Tuesday 26 October 2004

Its a Mini Adventure : The Lake District / Insurance /Plates

Well lots to say so heres a summary...

New Car
Car buying 08/10/04 from Henry Bros in Glasgow.
Excellent service (aside from only half a tank of fuel when a full tank was agreed !)
Twas a lovely day and the car looked fab.

Car is an Aug03 Mini Cooper S in Electric Blue (roof in body colour) with chrome mirrors.
Car has Chilli Pack /Xenons/Visibility Pack/Full AirCon/HK Stereo/CD changer/MFSW with Cruise Control


Insurance
I have been with Greenlight Insurance for the Fiat coupe and previously my Mk2 Golf GTI,
they provided excellent service no question.
However they obviously dont want a Mini on the books as they quoted over 1k for a years insurance.
Soooo I looked elsewhere , using the confused.com website as a start.
Quotes were surprisingly high , especially as in my eyes the performance was way below the coupe levels!!!!!
The cheapest was Admiral , so I arranged cover online and went with them.....
All was fine until I was searching through the mini forums
[www.mini2.com and www.newminiscotland.com] and noted that there may be a problem with Admiral and mini cover.
Specifically coverage of the many extras available. My heart sank.....
So I phoned Admiral....
1st call : Yes , they only replace with std parts but if I declare modifications (which are all manufacturer optional extras!!!) they are covered...added chilli pack(130 UKP more!) and decided to phone back to confirm all car options...
2nd call : Total muppet on the phone answered , no idea about cars let alone the options. I detailed all the options on the car which took ages , then he debited my card for another 30UKP...
then I go away for a week in the lake district....on returning my adjusted details have arrived , which state chilli pack(correct)and only one other option which is 'modification due to disability' FFS !!
(For what its worth , my 'disability' was cruise control on the steering wheel ie its not a fecking disability ........)
At this point Im getting really annoyed.
So I phone up again
3rd call : I ask them to tell me what modifications I have stated on the policy to see if they have the right details. The answer is 'chilli pack and disability mod' nothing about ANY of the options I had previously spent ages confirming!!!!!!
Useless , not only that they had charged me for mods , but couldnt even tell me what they were. I re-asked if the car would be fully covered.This time they said NO and that even though I declared options(mods) AND the policy was loaded accordingly THEY WOULD BE REPLACED WITH STANDARD PARTS ONLY!!!

It was at this point I decided to go elsewhere.....ESURE to be precise.
Good quote and a friendly person who actually listed all my mods on file and that they would be covered AND told me that even though the covernote may state slightly diffferent text , that they had a full list of options on file.
Job done and changed over , not only that but also a UK call centre.

If you want my advice NEVER deal with ADMIRAL insurance. ESPECIALLY if you have a new mini.
I will only receive an 80% refund from them when cancelling my policy but Id much rather that , than deal with useless idiots.

Lake District holiday
A week away with friends at Boot in the Lake District.
Car went really well and is surprisingly spacious. Averaged 38mpg
Also went up the steepest road in britain a 1 in 3 !
My only complaint is the lack of overtaking ooomph on back roads compared to the 20VT coupe.
Heres a quick pick taken near the top of Hardknott pass.



Numberplates
Decided to take a risk and order a 3/4 sized front and full sized rear plates from www.fancyplates.com
I removed the standard mini front plinth which is enormous! and stuck on the plate.
Only downside is that I had to refit 2 outer screws to cover plinth holes.
Looks superb though

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