Car Shop Guide

If you are buying a new car seek Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) car insurance. Cars are insured for their market value but a new car’s depreciation is high in the first year, especially as you lose all the VAT, so there may be a substantial difference between market value and what you owe on finance or what it would cost to replace it. GAP insurance promises to pay the full replacement cost during the first year or 18 months. It is included in some comprehensive insurance policies but can also be bought as part of some finance packages.
Tell the truth
Whatever you do, don’t lie to the insurers about yourself or the car. These days they have many databases on which to check information and you may also have forgotten what you said by the time you have an accident. Lying is classed as fraud and can render your insurance void. Parents should not be tempted to insure a child’s car putting one of the parents as the main driver, especially for a student living away from home. This, again, is defrauding the insurers and it means the young person is not building up their own no-claims bonus.

Urcakdown cover is really another form of insurance – you insure against having a breakdown. The best-known organizations are the A A and RAC but there are others like (ireen Flag and Britannia. Some insurers offer breakdown cover .\s an addition to your policy using specialist firms such as Mondial Assistance. The best thing is to visit their websites or Kit their pamphlets and see which organization offers the cover that best suits your needs. If you have special needs, carefully check what exclusions there are. For example, they all say they recover trailers if the towcar can’t be fixed, but in the exclusions I hey may reveal that they will not recover trailers with livestock on board – little use if you tow a horse trailer.
Most do a basic roadside assistance service where they come and try to fix the car at the side of the road and charge extra if it can’t be fixed there and needs recovery. They then add various recovery services ranging from simple ‘get-you-home’ to ones where they put you up in a hotel for the night if they can’t. I lome call-outs mean they will get the car started if it breaks down at home, while European cover extends the service to the whole of Europe if you frequently go abroad, liut before you rush to join up, check you’re not duplicating something you get for free. All new car warranties and manufacturer-approved used car warranties include some breakdown cover, though unlike private membership, they only cover that car. Some new car warranties only give breakdown cover for the first year of a three-year warranty and a few only guarantee to get the car to the nearest dealer, not to get you home from the motorway at 2a.m. on a Sunday morning. If you are already a member of a breakdown service and buy a car where it is included in the warranty, most organizations allow you to postpone the membership for the period of the warranty cover.
Breakdown cover is always worthwhile, especially if you have limited car knowledge or are likely to be vulnerable if you breakdown (all breakdown services give priority to lone women, people with children and the disabled). Even if the car is new, silly things happen like losing your keys or finding you left the lights on all day. Indeed, flat batteries are the commonest call out. The risk of breakdown increases with the age of the car so the more vital backup becomes. In addition, calling out a garage is likely to cost a lot more than membership, especially more than the basic membership fees. Many people do not realise that.