SPAM How much???

No, if you don't get whiplash you shouldn't claim.

 

Agree there. The problem is it's next to impossible to detect medically. You have to rely on the person being honest.

Remember when I had to claim for it, couldn't go to work for a few days and even walking 2 minutes was really hard.

 

Simple solutions:

1) Referral fees = illegal
2) No win no fee = illegal
3) Amount claimed must be equal to income lost.

Furthermore:

4) National insurance scheme initiated, buy a tax disc = automatic third party insurance
5) Extra insurance is optional

 

And they'd still find a way to ramp up your premiums. I'm sure ambulance chasing is having a big effect, but the there is a logic behind no win, no fee, as it gives the less well off a de-risked way of making a claim. Just because its being abused doesn't necessarily mean it should be banned. An advertising ban might be a more sensible route. I agree about referral fees, but "amount claimed must be equal to income lost" once again introduces a penalty that penalises the poor and rewards the already-wealthy, and doesn't give the opportunity for damages, which may be justified.

The DVLA (or any government dept.) acting as an insurance broker terrifies me more than leaving it to the private sector, as they will be incentivised to keep costs down and they'll have the legal apparatus to do it invasively. All those experiments from the insurance companies for monitoring software to keep premiums down, would almost certainly become a legal requirement if the DVLA was involved in the insurance business.

 

Just thought I'd post this link, if anyone's insurance is coming up in the next two months it may be very useful:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/compare-cheap-car-insurance

I've just knocked £150 off the cheapest quote I've had by clicking the Aviva link, so I'm fairly happy. Plus, they don't give a shit about the LPG conversion, so no headaches with that.

 

Having worked in insurance I can assure you that everything is geared to making you pay the most you will tolerate. Everything else that supposedly goes into pricing is just fluff to appease the regulators

 

Oh, and don't get your policy through a comparison site. That means they get the juicy referral fee and all you get is a fucking Bogdan toy :/

 

They're all scammers. Car theft ran as high as 600,000 annually until recently. Now it's around 100,000. That's half a million car thefts that aren't happening any more.

Where's the reduction in premiums because of that?

 

First car was a Mk II Escort, 18th birthday present from grandparents. Was second hand and cost about 2k GBP. When I started working at 21 I had a Mk III Escort 3.5k. Changed jobs a few years later and got a company car with it, Astra SRi. Second company car was an A4 1.8. I changed jobs again in 98 and went for more money and opted out the company car. Purchased an A4 for 22k. Two years later part exchanged it for a A4 Avant (Estate) due to kid and dog, 24k GBP List Price.

In 2002 I moved to Dubai and had a company car again, Toyota Prado Landcruiser. Purchased another for the Mrs to do school run 145k Dhs. In 2010 I opted out the company scheme and took the money, purchased a Toyota FJ Stealth 155k Dhs around 30k GBP. Also had a Golf V5 2L for a while was second hand and purchsed for 30K Dhs (5k GBP) and sold that for 20k Dhs after 2 years.

Insurance here runs at around 3-4% of the cars value.

 

What do you do in Dubai?

 

1st : Ford Fiest 997 cc (£2000). fucked the engine, found a garage at bottom of a hill and rolled the car in to trade for :
2nd : Vauxhall Astra 1.2
3rd : Vauxhall Nova 1.2 SRI
4th : Rover Metro Gta
5th : Ford Escort Eclipse
6th : Volvo 440
7th : Ford Escort 1.6 Ghia
8th : Citroen Saxo 1.4
9th : Honda Civic
10th : Mitsubishi Spacewagon 2.0l
11th : Toyota Corolla 1.4
11th : Peugeot 206 1.6i
12th : Nissan Qashqai 1.6
12a : Yamaha Fazer 600
Still got the ones marked in bold.

 

With regards to the whiplash, quite a few insurance companies actively encourage people to claim, especially when its on business insurance. We get pestered when one of our reps is involved in a collision, no matter how minor.


As for spent on cars. I have no idea, to me a car is something to get me to work and back, so long as it has 4 wheels and a steering wheel then I don't much care.

 

Given a Nissan Sunny 1.3 when I passed my test (it was my Mothers previously and far from new - tbh I think she just wanted a new car). Was a student so most of the repairs I did myself as I couldn't afford to pay for a garage. Eventually sold it for £250 after 2 years.
Citroen BX Gti - about £2,500. Still a student so still having to repair it myself. That's until the suspension decided to go nuts half way through a corner one day; not being a plumber it was fubar. Lasted a year.
Alfa GTV6 - About £4,000. Still a student. Nearly bankrupted me with parts and petrol. Loved it more than..... then gf alledgedly.
Peugeot 309 GTi - About £6,000. Had a job but insurance was lol worthy especially after I had it supercharged for about another £1,000. Got rear ended and got about £2,500 for it - cried a lot.
Ford Orion 1.6 - £250. Hated it more than I thought I would (and I really hate Fords). Traded it in after 2 weeks for:
A late 70's Toyota Celica Liftback automatic - It had carpet on the door interior and I felt like I was in Starsky and Hutch. After 2 months I shafted the gearbox as auto's don't like to engine break (apparently).
Alfa GTV - £10,000 ish. Had much fun, spent lots of money. Loved it for 2 years until someone decided to use it as a cushion between their car and the staionary artic I was stopped behind on the M4.
Peugeot GTi6 Phase 2 - Can't remember. Had a low boost turbo fitted which cost a fair bit iirc. Got caught going too fast on motorways regularly.

Stopped driving for 3 years while I waited for my 11 points to go away.

Rover 420 SLi - £500. Horrid car that felt like you were driving a sofa. Rain leaked down the inside of the windscreen so when you braked you got an inpromptu shower. Some one stole it (Bristol people have no taste apparently). 6 months (TPFT only so no insurance).
Peugeot 405 2l Turbo Diesel - £750. Ran on loose change and cruised the motorways with ease until the turbo blew. I'll let it off as it'd done 235,000 miles by that point. Best bit was it was an old BBC NI staff car with NI plates; parking that at police HQ in Winchester meant when I came out of my consulatncy meeting I had to explain myself to many officers and a bomb disposal team.
Peugeot 306 GTi6 Phase 3 - £2,500. Loved it so much the last time I've got another one. Resisted any performance mods so I don't rack up any points this time around . As a 6'rs say "we'll get you in the twistys'. That last part is tongue in cheek as while it may have been true when it was new it'll get dusted by most diesels these days - still it's fun to drive.

All in that's a lot of cash not including insurance, petrol, bits, silly go faster bits and some fines for never having owned something new :9.

Currently resisting buying an Alfa Brera Prodrive as I'm saving for a house deposit (I've become boring in my old age).

 

I'm a Program Manager working in the In-Flight Entertainment Industry. - http://www.panasonic.aero/Products/XSeries.aspx. We do the IFE on most of the airlines around the world, Emirates, Qatar, Singapore, Virgin, Cathay....About 80% of the worlds airlines use our systems. Right now I'm working on our new Global Communication System with the launch customers in the Middle East. http://www.panasonic.aero/Products/Globalcomm.aspx

 

Ah right, I'm quite interested in how Dubai works, I heard the construction industry is slowing right down, and there's a massive 'social class' divide, Architects being very rich, and builders being very poor.

I guess this hasn't affected you much though

 

My industry is doing very well in the Middle East right now. Construction story in Dubai is one of boom to bust. Massive projects were being announced on a weekly basis 3 years ago. It all came crashing down when they found there was not enough people to live in all the places they built in phases 2 & 3. Supposed to be 80,000 vacant apartments in Dubai!

Things are picking up again and signs of a slow recovery are there, unfortunately a tad late for many residents who worked in the industry. My next door neighbor is GM at a French owned cement company. They are owed millions but cannot get the money right now. He is fully expecting to be back in UK within 6 months. The Sharjah government alone owed them 3 million dirhams. When they went to collect they were asked to submit to them a proposal to pay back the monies in two years time!

Class divide is very real here. Hell I even contribute to it somewhat. We have a live in Sri Lankan maid but we pay her twice the going rate here and she is very happy. Construction workers is almost like slave labour, mostly from India and Pakistan they get paid around 700 Dhs a month, about 120 GBP!

The class system works by your job type here, so anything with Management on the Resident VISA is considered very good. Manual labour is bottom of the heap. There is also a divide built around nationality which I hate even more. Basically, here you get paid based on where your from and not by what job you do. A fews years back I worked with several nationalities in a project team. Me being European was the highest paid, then Philipino then subcontinent and the difference can be huge, like 4 x.