Low km (annual use) Car Insurance

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E3xtc

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#255981 9-Sep-2019 13:26

Hello,

Anyone have any experience with getting insurance for a car which has very low annual use? I realised one of our cars had less than 1000 km in the last 12 months and was hoping there was some options out there for reducing my insurance premium as a result - given the car is at risk for a very small proportion of the year.

Its not at the 20 yr mark - so unlikely to satisfy the "classic" criteria, but is also not worth that much (ie probably somewhere between 5-7k maybe) so not worth selling it as it is useful when we need it (eg for towing, extra space or just 2 car flexibility).

Any ideas?

Cheers

Jase2985

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#2313748 9-Sep-2019 17:11

classic cover or any of those types dont generally care about the age and will insure you will low millage cover, some of the main stream providers will also do the same

tdgeek

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#2313789 9-Sep-2019 18:56

Nice to know. Im about to buy a cheap car JUST for golf. Small, low km (50k or so) just for golf, and maybe some minor running around.

Do I need to ask my insurer for this?

scuwp

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#2313794 9-Sep-2019 19:07

With that low mileage, wouldn't it be cheaper just to hire a rental car and avoid the capital costs and depreciation? These days in some places there are on-demand cars (Loop). Taxi's? Uber? The travel options are getting better all the time.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

tdgeek

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#2313796 9-Sep-2019 19:11

scuwp:

With that low mileage, wouldn't it be cheaper just to hire a rental car and avoid the capital costs and depreciation? These days in some places there are on-demand cars (Loop). Taxi's? Uber? The travel options are getting better all the time.

This is NZ we are happy to own a car to sit idle! But financially yes you are right
Rental car means forms , credit card, see one else dings it. If there was a Uber like Lime rental, thats an option

michaelmurfy

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#2313797 9-Sep-2019 19:14

In Wellington we have https://mevo.co.nz/ which is cars on demand via an app. Would be handy in this situation.

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E3xtc

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#2313812 9-Sep-2019 19:41

We live in an area which has very limited access to easily getting a rental or ride share car (already looked at that as an option), and there is still the question of how to get to it if you don't have a mode of transport.
The depreciation on such a cheap car as it stands is so little it's not worth worrying about. The car is otherwise reliable and in good shape and as I mentioned has value to us for keeping it when we need more space or towing etc... so for our situation it makes sense to just retain it.

I asked our current insurer (Ami) and they didn't have a low mileage option, so will have to ring around others (argh) lol

If anyone has any experience or recommendations of such an insurer then let me know.
Thanks

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Scott3

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#2313815 9-Sep-2019 19:55

Consider ditching comprehensive cover, and going for either a third party or third party, fire & theft policy.

Given your low mileage decreases your exposure, and given the low value of the car, it may make financial scene to self insure the first party portion. We do this for our lower mileage car.

E3xtc

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#2313822 9-Sep-2019 20:05

Yeah had tried that avenue also but was surprised at how little difference there was between full and third party

Scott3

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#2313826 9-Sep-2019 20:24

E3xtc: Yeah had tried that avenue also but was surprised at how little difference there was between full and third party

Was like $350 vs $750 last time I looked into it. Perhaps you are deemed to be very low risk due to your location or demographic...

jbard

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#2313843 9-Sep-2019 21:30

You could try Cove Insurance: https://www.coveinsurance.co.nz/

They ask you how many days a week you use your car, as I only use mine 1-2 days per week my quote was 40% cheaper than what I get with State (and that was already cheaper than the other top 5 providers).

Geektastic

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#2313863 9-Sep-2019 22:22

tdgeek:

Nice to know. Im about to buy a cheap car JUST for golf. Small, low km (50k or so) just for golf, and maybe some minor running around.

Do I need to ask my insurer for this?

Can you use a car for golf? I know there is a special one named for it, so I suppose you can.

Then again the same car was called a Rabbit in Germany, so maybe it's for something different?

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McMatt

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#2317022 13-Sep-2019 10:00

jbard:

You could try Cove Insurance: https://www.coveinsurance.co.nz/

They ask you how many days a week you use your car, as I only use mine 1-2 days per week my quote was 40% cheaper than what I get with State (and that was already cheaper than the other top 5 providers).

Thanks for the shoutout! (I work at Cove, and worked with heaps of Geekzone readers to develop Cove into what it is today over on the Startups Forums, back when we were a chatbot based startup).

We ask whether you use your car 0-2 days per week, 3 - 5 days per week, or 6 - 7 days per week...simply because of less driving = less chance of crashing. When time allows we'll build in an automatic lookup via API, since the distance travelled is recorded during each WOF so the data is already available.

E3xtc

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#2317031 13-Sep-2019 10:07

Well I certainly need to make a call then - I went on to the website but evidently my car is a special model :O so need to make an actual phone call :D But the approach seems to be spot on for what I am after.