Insurance Groups.

[steve2006]

Having mislaid my Certificate of Insurance I rang my insurers to ask for a replacement as I like to have it in writing not rely on the MID.

Whilst talking and purely out of curiosity I asked which group my imported Toyota Celsior was in and was told 32 to which I replied "that's fairly low for a Lexus LS400" and to my surprise was told the LS400 was group 48.

Now bearing in mind I have to use a specialised insurer to get cover on a grey import as the mainstream insurers 'dont do imports" I cannot understand why there is such a large difference in groups particularly as apart from the badges it is basically the same car.

[black400]

when i changed from a RangeRover 4.6 to my LS400 ins company tried to fob me of( its a performance car higher rate ) i was not having it my Bmw 4.4 came in cheaper so when i asked them to explain , they came back with oh it was a mistake

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

I don't understand it either! Wierd. But your winning :)

yours is only 32 and an import and the LS is 48!! Do you think its because yours is a Toyota not a Lexus, same car I know but do they know that or are they only going by the name they see on their computer?

Also 48 seems really high to me...My boss's 5.0 Jag XK is group 48 and that is one seriously quick car and worth £70k!

[Bluesman]

Boys boys boys, you are trying to look for logic where there isnt any, they just think of numbers as and when the fancy takes them. Mike

[noby76]

looks like you winning Steve maybe because it wears a Toyota emblem and not Lexus they dropped the insurance group with the perception of it being 'just a Toyota'. this shows how flawed the system of working out car insurance is in the UK even tho the Toyota Celsior has the same engine, gearbox and body shell as the Lexus LS400. I bet a Toyota Aristo V300 Twin turbo will be cheaper to insure than say a GS300/430 even though it makes more power and torque than both.. maybe i should start looking for one myself.

[Scribe]

Mike's right - there isn't any logic to car insurance any more. I get the impression they do their calculations on lots of factors: insurance group, age, location, occupation, the way the wind's blowing, how Corrie ended last night, and - more importantly - what they can get away with. One example is giving lower rates to new customers, even for the same risk and level of cover as existing ones.

[steve2006]

Good points everyone, I may have mentioned it before but my V5C doesn't show a model it says Toyota as the make and a blank space where the model should be, the model doesn't appear on the MOT database either so it gets tested as an LS430!

Then there's the websites where you enter your registration number to bring up your car details and it produces nothing.

If it wasn't for a Celsior badge on the boot I wouldn't have known myself when I bought it, I wonder which group a Yaris falls into modified with a 4.0 litre V8 engine!

I'll keep my head down and continue to creep around in my little car un-noticed!