I've been on an admiral multicar policy for the last 12 months. It's now renewal time, and they want to charge me £1125 for both cars (Coupe and a Skoda Fabia Tdi) which is about £100 up from last year, so still a bloody rip off but not too bad considering.

I've called around a few places and Noel Dazely are so far offering the best deal at £995 with mods covered.

Here's the interesting bit. I recently fitted a forge re-circulating dump valve and hadn't got round to informing Admiral. When I called them up just now to see if they could better the quote from Noel Dazely, I declared the DV to them. The guy put me on hold and then came back and said they cannot insure my vehicle because it has a dump valve fitted! I told him that the standard car has a dump valve anyway but it's a crappy plastic one, so I've merely replaced it with an uprated metal one with a spring rather than a rubber diaphragm so it won't fail like the plastic one did. "No, sorry we cannot insure ANY vehicle with a dumpvalve, and had we known your car had one from factory we wouldn't have insured you for the last year..."

Ummm ok. So I guess admiral don't insure turbo-charged vehicles then. Has anyone else come across something is stupid as this before?

I guess I'll be going with Noel Dazely this year!

Try Sarah at Neil Willis. See traders section > Click

Admiral are tw@ts with stuff like that.

i cnat wait to go over to Neil Willies.

I did try Neil Willies, and although Sarah's quote was competitive, it was actually still more than Noel Dazely - apparently because my coupe is parked on the street.

Yes, Admiral once again.

I had a brand new factory engine fitted to my coupe and told them as obviously it had some bearing on the car's value.

The oik on the end of the line immediately said that mean the car was modified because it had a different engine to the one it left the factory with and why did I change it, if not to improve the performance.

He simply could not grasp that it was a straight replacement, neither could his supervisor.

However the supervisor's manager did agree that it was not a modification and having a brand new working engine did enhance the car's value and was not actually a modification.

She then lost all creditability by informing me that Admiral never insure cars fitted with strut braces "because it makes them more attractive to thieves".

Forget them Anthony, and pay possibly a little more for insurance with a company which understands our needs, welcomes modified cars and offers agreed values.

My coupe insurance moves to Neil Willies brokers on Friday morning.

My turbo diesel Grande Punto stays insured with them despite being completely standard yet having a dumpvalve.

Wow that is shockingly bad service from admiral Pete! You've confirmed what I thought - they're a bunch of muppets. I won't be bothering with them again.

I had the same problem with a previous company.. As soon as I mentioned that dump valve they told me 'Sorry can't cover you'!! I was in my mid's 40's then with 9+ NCB.. Tis crazy...