Courtesy car insurance?

[chris_h]

My son's car is going in for warranty repairs on Monday and the dealership need it for a week. I just called A-Plan insurance to let them know he needs courtesy car insurance and they say they need to add it as an additional car thereby incurring additional cost.

I suggested they just switched the insurance from his car to the courtesy car but they said that would leave his car uninsured. I said surely it would be insured by the dealership whilst in their care. They gave me a load of old waffle about what would happen if it fell off the ramp. I said it would be covered by the dealer's insurance and the guy at A-Plan said it wouldn't!!

My son's car is a Subaru Impreza Turbo WRX and the courtesy car will be a small 1.0ltr hatch back so significantly less risk!.

What's the best (cheapest) way to go about this?

[Trojan1401]

Chris,

 

The process really depends upon the insurer but I agree that there should be no charge for a temp substitution.

Firstly, the dealer should have adequate Motor Trade cover whilst your vehicle is in their care, custody and/or control providing road risk cover and material damage i.e. damage to your car either under comprehensive motor or public/product liability section of their policy. All reputable motor traders should have this cover. However some may not which is where a problem may occur. An example may be theft from the premises if not kept in locked building/compound out of business hours.

If it's a larger dealership, do they not provide cover for courtesy cars ?

 

I would check level of cover garage has & if they do provide the equivalent of comp cover then advise your ins. company this. You need to ensure that the garage has full "internal risk" cover for your vehicle.

 

Your insurer should therefore treat as a substitution however should only charge a nominal fee to cover administration. You must remember though if vehicle returned early, you advise them.

 

I'm afraid though you will probably be at their mercy on their picing plans/criteria for temporary adjustments but it's worth another try.

[tiaposy]

My god, don't get me started on this!! I work for a large dealer and we make our customers insure the courtesy vehicles.

 

"An example may be theft from the premises if not kept in locked building/compound out of business hours"

 

As I said, it is a large company. We had a customer who traded in a vehicle (20k) one evening, and was coming back to collect his new one the next day - meanwhile he swapped his insurance to the new vehicle (30k).

His old vehicle was stolen from the yard, and he was told to claim off his insurance - which obviously he didn't have anymore!! Disgusting - I am not sure what happened in the end though