Insurance

Multiple Personality Disorder

| Richard Morris

So there have been some changes this week.

When we bought the car in 2024 we put on a personalised number plate: AF17 BOD, to ‘spell out’ A FIT BOD, but we’ve recently had a change of plan and instead decided to register another one with Alison’s initials, AJM. So I got in touch with the DVLA and asked them if they could release a plate for me, which they did: ST24 AJM.  ST because it’s on a Focus ST, 2024 because of its age, and AJM for Alison’s initials.

Because we are planning to sell the existing persona numberplate, we had to first apply online to remove it and put it onto a retention certificate, a process which takes less than 5 minutes.

We were given the car’s allocated registration, RY24 YEK, and given both a certificate number for AF17 BOD so we could assign that one immediately to another vehicle if we wished and a certificate to allow us to get some new numberplate made up, but not the new V% certificate number.

In order to assign our new personal registration to the car, we now needed the V5 number for RY24 YEK, which they post to you and don’t give it to you online or by email. So for the intervening period, to ensure the car was legal and insured, I had to put some new numberplate on and change the insurance, both of which are ‘wasted’ costs.

The V5 then arrived on the Friday, so I was able to immediately go online, assign the ST24 AJM registration number to the ST, slap on some new ‘plates that I’d already had made up, and change the insurance again! Fortunately the DVLA handles the tax/road fund licence so that automatically transferred across.

So in the space of a week, the ST has carried three different registrations!

 

 

 

MoT

| Richard

Yes, my RX-8 R3 is coming up to three years old (in a couple of weeks), so last week I took it to Docklands Mazda for them to carry out an MoT test … which it passed with flying colours, even producing 0% carbon monoxide emissions on fast idle and 0.04% carbon monoxide emissions at the natural idle speed.

Mileage? 55,447 miles from new and still going like it should. Plus it still looks great.

So yes, I’m pleased as I tend to hang on to my cars for a few years and there’s frankly nothing I’d want to replace it with at present, especially as Mazda stopped producing them.

I’ve also renewed my tax and insurance for another year, plus I’ll probably extend the Mazda warranty for another year, just in case ;)

Insurance Renewal

| Richard

Just renewed my bike insurance with Motorcycle Direct and noting the recent speeding offence.

Protected no-claims, fully comprehensive with declared modifications and living in London. SD&P plus commuting. £158.72.

Result!

Crash!

| Richard

Well after driving in to the car park at the London flat last night, having been let down by @tweetalondoncab on Twitter this morning, I got the RX8 out to go to a meeting. Crawling out of the crescent at no more than 2 or 3mph, I got to the off-camber, downhill left turn and immediately slid sideways on the ice-covered snow … and slid into the metal bollards. Ouch! I wasn’t the first either as one of them had been knocked over already. So now Blue RX is a tad dented:

Rear Panel Rear Bumper Rear Bumper Rear to Front Front Wing

No News Is … erm, No News

| Richard

I have heard precisely nothing from anyone since that last post. The police came to see me to take a statement and asked me if I was prepared to give evidence in Court (to which I answered “damn right I am!”) and there was a bit of a rush for them to get it from me. And then silence.

I’d spoken to the insurance company to ask them about buying it back when it was recovered and a week or two later got a phone call from them asking me if I knew where the bike was as – apparently – the police hadn’t been in touch with them.

Since then? Not a thing!

Lost and Found

| Richard

Well, well, well.

This morning I received a phone call from the Met. Wilf has been found somewhere in Lincolnshire!

No news on its condition or anything and of course it now belongs to the insurance company but if it’s not been totalled, I may well see if I can buy it from them. It should be worth less as a stolen recovered vehicle anyway and of course it’s almost a year older, but it’s worth asking.

In the meantime, I’ve got an appointment for early next week to give a statement to the police to say that it certainly wasn’t being used or stored with my permission so they can (hopefully) prosecute the scrote that had it.

Insurance

| Richard

I hadn’t realised that Mazda offer seven days insurance cover for you – their “driveaway” scheme – when you buy a Mazda from one of their dealers:

“What’s more, most new and used private car purchasers benefit from seven days free insurance. So you can drive away from our dealerships safe in the knowledge that you’re covered. Conditions for this free cover may apply.

“All you need to do is call us on 0800 048 0962 for a no-obligation quotation.”

Now, it also turns out that Mazda’s policy offers what is called “RTI” cover which is:

“Mazda Return to Invoice (RTI)

“Mazda Return to Invoice will either pay you the difference between your Motor Insurance settlement figure and the outstanding Early Settlement Balance due to your Finance Company, or pay you the difference between the Net Invoice Price of your Insured Vehicle at the Start Date and your Motor Insurance Company’s settlement figure. Your claim will be settled based on whichever is the greater amount.”

And what’s more they were very competitive on their premium, coming in at the lower end of the quotes I’d received from price comparison websites and then – after haggling – knocking off 10% so as to come in second lowest. I will be going with Mazda for the insurance because of the RTI cover benefit.

N-N-N-N-Nineteenth

| Richard

I had the delivery date confirmed to me today: the car is available for collection on Wednesday, 17th March but because that would mean me driving up to Grimsby and back the same midweek day to collect it, I’ve postponed collection until the 19th. D-8 days and counting!

In the meantime, however, I’d better get used to being pulled by the police with threats to impound the ST200 as for some reason it isn’t showing up in the MID as being insured even though it’s currently on the dealer’s insurance policy.

Insurance Settlement

| Richard

Just to bring everything up to date, whilst I was on holiday, eBike Insurance‘s loss adjusters wrote to me offering a settlement of 3,500. I decided to mull this over whilst I was away again, but on my return I found a cheque from them for that sum in full and final settlement.

This amounted to quite a substantial loss to me but when I went through the policy and the small print, I realised they were actually being fair. I’d stated the value of the bike as 4,000 – eBay adverts the week of the theft showed that was under-stated – and whilst I was aware there was a 250 theft excess, I’d ignored/overlooked the clause that says if the bike isn’t garaged at the time in a locked garage, the excess rises by 250.

So quite a loss to me, but I can’t fault them for the speed with which they settled my claim. Recommended.