Which insurer?

[Giles]

I'm just importing a 4L from France and so I am looking for an insurer. It was used daily when I lived over there, but sat in a field over a year and was eventually transported here and has no longer has French insurance. It still has French plates, so I need an insurer who understands that I will have to be insured on the VIN until the UK reg comes through, but won't crucify me for it financially (after all, it will only be a couple fo weeks until it gets the UK plates, fingers crossed!)

Does anyone have any recommendations? It is a VERY late model (1992) LHD 4L, which will possibly do about 5000 miles per year.

 

[Giles]

Compare the Market doesn't even have the year of manufacture, let alone the correct engine size!

 

[jjad]

I'd try a specialist insurer like Adrian Flux, Footman Jones, etc. Give them a call. Our 1990 GTL often doesn't show up on car databases: it's the price you have to pay for a late model!
Good luck

 

[jcarruthers2]

Hi

I'm with Adrian Flux for my R4, you can have a tailor made package with comprehensive insurance for a reasonable price. There are various limited mileage deals which reduce the overall cost of the policy, recommended.

Best Regards

 

[JavierG]

Hi Giles

I was in a similar position to you last year - I bought a 1992 R4 GTL on French plates. Mine had French insurance, so I was lucky in that sense, but had the some issues getting UK insurance even when MOT'd and registered.

It's tricky because the car is too new for classic car insurers, so their quotes were very high (or not quoted) when I enquired. They all required it to be parked off street, which was not an option for me. Price comparison websites don't list the year, as the UK stopped importing around 1989, so it's not on their databases.

Eventually, I just ran a search on CompareTheMarket for a 1988 or 89 model. Admiral were cheapest, so I rang them up, explained the issue with the year and they just made a note about it in their system. All done.

Regarding insuring on VIN - many insurers will do this, but they will only give you a couple of weeks grace period, which may not be long enough depending on DVLA waiting times. If you are able to have it picked up and dropped off for MOT, and then park it off the street until it's registered instead of insuring on VIN, that would probably be best.

Hope that helps

J

 

[Lobster]

I've been looking at this this week.... my insurer for my R4 said they could insure a foreign registered car (in this case a 96 Twingo) on classic insurance just using the chassis number but that it would be insured purely for the purpose of getting it to an MOT station and nothing otherwise. So on that basis I think you should be able to sort something.

The problem I am having is finding a legal way of driving a foreign registered car back to the uk, that seems the difficult bit.

 

[Giles]

I've been looking at this this week.... my insurer for my R4 said they could insure a foreign registered car (in this case a 96 Twingo) on classic insurance just using the chassis number but that it would be insured purely for the purpose of getting it to an MOT station and nothing otherwise. So on that basis I think you should be able to sort something.

The problem I am having is finding a legal way of driving a foreign registered car back to the uk, that seems the difficult bit.

Insure it in France first off. French insurance allows other drivers to use a car you insure (you might have to tell them... but the French principle is that it is the car that insured, not the driver), so you could even get someone else (in France) to insure it on their address, and then lend it to you for a 'trip to the UK'? This is what I did when I lived in France and gave my sister our old UK registered car to take home to the UK. Remember that once in the UK it will have to be notified to HMRC as being imported within 2 weeks of entry, so at that point you will have to concel the French insurance and get UK insurance.

 

[Giles]

Hi

I'm with Adrian Flux for my R4, you can have a tailor made package with comprehensive insurance for a reasonable price. There are various limited mileage deals which reduce the overall cost of the policy, recommended.

Best Regards

Thanks for the info

 

[Giles]

Hi Giles

I was in a similar position to you last year - I bought a 1992 R4 GTL on French plates. Mine had French insurance, so I was lucky in that sense, but had the some issues getting UK insurance even when MOT'd and registered.

It's tricky because the car is too new for classic car insurers, so their quotes were very high (or not quoted) when I enquired. They all required it to be parked off street, which was not an option for me. Price comparison websites don't list the year, as the UK stopped importing around 1989, so it's not on their databases.

Eventually, I just ran a search on CompareTheMarket for a 1988 or 89 model. Admiral were cheapest, so I rang them up, explained the issue with the year and they just made a note about it in their system. All done.

Regarding insuring on VIN - many insurers will do this, but they will only give you a couple of weeks grace period, which may not be long enough depending on DVLA waiting times. If you are able to have it picked up and dropped off for MOT, and then park it off the street until it's registered instead of insuring on VIN, that would probably be best.

Hope that helps

J

Good tip, thanks! Parking off street isn't a problem, just getting to and from the MOT.