Todays Telegraph motoring section has following letter to "Honest John" . I like him on the whole - he generally gives good advice and talks sense on scameras. But in this case has he got it wrong - surely a factory fitted upgrade of alloy wheels can't be classed as a modification?

"I recently bought a used Jaguar X-type and was astonished to discover that my insurer classed it as a modified vehicle because the original owner had specified the optional, factory-fitted 18in alloy wheels rather than the standard 17in rims. The premium increased by

 

I thought insurance modifications were aftermarket and performance enhancing mods (dealer or aftermarket)

 

Exactly - I thought anything significant from the factory was recorded on the DVLA info

 

ANY change from standard trim is a modification that should, in theory, be notified to an insurer. I suppose the rationale is that something like optional manufacturer body kit or bigger wheels might make it more prone to being stolen.

My last insurer, Admiral, distinguished between optional OEM kit specified at purchase and aftermarket kit added by the owner.

Depends how anal your insurer is but it's probably best to err on the side of caution. In reality, I think it's unlikely they would try to avoid the policy completely if you failed to disclose a factory modifiction - but why take the chance?

 

I'm of the opinion that you're always better off telling your insurance company everything. However, on the other side I've never heard any stories of people being refused a claim due to mods. Sure it must happen though.

 

My insurer charged me more for the OEM spoiler kit.

 

A number of insurers now (Admiral and co for one) are only insuring the 'base spec' vehicle...which frankly sucks:-

Imagine you own a BMW with about 5 grand of optional extras - leather, BOSE, satnav, cruise control etc. And you then write this Beemer off. Admiral will only pay out for the value of the base-spec car...the optional extras become your problem.


Check this sort of thing very carefully when you renew...not such a biggie on the Honda, but many cars...

 

They will pretty much insure you but will charge you subsequently for the premium.

When I wrote off my Scorpio they claimed I hadn't disclosed my SP30 to them and charged me an additional

 

What worries me is they always seem so casual about this stuff. When I first got my FTO I told the insurer (A plan IIRC) that it had an after market exhaust. 6 months or so later I got something else (a strut brace I think), phoned them up and discovered they had no record of the exhaust. They should really give you a statement showing what they have on record.

Similar thing recently with my second car which I only ever said was for business use and put that into the online quote. I had to get a replacement certificate out of them months later and they went through the policy details and of course it had no mention of business use, and then they charged me

 

Some friends of mine had their MG ZT insured with Tesco, they had the alloys stolen and were told that to source them through the insurance company would take for ever (as Rover / MG was defunct).
They replaced all 4 wheels with "cheap and nasty" but readily available wheels but were told this was a "modification" and would increase their premium.
It didn't matter that the wheels were rubbish and the chances of them being knicked were zero.
They switched from Tesco shortly after.