I passed my driving test when I was 17 years and 29 days old. That means that I have been driving for nearly 62 years and obviously, I have had motor insurance for all that time. I must have paid getting on for £30,000 in premiums while never making a claim. Motor insurers have done well out of my driving.
The other day, I noticed a scuff on the rear off-side wing of my car. It was about six centimetres long and the width of a pencil. The wing material was not damaged in any way. The harm was only to about 3 square centimetres of paintwork.
Some years ago, someone bumped my fairly new car in a supermarket car park. I contacted the dealer that had sold me the car who told me that they didn’t do bodywork repairs but recommended a business who did. That company did a good job with that problem and so last Friday, I went back to them.
Their quote amazed me:
Labour | £320 |
Paint | £150 |
Vat | £94 |
Total | £564 |
I queried it. “How much an hour do you charge for labour?”
“Forty pounds.”
“So that small scuff is eight hours, or a full day’s work, is it?”
“Yes. It includes drying time.”
“So, one of your men is going to spend all one day either working on my car or watching it while the paint dries. And, how can a tiny amount of paint that would just be enough to cover a match box cost a hundred and fifty pounds?”
“You can always try somewhere else.”
So, I did. I drove 12 miles to a bodywork repair shop that I found on Google. They quoted £510.
In Woburn Sands, a village two miles away, there’s an independent garage that has a very good reputation locally. I know that they don’t do bodywork repairs but I rang them to ask if there was anywhere they could recommend. There is and they did.
“Two hundred pounds but we can’t do it until Monday.”
When I collected the car on Monday afternoon, I met the owner of the business. We chatted and I asked him why his quote was so much lower than the other two I had. He told me that those two companies both specialise in work for insurance companies and insurance companies never quibble or ask questions whatever they are quoted. He never does work for insurance companies. If you’d like his number, let me know.
That explains to some extent why car insurance rates are so ridiculously high. Today, the cheapest full comprehensive cover for a year that I could find for me is £923.
As I wrote at the start, I am a driver who has never made a claim in his life.
What a rip off!
