Hi all,

When I brought my car, being 20 I comprehensivly insured it for $1,550 with AAMI with an agreed value of $15,500 or market value if it's higher.

My question is, if I do mod's on my car such as ..

- body kit
- mags
- parabolic lights

etc

Does anyone have experience on how this will differ there insurance?

Do I just tell them what I have done for how much and they will change the $15,500 to say $17,500 if I do $2,000 worth of mods for a slight increase in cost of insurance or what?

Are there any mods that I have to be careful about as to not void my insurance?

I'm just asking here instead of asking my insurance company because I presume most rules in terms of modifications are fairly similar for each insurance company.

You really need to ring your insurance company mate, we can't say. NRMA is fairly liberal with mods, while AAMI has been known to be conservative. I think AAMI will only allow 2 mods, including wheels, then they wont insure. You really need to ring them and ask them - just dont give them all your details.

Hmm :confused:

I picked my car up for $15,500 when i was 19 and insured it wif AAMI - was about $1400 i think. When i asked about mods, AAMI told me i was allowed one visual mod per yr (up to a max of 3 i think it was) and either one or no performance mods at all!

By the way, they count lowering and mufflers (not full or cat back exhaust just changed muffler) both as performance.

Im now with just cars who cover everything on my car including the heavy duty clutch and i can have unlimited mods and it only cost me $1050 a yr - im 21 now but i think thats awesome

I'm with AAMI and this is what i was told:
You can have 1, yes, just one! "performance" mod, included in that is lowering, exhaust, extracters, etc. However you can have unlimited accesory modifications, such as body kits, different lights, audio etc. The two that are shady and have changed group each time i speak to someone at AAMI are spoilers and wheels. Best bet, is to call them, and trick them into tell you whaty you want to hear, record the date and time of the phonme call and who you spoke to, that way if they have a winge about it later on, you can bring up the phone convo you had! That's what i did with wheels, one guy tells me u can't go above stock and a girl told me you can do whatever is legal... i chose the latter :P
Edit: if you are worried about your insurance being void, go with 'just cars' they're an offshoot of AAMI and quoted me for around 1400 for my 99 verada full comp. so by the looks of ur current insurance, you'll be paying pretty much the same, but with pretty much unlimited mods :D

Fooling the generally unknowledgeable people that answer ur calls is a waste if time. Remember you have to fool the claims officer who isnt as stupid.

AAMI - at a guess for your age - Tyres not allowed to be bigger than 2 inches above stock (so 17" max) Max 1" wider than stock, so 7"width max.

Basic performance mods like a k&n filter will cost more. If you want more than 1 mod just cars is the better option. If your stereo is worth too much (greater than 10% of the car) they may not insure you at all. You may be able to say you have a $2k stereo and they might cover that.
get your rims on the policy if possible too.

When it comes to insurance you run a fine line.

Your options: Dont tell insurance your mods/accessories: If you get into an accident hope that you can get them out before your car goes in.
If your car is totalled chances are you cant get them out.

Then it can come down to whether the modification was the cause of the accident (very rarely). But at the end of the day, if you have things on ur car that insurance doesnt know about, they can tehcnically void your contract as you have failed to meet your end of the bargain (telling them everything about the car)
If your policy is void, you could face big $$ problems if you hit a porsche or if you hit a lightpole which brings down a substation and sends a surge through 1000 homes.

Peace of mind vs saving a few bucks

We'll my plans would be

ground effects kit
parabolic lights
17" 3rd party mags
exhaust (purely for a nice deep sound so people know im coming lol )

I will have to speak to them but I'll see

As for just car insurance, whats the deal? Like why can they do it but AAMI can't?

Also if I did change to just car, considering im only 4 months into my year would i get the remaining 8 months of my comp insurance back? Approx 900$

I'm not into risking my insurance by not telling them about my mods so that's out of the question.

Thanks so far for all your insights, I guess when I round up enough cash to start modding I will have to have a good sit down and think about insurance.

Well just cars do just that - JUST CAR insurance so you have more options with them. And yes if you cancel ur AAMI policy u get refunded - i changed to just cars when i still had 4 months with AAMI and they sent me a cheque with the remaining cash

just cars caters for the modded car scene.
They will allow all ur mods and more providing they are legal. Cost ends up being cheaper than AAMI (for me anyway) So i went with them.

They dont care what you do as long as it's legal. Technically many things arent legal anyway.

Meh...

Fooling the generally unknowledgeable people that answer ur calls is a waste if time. Remember you have to fool the claims officer who isnt as stupid.

They actually do record the phone conversations.