost sequence) or lifting it onto a low loader - such is modern security.

Which gives my reply to your first point - why are stats so low for modern vehicles? In a word, immobilisers. All a Ghost is another immoboliser on top of your key one that uses button presses instead of a key. Since 2020 UK car crime has reduced from 300K a year to 100K a year and that is all down to Thatcham level security devices as std. Out of that 100K most are actually petty theft and a fair few of them are from unlocked cars.

 

[chockswahay]

I’ve taken less to worrying about all this these days. We are insured with NFU who for us are very competitive. They are one of the very few insurers who has a real person at the end of the phone…… I like this!

My view is that as long as I am insured and I have made reasonable efforts to park safely and securely then the rest is down to luck and chance…. I am not going to spend my life worrying about whether or not my van is about to be nicked……. That is way I pay for insurance.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

I guess the question is - Has anyone had their Cali stolen without the thief having access to the key.

Would be more concerned about theft from the vehicle, which is why we no longer never leave bikes, surfboards etc in the van - even if considered 'hidden' - determined thieves will watch parking areas. Coming back to a smashed rear window, crow bar damage to tail gate is no fun. Yes, its likely insurance will cover some of the cost it but it takes time to line up a repairer etc, so best avoid the situation in the first place.

 

[dspuk]

I guess the question is - Has anyone had their Cali stolen without the thief having access to the key.

Would be more concerned about theft from the vehicle, which is why we no longer never leave bikes, surfboards etc in the van - even if considered 'hidden' - determined thieves will watch parking areas. Coming back to a smashed rear window, crow bar damage to tail gate is no fun. Yes, its likely insurance will cover some of the cost it but it takes time to line up a repairer etc, so best avoid the situation in the first place.

TBH just the Blue one I saw last week and the thieves stole the key while they were asleep. Never heard of an actual real other one apart from rumours, I heard and my mate said guff.

Stolen: VW California - Blue - Manchester, Failsworth area

PLEASE HELP US FIND OUR MUCH LOVED CALI! It's a blue VW California CAMPERVAN T5 Registration number MA07 MZD Stolen from Failsworth Area, Manchester - Friday 30th Sep 2022 during early morning hours. Has a VW Bike rack on back. Seats are grey and blue. Contains 2 bikes and all our camping...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[Californication69]

The Global Telemetrics tracker is £12.49 and I’m happy to pay that for a £80k which if stolen might take another 12 months to receive the one that has been stolen.
The amount of cars in the West Midlands been taken is crazy.
I also use a stop lock Pro, as the young scrotes, only want a quiet and quick getaway.

 

[Viktorgeorge]

I’ve taken less to worrying about all this these days. We are insured with NFU who for us are very competitive. They are one of the very few insurers who has a real person at the end of the phone…… I like this!

My view is that as long as I am insured and I have made reasonable efforts to park safely and securely then the rest is down to luck and chance…. I am not going to spend my life worrying about whether or not my van is about to be nicked……. That is way I pay for insurance.

NFU get my vote too. I am awaiting delivery this month of my Ocean, and - getting a quote so I am ready - my existing insurer of many years IAM Assurance fell well short on the California but NFU Mutual (who already insured my Series 1 LandRover) came up trumps, with lots of advantages ( built in near gap insurance, recovery, unlimited European cover etc etc) and a good price.