10:29 am, February 24, 2023
Range Rover owners who live in London are finding it impossible to insure their vehicles.
Autocar says there are fewer firms that are happy to insure the 4x4s, plus premiums are soaring.
Last year, more than 5,200 Range Rovers were stolen in the UK, it cited the DVLA as saying, with many taken in London. It was reportedly the second-most stolen vehicle type nationwide.
That has led to a lot of insurers refusing to offer cover or massively increasing premiums, as a result of a rising number of claims.
The magazine said investment specialist Dan Adler alerted it to the problem.
The north London resident, who uses a broker, had tried insuring his Range Rover P440e Autobiography, which was due to arrive after he ordered it a year ago.
He already insures four vehicles, which include a valuable classic car, and told Autocar: ‘My insurance premium for them all has just increased from £4,000 to £5,000.
‘But my broker has now also told me my current insurer is unwilling to insure the new Range Rover, while another would charge an additional £6,000 for it, taking my total premium to £11,000.
‘This has made my purchase impossible to contemplate.’
Autocar also found other instances of Range Rover drivers in London having problems getting insurance.
Saxon Insurance director Samuel Cise told the publication he had tried getting insurance for two Range Rovers that were registered to addresses in London.
It quoted him as saying: ‘For one car we were quoted a £20,000 insurance premium while for another, worth £50,000, we were quoted £38,000.
‘Many insurers have pulled out of insuring London-based Range Rovers.’
Meanwhile, an anonymous specialist broker told Autocar that Range Rovers were alone among prestige cars in having extremely high insurance premium quotes – and sometimes none.
‘The reason is the model’s popularity with thieves. With cars such as Volvo XC90s or Porsches there is no problem,’ he said.
Neil Thomas, who is the director of investigation services at vehicle tracking firm AX, told the publication that Range Rovers were profitable for thieves.
It quoted him as saying: ‘The problem for Range Rovers is not their security; instead, it’s their huge popularity here and abroad.
‘A thief knows they can dispose of one very easily and for a good price so will invest in the technology they need to steal them.
‘We haven’t yet encountered a stolen new-shape Range Rover, but when the thieves’ technology catches up, we expect to.’
Autocar said that when it tried insuring a nearly-new £209,786 Range Rover SV P510E with a £,1250 excess on a fully comprehensive policy while pretending to be a central London resident, it received only seven quotes from Comparethemarket.com and they ranged from £4,351 to £5,952.
When it tried again for a nearly-new £209,950 Bentley Bentayga 4.0 V8 S with the same excess, there were 11 quotes, with most of them around £2,000.
The quotes were calculated on the market value of the cars, which for the Range Rover was judged by the insurers to be £149,270.
As a result, if there was a claim – for example, if the car had been stolen – the policies would pay at least £60,000 less than the Range Rover’s purchase price.
Land Rover stopped offering insurance for its models last November after its partnership with insurance provider Verex ended by mutual agreement, said Autocar.
However, the manufacturer says it’s set to launch ‘an exciting new insurance proposition’.
Autocar was told by JLR that the issue of vehicle theft was taken very seriously by the manufacturer.
It quoted a spokesperson as saying: ‘We are aware of the impact that this criminality is having on the availability of insurance options for some of our clients.
‘We are proactively engaging with relevant stakeholders, including insurance providers, to evidence how we are improving vehicle security and providing measures to counter this type of activity.
‘We recommend that clients use all available measures to protect their vehicle, including activating our “Remote” app and its suite of security features including “Guardian Mode”, which monitors the vehicle and provides an alert if the car has been unlocked.’
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