Thatcham cat 1 & 2 no difference!!!!!!

[mattosmond 0]

i have had a quote for corrado insurance and when asked about alarm immob.. i said cat 2, then i got my quote, i asked the guy if i installed a Cat 1 would it bring my quote down much? He put it through the computer and it didn't drop at all........

so i'm nw thinking maybe this whole cat 1 and cat 2 stuff is just an insurance con...... :mad:

has anyone else had the same experience......

:? :? :? :? :? :?

[bcstudent 0]

I'm not really surprised to be honest. I believe cat. 2 covers immobilisers and cat. 1 covers alarms. Is that right?! Personally I wouldn't own a non-immobilised car, since it's the biggest theft deterrent, but I don't like alarms and have to question their usefulness in modern times where people don't even flinch when they hear one. I guess they may put people off from having a go at your car in your drive, but that's about it!

[chrishill 0]

simular - needed a cat 2 fitted to my VR in order for the insurance company to cover me, asked if it'd be worth spending a bit more and getting a cat 1 fitted to lower the policy costs and was told it made no difference at all.

 

I think the grades are a good idea so you know how effective an obsticle the anti-theft device is when buying, but in terms of insurance companies using them it think its fairly random, I think they've been pulling random quotes out of the air for years now based on what they think you'll be prepared to pay rather than how likely you are to crash or have your car stolen.

[chrishill 0]

bcstudent, Category explainations

 

its more a case of the equipment meeting a certain standard of features and performace rather than it simply being present. I agree a car with an imobiliser is probably the best deterant, but they can be got around and having no alarm means the toe-rag has more undisturbed time to get around the imobiliser and do off with your car. Yes people ignore alarms, but I reckon from a theifs perspective, you're not going to risk hanging about for long.

[Lippy 0]

i've just bought a house a few months ago, having an alarm on the house didn't make a difference to the insurance prob for the same reason as bc mentioned, people don't react to alarms nowadays :(

[mattosmond 0]

chris i'd agree with you about quotes..... especially for young drivers!!!!!! need i say more...... the bit that gets my goat the most is that if you have a years no claims they won't necessarily discount your insurance.... you have to go through the hassle of getting new quotes ever year... what has happend to being a valued customer.......

[Jim 1]

I disagree bcstudent - I think whilst the chavs and neds will just break into a car without any sort of regard generally, an alarm is definately an additional deterrant as most often the break in to a car is not to actually nick the car but just raid the glovebox and nick the stereo!

 

I'd definately have a proper full blown alarm on any car I actually cared about rather than just an immobiliser - without an alarm, there is no deterrent to just smashing the window and helping yourself to whatevers in the car at 3am when no-one is around..

[16vradge 0]

A couple of years ago my mini got broken into in York. It was outside my girlfriends and we'd been out on the lash that night, anyways alarm goes off at about 4am - I heard it but was too hammered/lazy to get out of bed.:drinking: :oops:

 

Got up next morning to find the drivers window smashed - but they must have scarpered straight away as nothing else was touched. Bit of a barsteward but it did its job. I'd never have a car without an alarm - never mind everyone else ignoring it, it gives you a chance to do something if you hear it. I religously put a disc-lock on now too.

[bv-vr6 0]

i know what you mean mattosmond i got a quote for the VR and would have saved a wopping 1p if i got a cat 1 over a Cat 2!

 

So i thought to myself that the extra £100+ for the cat 1 was really unjustified so was getting the cat 2 until i actually phoned the insurance and they so nicely then told me that i would only be insured if i got a Cat 1, which they said was to do with my age and the type of car it was. i then had to state previous cars to find out if they would cover me! funny how they never said any of that on the confused web site lol!!!! and it only took 60seconds to find the quote and about 10mins to fix it over the phone!!!!

 

so in the end it cost me an extra £100-150 (i think) to save a penny!!!!!! What a BARGAIN lol

[mattosmond 0]

bv-vr6 i know what you mean.......

 

 

those online quotes are crap..... there are so many little extras they leave out (especially with elephant),,,,,,,,, i guess they are good as a guide... but they just annoy me..... also th whole postcode lottery..... we could go on all day.......

my idea is, rather than our premiums going down a tiny bit each year, just give back 75% of the initial fee if you make no claims in that year..... seems fair.........

[bv-vr6 0]

sounds like a good idea as far as i am concerned!!!! lol

And they give no-claims discount but then put the price up again so we save next to nothing anyway!!!

 

They love to take our money from us for our premium but as soon as it comes to paying out for a crash etc they like to take as much time as possible and try everything to get out of it lol!!!

 

Wonder what they would do if we took as long to pay them as they do with us!!!!!!!!! lol

[Lovinit 0]

the way i see it is that i'd rather fork out for a decent alarm/immobiliser than not, at least that way if the car gets half inched you can at least rest your own mind that you did all you could...as opposed to wondering what if..i mean we spend hundreds, if not thousands of pounds on moddin our cars, then to skimp on the security would be silly...

 

don't get me wrong i think insurance companies fleece the hell outta us, (esp me 8) )but i guess for your own peace o mind its worth it...and like some one sadi earlier, im sure they charge what they like.

 

when your cars worth the bucks or even if its not, its ur own pride n joy your taking car of... so cat1 or cat 2 as long as ur happy with what u got..bugger the quote as long as ur car don't get nicked...hehe!

 

J 8)