Practically Classics Forum

hope this makes you feel better mate
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used ... earch/true

I spotted that one a couple of weeks back, shame it's the KV6 engine though. Makes me wonder what my 2.7 coupe will be worth..........

The trouble with most insurance companies, as soon as they hear the word 'modified' get worried and ramp up the premiums so much they know you'd have to be a complete loon to pay. It's worth ringing round the specialist insurers that deal with modifieds. Case in point, when I did the turbo conversion on my 216 Tourer, they used a 420 turbo as the base and used its details to perform a quote, which was most reasonable, bung that into confused etc they'll just have a wobbly.

When I put the 3.5 v8 in my tr7 the premium only went up by 50 quid to around £180, this was limited to 5000 miles and garaged with peter best.

Hmmm - "best" i have a ring round a few of the modified insurers then! Who are you insured with mach1rob? Or to be more exact, who was your 216 Tourer (416 Tourer??) insured with when it became a 220Tt (420Tt??) as that is almost the same idea as mine but on a smaller scale?

God, this was a fair few years ago now, it may have been Flux. It was helpful that the person I spoke to on the phone knew their stuff and was aware of cars and mods, which helps.

Thanks, i'll give them a go as well. Only thing i've found with them is they've gone all "Insurance Supermarket" (think confused.com in a shop to see what i mean) with the fastest throughput imaginable. However if they still have a modified vehicles department then i could be good to go.

Laird_Scooby wrote:
What you say is right about insurance companies using DVLA data against the reg number to confirm the model these days but i've caught them out in a few mistakes - "That car doesn't exist sir", "That's a 5-speed manual sir", "Is that an import sir?" - NO, NO, NO!!! So i threatened to drive to their offices, aim the car at their main doors, wedge the throttle down and chuck it in "Drive". Oddly they soon found that the car existed, was in fact auto and definitely not an import!

Had that crap with SWMBO's little 1.3 Mazda 323.
(Oh that's a grey import, blah blah, even when I pointed out it had a UK style VIN number)
Basically told 'em to stuff it.

The Mazda 323 Lxi with a 1.3 engine, was sold in the UK by Mazda UK. Most private buyers went for the 1.6 engine. They sold / leased the 1.3 version out via the Motorbility scheme, and that's what most, if not all on the road were. When the dealer we got it off sent off the V5, they had to change the tax class from Disabled, to PLG.

That's something else i don't get, loading insurance for an import, grey or otherwise. For the most part, most "normal" cars are just overseas market versions of what we already have here, e.g. the Eunos Roadster aka Mazda MX-5 and are mechanically identical. What on earth then makes them more likely to be involved in an accident than their UK marketed equivalents?

Many moons ago when i was barely more than a pup, a girlfriend had a Mazda 323 1.3 Familiale - a South African import but essentially the same as the UK Mazda 323, except for having a speedo calibrated in km/h instead of mph. Her insurance broker simply insured it as if it was a domestic market 323 1.3, job done but she had tried other brokers that quoted phone numbers for premiums.