Due to a change in circumstances at work I think I'm going to have to buy a workhorse car so I don't kill my Coop with 450 miles a week going to work and back.

But before I go out and buy a wreck with a year's MOT, how does it work out insurance-wise?

I'm hoping that for a couple of hundred quid I'll be up and running but seem to remember a post on the old forum which suggested it was not as easy as it sounds.

Any advice/experiences would be appreciated.

You should be able to get a second policy with the same noclaims, through your existing insurer (direct line do anyway)

Or you could do what I do, in the short term perhaps...

I garage my Coop in the winter when I use the other car. Swapped my main insurance onto this other car (which is cheaper too).
When I want to take the coop out (like this weekend) I phone direct line and they do 3 days cover for £5.25
(the other car is still covered during this time too)

Works well for me, but obviously no good if you either don't have a garage (for when the coop's NOT covered) or
plan to use the coop more often.


Come the summer, I'll switch the main cover back to the coop and insure the odd 3-day period when I need to use the tank.

A lot of insurance companies will not insure you simultaneously on two cars.

I now have three cars and I've yet to find someone who will insure all three for me on the same policy. Although Mrs C is now a named driver on the Coupe, prior to that when I was the only driver I still couldn't get a policy like that,which annoys me because I can only drive one at a time, so their risk is the same apart from additional fire & theft cover which usually costs about £25 a year.

I have all three of my road bikes covered on the same policy for about £50 mor than the cost of insuring the dearest one on it's own. if they can do it for bikes, why not for cars?

Only consolation is that some companies will give you an "introductory" NCD based on your current NCD/claim history. I can insure the 205 GTI which I've just bought for about £200 TPFT but that's on a limited mileage basis.

Cappo that'd be handy and I don't see why someone can't offer this. Most people I know with a 'collection' of cars have some kind of motor traders cover.

Quote:

---

Only consolation is that some companies will give you an "introductory" NCD based on your current NCD/claim history. I can insure the 205 GTI which I've just bought for about £200 TPFT but that's on a limited mileage basis.

---

I have my coop insured with Noel Dazely as a second car - they gave me an introductory bonus based on my full NCB on the punto which was good. I don't think my coop mileage is limited specifically but that may be due to the policy rather than not applying as a second car?

I was going to transfer the punto insurance to the coupe (less immediare financial outlay) and then insure the punto as second car, but Elephant wouldn't cover the coop with a strutbrace, so left the punto with them.

Just speak to your coop insurers and see what they say

Shame that. The answer is probably then limited mileage / owners club / classic car insurance for multiple cars.

It's a joke really. I mean you can only be driving one car at a time. I'm sure in some other countries you get insurance on the driver rather than the vehicle.

I'm with Diamond (Admiral group) and they matched my no claims i'm currently using on the coupe to my second 'runaround' car

Anyone thinking of doing what I do with Direct Line (occasionally cover 2nd car) having just arranged it for this weekend, there are a couple of stipulations I wasn't previously aware of:-
a) Occasional car max cover 90 days in any 1 year
b) You can only have 10 of these short-period cover in any 1 year.

This facility is designed to cover you in courtesy cars so I expect most insurers would offer it. I expect brokers would charge more minimum admin charge than the direct insurers.

The other thing, Yellafella, is that unless I'm misunderstanding things your coop doesn't have any cover at all between uses.

There are two big problems with that:

1. If it gets nicked you're going to get nothing and a locked garage is little defence. It's now common for car thieves to break into your house and take the keys for the garage and the car and be off.

2. The law is changing this year to require that every registered vehicle is insured unless you've declared a SORN-type thing for it. This is going to make switching between vehicles a major pain, because you won't be able to un-SORN it until you get a new insurance certificate from Direct Line.

Still seems bizarre that motorbike insurance companies will do it and car companies won't. I have a GSXR1000, YZF1000R and an FS650e supermoto all on the same policy for only aout 10% more than it would cost to insure the most expensive one (the Gixxer).

Indeed. I see that both Admiral and Direct Line now let you use your full NCB on both policies if you have 2 cars insured with them, but given that you can only drive one at a time it should be a lot cheaper than that.

Carole Nash brought back their 6-wheeler policies last year, but as my car insurance renews in January and my bike insurance in July it's never worth me shifting to one

All,

All I can say (having read a little bit furter up (is that) with my very bad experience of Elephant (when the car got written off (no fault of mine) they were cack at sortin the claim out and also took the P*SS when offering a "reasonable" price for the car (however I got a bit german about things) and put the phone down on them until they offered me a figure which I deemed reasonable.

I know this is kinda off track (but still within the field of insurance of coops)

Just a note for those who are with or thinking about using elephant. (they may be cheap at the first look however (got forbid if u need to claim --> say hello to more hastle than expected)

R00

Cheers for all this - didn't think there was any easy answer.

Will ring Greenlight on Monday and see what they have to say about it.

I have two on one Policy (Cars) been doing it for years ?.
But when I doubled up initially all I was given wrt NCD was a special introductory percentage on the 2nd car, so you may have to wait 5 years to get full NCD on both vehicles.

Also.......... it worked out cheaper to have them both as fully comp rather than the hack as TPF&T (Tipo TD). Premium for the pair this year (IIRC) is about £660-£680, with protected NCD.

Liverpool & Victoria is the Company, and even better if you belong to one of the companies or car organisations that the give a bit more discount to!.

Well I've solved my problem!

I'm selling the 'other' car (to pay for my mods)

The Range Rover 'other car' and the company (wife's) Scenic will go this year and be replaced with a Scooby Forester which'll do both jobs just nicely I think.

So it'll be the one policy for the Coop and the other, company policy for the Scoob.

Still wish I could get a 'One Driver Any Car' policy tho.