Import insurance in 2025

[GTSBoy]

1 hour ago, CRSKmD said:

I thought it was just if “the modification effected/caused the incident”

No. See below.

1 hour ago, soviet_merlin said:

I would hope so. I worry that it also might depend on whether the person working on the claim has had a good day or not.

No. In the specific case of Enthusiast, the wording in the PDS says, explicitly, "

We will not pay any claim on a Vehicle with any Modifications not
agreed by us and not listed in the Schedule.

This includes any Modifications or the fitting of a device that
contravenes the requirements of the Australian Design Rules [ADRs]
or where allowed, the Australian Vehicle Standards Rules [AVSR]."

The 2nd paragraph needs to be read in a different tone of voice from the 1st. The two concepts are connected, but they are two different concepts. The 1st says your mods must be listed and agreed with us. The 2nd effectively says "we won't pay if any mods are not legal".

The way that it has been written in more general insurances for a long time has been that if the mod contributes to the accident then you're shit out of luck, but if the mod didn't contribute, then you'll probably get away with it. With "probably" being a very flexible term, and being an insurance company, better left untested than hoped on!

[soviet_merlin]

43 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

The 1st says your mods must be listed and agreed with us. The 2nd effectively says "we won't pay if any mods are not legal".

The way that it has been written in more general insurances for a long time has been that if the mod contributes to the accident then you're shit out of luck, but if the mod didn't contribute, then you'll probably get away with it. With "probably" being a very flexible term, and being an insurance company, better left untested than hoped on!

Yup, this is my main concern with Enthusiast. Purely based on the wording in the PDS they have zero obligation to pay me anything. I wonder how it works out in practice because I would expect that the number of actually street-legal modified cars would be rather small.

Does Shannons have a similar statement in their PDS?

[Duncan]

I don't read the 2nd paragraph the same way, I believe it is defining "modifications" from the previous paragraph, and I'd be happy to have a lawyer argue that in case of an issue.....if they have agreed to it and listed it on the schedule it is covered.

Has anyone had them attempt to deny it based on that reading?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I've heard people claim with Just Cars (now defunct) and have been paid out, but painful process, and with Shannons, but noone I know or heard of has claimed with Enthusiast, hence I'm a bit nervous with their policy.

Sure I'm "covered" but am I? is the real question

[silviaz]

4 hours ago, CRSKmD said:

I thought it was just if “the modification effected/caused the incident”

Yeah it should be, but I wouldn't be surprised if the insurance company tries to pull some argument out of their ass to avoid paying you out.

[silviaz]

1 hour ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

I've heard people claim with Just Cars (now defunct) and have been paid out, but painful process, and with Shannons, but noone I know or heard of has claimed with Enthusiast, hence I'm a bit nervous with their policy.

Sure I'm "covered" but am I? is the real question

You would probably do a lot better in a claims process then most people. When I called the insurance company, they were surprised I read the pds because according to them almost no one does lol.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

1 hour ago, silviaz said:

You would probably do a lot better in a claims process then most people. When I called the insurance company, they were surprised I read the pds because according to them almost no one does lol.

Probably being in IT for 2 decades, and spending my time documenting trees worth of shit and also being on the receiving end has taught me a thing or two.

[MBS206]

I'd be just as worried about the part where they say "we won't be responsible for colour matching, if the undamaged area has deteriorated from new". So basically, they just need to paint it in the factory spec colour, but give no f**ks for the age of the vehicle etc, and are happy to make it look like dogs balls.

[Milkmun]

On 13/03/2025 at 4:37 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

I've heard people claim with Just Cars (now defunct) and have been paid out, but painful process, and with Shannons, but noone I know or heard of has claimed with Enthusiast, hence I'm a bit nervous with their policy.

Sure I'm "covered" but am I? is the real question

Need a test mule to suss it out. Only way we will know.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

1 hour ago, Milkmun said:

Need a test mule to suss it out. Only way we will know.

You guys are welcomed to come flog mine, just don't upset my wife and don't park her in if she needs to go out to pilates in the morning.

If you can leave the wheels behind, that would be great 😅

[Milkmun]

On 14/03/2025 at 12:10 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

You guys are welcomed to come flog mine, just don't upset my wife and don't park her in if she needs to go out to pilates in the morning.

If you can leave the wheels behind, that would be great 😅

Was going to say something about flog, wife, pilates, behind but I better not...

No dishonour here

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Maybe I should have written that a bit better lol.

I did come 8th last in English at school during the HSC, ironically spent 2 decades reading/writing specifications and contracts in IT 😂

[Gareth]

Interesting reading, regarding people's worry that their Insurance won't end up meaning anything come time to claim. This always worried me also. I had my GTR insured with RACV vintage veteran classic when everyone was doing that around 10 years ago. For the first few years my premium was $300-$350 odd for the year, bear in mind originally the car was only insured for $18k (what i paid for it). after a year or 2 i had increased the value to $25k and then they announced that they weren't insuring skylines anymore and that you couldn't increase the values of existing policies. At first when the values were <45k i wasn't worried and was just happy to have cheap premiums.

When i put the car on club plates i called them to let them know and they told me the price of my premium would reduce, (policy was due for renewal the following month) when i got my renewal notice i was stunned to see my premium had gone down to $82 for the year! i read through all the documents and everything seemed fine. I figured it was just some random error that would get picked up on the next renewal, but come time for the next renewal there was an increase.....of around $4 for the year 🤣 this went on year upon year, the increases ramped up a little but come 2025 my premium was still only $130. Every year come renewal i would debate whether or not I should go elsewhere and insure the car for it's correct value (around $60k in today's market i would say) but given the low risk (car only does 1000-1500Km per year, and always out of the city) plus the fact as talked about above that they would probably try a wriggle out of any claim anyway I stayed with the cheap premium. My main concerns were as above - 'illegal' mods, nothing major just the usual - turbo's, ECU etc..

Christmas eve (last year) I got up early to go for a drive out in the Yarra Valley, past Healsville, conditions were shit, fog, wet, tree debris on the roads, i decided to head for home and after accelerating past a 4wd who pulled over to let me past in the Black Spur i lost it and ended up sliding into a bank. (If anyone here is on the FB group you will have seen my pictures). Anyway long story short, I had prepared myself that insurance wasn't going to give me anything, but they paid out with no fuss and as the car was over 35 years old (literally by 1 month!) I got to keep the car for free!! Sold the car for $17.5k which went some way towards making me feel better about the under-insurance.

Had another claim with RACV 5 years ago when some dickhead crashed into two of my cars writing both of them off out on the street in front of my house. He had no insurance and gave us an old license with a different address on it. One car had full comp so was fine but my runabout N14 Pulsar only had third party, however I put in a claim under the 'Uninsured motorist extension' part of their policy, not expecting much....they paid me out more than twice what i had paid for the car in the first place, plus i got to keep the car, It only required some DIY panel beating on the drivers door to get it to shut properly again and some suspension adjustment to counter the hectic negative camber that had been introduced on the rear. Have  been driving ever since with no problems!

 

So there you go, Insurance sometimes works out!! I have to say it puts me off getting another Skyline (as the next one would be more modified for sure) worrying about whether or not all the money going towards insurance is actually going to be of use come claim time, wondering if i should just buy a stock M2/M4 and be done with it......

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

15 hours ago, Gareth said:

should just buy a stock M2/M4 and be done with it......

Yes!

And gives me a bit of hope for these insurance companies, however RACV is massive compared to the likes of Enthusiast (which I'm worried about). I don't know a single person that's made a claim with them, yet all the guys with import shit boxes I know are with them. I suppose there's an element of blind faith here too.

[MBS206]

12 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Yes!

And gives me a bit of hope for these insurance companies, however RACV is massive compared to the likes of Enthusiast (which I'm worried about). I don't know a single person that's made a claim with them, yet all the guys with import shit boxes I know are with them. I suppose there's an element of blind faith here too.

I can tell you now, good luck if you're with NRMA (NSW equiv of vis RACV and QLD RACQ). Because NRMA are freaking horrendous to deal with for claims, even with a normal road car.

Not to mention even more BS when they're in the wrong and didn't cancel a policy etc when they were meant to and make you jump through hoops for things.

[GTSBoy]

Yes, and since RAA insurance essentially being swallowed up by the same monster that is NRMA insurance and all those other clowns, they are no bloody good now either. We dropped RAA insurance for the house a little while back because they lost the plot.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

2 hours ago, MBS206 said:

Because NRMA are freaking horrendous to deal with for claims, even with a normal road car.

Interesting you say this, with our daily shit boxes, the 3x times I've claimed in 10 years, it has been seamless. 

[MBS206]

1 hour ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Interesting you say this, with our daily shit boxes, the 3x times I've claimed in 10 years, it has been seamless. 

Dad had a court case drag out with them from 1998 to 2004. He was in a not at fault accident, NRMA were the ones who covered the other person.
They tried to blame his neck injuries on the fact he'd had an injury in 1981 on his extreme lower back where he slipped a single disc right near the bottom. Had been all cleared from that injury for years. This accident destroyed his shoulder, and f**ked a heap of discs in his neck, and he still has major problems with it to this day.

Sarah's sister while on her L plates had a small Suzuki Alto, she had stopped to give way to an ambulance, and someone changed lanes behind her because there lane was also slowing, and rear ended her at 80km/h. (She had been stopped for a few seconds already too!). Car was completely f**kED. NRMA sent the vehicle around to 3 different workshops as they kept claiming "We believe it can be repaired, and not written off, we just need to find the correct workshop". It took 3 months, and a lot of arguing before they'd concede and wrote it and paid out.

About two years later her sister had a Lancer, someone pulled out of a stop sign without stopping (in an 80 zone). Her sister swerved, hit the front of the other persons car (Instead of dead t-boning the drivers door), which ramped her Lancer, and made it roll multiple times down the road. It hit every panel on the way through. Her sister had slid her self out of the car, and remembers the ambos walking to the accident (They'd been sitting at a set of lights just down the road and witnessed it) and they were saying "Well, this ones going to be a fatality, no way you can walk away from that". Well, she did. And then NRMA sent two assessors out to look at the car, both of which wrote it off. They tried to send another assessor out, except a HUGE uproar was raised, and they FINALLY paid it out. That was on a car, that had damage to EVERY panel, you could see from 100m away the whole car was also twisted, roof bowed etc. Nah, we'll try get out of needing to payout on a $10,000 car...
Her sister ended up with major shoulder reconstructive surgery being required, and was permanently limited in her ability to do her job as a nurse after that, as she can't (And was told before surgery too this would be guaranteed to happen) regain full strength in that shoulder. However, there was no choice to not have it, as she could barely use her arm, which was her dominant one, and was in near constant major pain. (And she's the type of person that would try and walk off a broken leg!) NRMA did the biggest run around on the personal injury side too for about 18 months, even to the point of trying to put 100% blame of the accident on Sarah's sister, even though the other driver admitted she didn't look, and didn't stop, and was charged by the police.

Sarah used to have a Barina insured with them. It was a policy setup, paid all 12 months in advance. At the end of the 12 months, Sarah was living with me, I reviewed the renewal, it clearly stated "If you do nothing, your policy will cease on XYZ date". We did nothing, as we moved her insurance in with all of mine and I was with Shannons. We find out 10 months later, NRMA decided, because he DAD had a car insurance policy at the same address as what Sarah's mailing address was (Garaged address had been changed), that they'd put Sarah's (What should have been non existent policy) onto her Dad's month to month charges on his credit card. We had to jump through hoops, to get a refund. They didn't care that we actually found the letter that said "If you do nothing, your policy will cease" they made us prove we had NON COMPULSORY insurance else where before they'd issue the refund, and after they agreed to the refund, it still took another 6 weeks and 3 more phone calls for them to actually process it.

They also had two insurance claims from storm damage, and they were an absolute cluster to get resolved as well (one vehicle, one house).

Some how, up until about 3 years ago, her parents were still loyal to NRMA too, and we were like "How the hell are you so loyal to staying with them, when other places are so much cheaper, and they've f**ked you over every time you've ever had to make a claim?"

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Jesus... Those are some real fked up events and wow... I'm glad everyone is still alive!

NRMA do outsource their assessment to some lot called Motorserve here in NSW, so perhaps it may be a touch different when compared to QLD, which sounds like they're a bunch of incompetent fk wits.

I can understand why you would avoid them with a 50m pole.

[silviaz]

23 hours ago, MBS206 said:

I can tell you now, good luck if you're with NRMA (NSW equiv of vis RACV and QLD RACQ). Because NRMA are freaking horrendous to deal with for claims, even with a normal road car.

Not to mention even more BS when they're in the wrong and didn't cancel a policy etc when they were meant to and make you jump through hoops for things.

I thought they were easy to deal with from what I heard and it's companies like Shannon's who just refuse to pay out lol.