Modification of Car

[Folker]

A colleague put a hard top on his car replacing a soft top . Someone told him to tell insurance co. as it would reduce premium because car was more secure. Insurance co. said they would increase insurance as he had "modified vehicle". I wold have said that modification meant changing performance of car. He is is trying to show that car was manufactured to take the hard top.
Any comments?

[Ethel]

Modification means any alteration to the vehicle - and includes things such as replacing original wheels with alloys or changing the exhaust to a non-standard, as well as any modification to the body or engine.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

many hardtops for sports cars cost a awful lot of money, a porsche boxster hardtop from porsche costs over �2000,so that is why the insurance has to increase.

[spaced]

simple. Hardtop adds value to the car, thus the increase in insurance to cover the increase.

[gouldc]

We did a project on this in work - whilst we could see the obvious logic in installing a hard top (more secure, more weatherproof, etc), it wasn't the increase in value that caused the increase in premium.

There is a huge market out there for second hand hard tops, and therefore there is more risk of that hardtop being stolen - the average hardtop is �1000, or as Norman pointed out, prestige vehicles are twice that or more.

We see an increase in the theft of these items during the autumn/winter months - and it's not just the cost of replacing the hardtop we have to cover - thieves don't neatly open the doors to the car and pop the top off. They gouge the body work, bend the doors, and rip the interiors to pieces - the average claim for the theft of a hard-top fitted to a vehicle can run to about �5000.

[Folker]

Thanks all. It only goes to prove what I've thought all along - the insurance companies have got you by the wheel bearings!