Global News - Modifying your car could void your insurance | GTAMotorcycle.com

Global News - Modifying your car could void your insurance

Insurance companies do ask if you have modifications and there value, with that, working in automotive I've never seen an adjuster show up and care or even notice wheels/tires, lowered, especially window tint.
When they do fix those they get stock parts though not your aftermarket.
Watched it yesterday on the news seems like Desjardins wanted an out of paying.
 
how does aftermarket parks make the car more dangerous?
Desjardin seems a very shady company
 
justride said:
how does aftermarket parks make the car more dangerous?
Desjardin seems a very shady company
Click to expand...
Companies believe that people who modify their vehicles in ANY way present more risk. They use the fine print of "you must make us aware of any changes to the vehicle" to deny paying out legitimate claims that have nothing to do with said modifications.

I have friends in the US. Insurance companies there do not cancel or deny claims based on modifications
 
When my VFR800 was written off, the adjuster asked if I had receipts for the upgrades...I told him no, I had bought the bike like that. Come to think of it, I don't recall them asking if it was modified when I signed up. The payout was more than I was expecting, and the upgrades never came up again so I just cashed the cheque ??‍♂️
 
justride said:
how does aftermarket parks make the car more dangerous?
Desjardin seems a very shady company
Click to expand...

Desjardin auto insurance is the former State Farm, and they only wanted to insure factory-stock vehicles.

As for aftermarket parts ... Some of it is "fear of the unknown", some things really do present additional risks, some of it is being unable to separate properly designed modifications from hack jobs.

There are certain aftermarket modifications that legitimately have additional risks. Truck "lift kits" are nothing but bad in terms of what insurance companies care about. Increased roll-over propensity in all situations (and roll-overs are very, very bad for occupants), bumper and crash structures are now at incompatible heights with most other vehicles on the road, vehicle stability can be significantly impaired in ways over and above roll-over. Not all of them are structurally safe, either.

Insurance companies don't like anything that will make a vehicle go faster. They think they can estimate the risk of the stock vehicle. Modifying it means they think they can't. Even for something that doesn't make a real difference (like the exhaust system that the original story was about).

When my previous car got a broken front spring and a strut with no damping on stock suspension that was never known for being all that great anyhow, I replaced it with a complete Bilstein spring and damper kit that was properly engineered for the vehicle and set it to a non-stupid ride height. (Huge improvement over stock.) World of difference between that, and someone who chopped stock springs and ovalled out suspension attachment holes to get more camber, nevermind that the car is riding on the bump stops and the suspension is incapable of absorbing actual bumps.

Insurance-related funny situation. Same car. I got tapped from behind on the 401 in rush hour, and it broke a piece of the exhaust system. OEM replacement was $1300 and was going to take three weeks to get. A local performance exhaust place had an aftermarket replacement in stock and it was $500 if I remember right. I presented this situation to the adjuster. Insurance paid me to put an aftermarket exhaust on my car! (no difference in performance ... but it had the result of giving me a lifetime warranty on a certain flex-pipe that was notorious for breaking on those cars)
 
The guy's claim was not denied because he had an aftermarket exhaust.
The guy's claim was denied for "non disclosure".

Perfectly reasonable.
What IS un-reasonable is he was outside of his contract with his insured, but whines to the news and the insurance company caves, for "optics".
 
Brian P said:
Desjardin auto insurance is the former State Farm, and they only wanted to insure factory-stock vehicles.

As for aftermarket parts ... Some of it is "fear of the unknown", some things really do present additional risks, some of it is being unable to separate properly designed modifications from hack jobs.

There are certain aftermarket modifications that legitimately have additional risks. Truck "lift kits" are nothing but bad in terms of what insurance companies care about. Increased roll-over propensity in all situations (and roll-overs are very, very bad for occupants), bumper and crash structures are now at incompatible heights with most other vehicles on the road, vehicle stability can be significantly impaired in ways over and above roll-over. Not all of them are structurally safe, either.

Insurance companies don't like anything that will make a vehicle go faster. They think they can estimate the risk of the stock vehicle. Modifying it means they think they can't. Even for something that doesn't make a real difference (like the exhaust system that the original story was about).

When my previous car got a broken front spring and a strut with no damping on stock suspension that was never known for being all that great anyhow, I replaced it with a complete Bilstein spring and damper kit that was properly engineered for the vehicle and set it to a non-stupid ride height. (Huge improvement over stock.) World of difference between that, and someone who chopped stock springs and ovalled out suspension attachment holes to get more camber, nevermind that the car is riding on the bump stops and the suspension is incapable of absorbing actual bumps.

Insurance-related funny situation. Same car. I got tapped from behind on the 401 in rush hour, and it broke a piece of the exhaust system. OEM replacement was $1300 and was going to take three weeks to get. A local performance exhaust place had an aftermarket replacement in stock and it was $500 if I remember right. I presented this situation to the adjuster. Insurance paid me to put an aftermarket exhaust on my car! (no difference in performance ... but it had the result of giving me a lifetime warranty on a certain flex-pipe that was notorious for breaking on those cars)
Click to expand...

Somewhere on YouTube there is a video wherein the shop takes a look at a modified car someone bought and presents the owner with an estimate for thousands of dollars to make it safe.

A friend had a 350 CI V-8 dropped into his Chevy S-10 pickup paying around ten grand. He knew of guys that got it done for a third the price but the workmanship was crap. BTW the definition of hot rod used to be any vehicle with an engine not available for the vehicle at the time of manufacture. The friend is an insurance agent if that counts.
 
Repalacing the exhaust with street legal one . I doubt the insurence has anything to say . Insurence can't mandate what you put on your car as long as it is street legal .
 
pfbmgd said:
Repalacing the exhaust with street legal one . I doubt the insurence has anything to say . Insurence can't mandate what you put on your car as long as it is street legal .
Click to expand...
Who makes a street legal aftermarket exhaust? All the ones I have seen are branded for off-road use only as it doesn't make financial sense for them to do all the work required to pass certification.

The wording of his policy had nothing to do with street legal. Assuming he found and installed an aftermarket street legal exhaust he would likely have been in the same situation.

“Your vehicle is considered to be modified if it has been changed in any way from its original condition in order to improve or alter its performance, appearance or increase its value. If you make or plan to make modifications to your vehicle, contact us to make certain we are able to insure you properly,”

Based on the wording above, if the exhaust didn't improve or alter performance (likely reasonable as it would be a few percent increase in hp at most, is the sound of the farts a performance metric?), didn't improve or alter appearance (possible but very unlikely, he probably had a dbag exhaust), didn't increase its value (increase to replace or sell? nobody will pay more because you have a fancy fart can) it would be possible to install an off-road only exhaust and not run afoul of their clause. Not everybodies clause may be the same. Do the insurance companies care about a 1% hp bump? It would be exceedingly unlikely that it contributed to the crash but given a big enough claim, a 1 hp increase is an increase and they could use that to grab onto.
 
In the automotive world, an aftermarket OEM-replacement muffler that you buy at Midas or some other such generic exhaust system place, is probably "legal". But it won't perform any differently, and it won't sound any different ... and it probably isn't what was on there.
 
The muffler and pipes you bought at Midas was probably bent in a die that was purchased from the OEM when the OEM was done with it. It is for all intents and purposes the same as OEM... maybe BETTER as the dies wear with use and it is cheaper/easier to use thicker wall pipe than to rebuild the die. (My mother's family used to own Standard Tube in Woodstock, it was the largest Canadian manufacturers of OEM and aftermarket exhaust parts).
 
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