# Renewing my GAP cover on my Octavia (purchased new)



## m0bov (May 2, 2007)

My Octy will be three at the end of the year, I got it brand new fully loaded. I now have a mortgage so stuffed for a few years before I can/need to change.

Assuming the worst happens and its written off, say the insurance pays half what its worth, i could not afford to make the differance. I would'nt be happy buying a s/h car. My GAP runs out when its three, its return to invoice, is it worth taking about another year or two? Seems a no brainer to me.

Thanks all,

James


----------



## howie parks (Jun 5, 2006)

out of curiosity, why would you not be happy with a second hand car?


----------



## m0bov (May 2, 2007)

Cos I paid a premium to have mine new with the options I speced, so would'nt want a car owned by someone else without my spec.


----------



## slineclean (Dec 23, 2011)

Thought gap was only for new cars to ensure the short fall if stolen or written off in that first year or so? . It's not gonna continue to provide cover on a car that is older ( that's what I thought )


----------



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

slineclean said:


> Thought gap was only for new cars to ensure the short fall if stolen or written off in that first year or so? . It's not gonna continue to provide cover on a car that is older ( that's what I thought )


Normally you get back to invoice price within the first year.

I think the OP is highly unrealistic to expect back to invoice on a 3 year old car.

Normally GAP policies only cover the difference between insurance offer and amount owed on finance after 1 year.

At 3 years old his car is likely to be worth around a third of its original value and at that value, it wouldn't be that big an accident to write it off.

If it was as easy as paying a couple of hundred quid to have our old cars refunded to brand new price we would all do it and the GAP insurance companies would soon be skint.

In the event of you writing off your car your insurance company would pay about a third and the shortfall payment would actually be two thirds and the majority of the cost back to list price.

Best of luck OP but I don't think GAP insurance is going to do what you hope.


----------



## Blueberry (Aug 10, 2007)

GAP insurance is available on cars up to 7 years old. Look at Click4gap or ala - both good sites and should be able to help you


----------



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Blueberry said:


> GAP insurance is available on cars up to 7 years old. Look at Click4gap or ala - both good sites and should be able to help you


The OP is asking for return to invoice on a 3 year old car.

Click4gap only do RTI for cars purchased within 90 days not 3 years.


----------



## m0bov (May 2, 2007)

got it sorted. return to value cost about 70quid for 10k topup for1 year. car up to 10yrs.


----------



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

m0bov said:


> got it sorted. return to value cost about 70quid for 10k topup for1 year. car up to 10yrs.


Return to value isn't what you asked for originally. You asked for return to purchase price.


----------



## m0bov (May 2, 2007)

if it makes up the shortful so i can by new its pretty much the same thing. my cars new price is much higher now.


----------



## andy665 (Nov 1, 2005)

m0bov said:


> got it sorted. return to value cost about 70quid for 10k topup for1 year. car up to 10yrs.


From the description I'm confused as to what your £70 has actually provided you with


----------



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

andy665 said:


> From the description I'm confused as to what your £70 has actually provided you with


It isn't just me that that is confused with what the OP thinks he has paid for?

I think the OP thinks he has paid £70 for the GAP insurance to pay £10,000 more than the insurance settlement to take the money paid back to near his original purchase price from 3 years ago.

Having seen quite a few GAP policies I've never seen one that agrees to pay what is likely to be more than the actual value of the car on top of what the insurance company paid out. 
All the polices I've seen only cover back to purchase price when the deal has recently been done.

I can't understand why the insurance secured on the car amounts to far more than its worth.

Op, who is the policy with those terms?

A lot of people would be interested on those terms unless I've completely misunderstood what you've typed.


----------



## m1pui (Jul 24, 2009)

Reading that click4gap site has confused me too.

I always though gap was,to cover the shortfall between insurance valuation (in event of write off) & remaining finance, so that you end up with no outstanding finance/negative equity on a lost vehicle.

Something that essentially gives you your full money back, several years down the line, sounds too good to be true.

It sounds like they're pretty much eliminating depreciation on your car for £70 a year


----------



## Blueberry (Aug 10, 2007)

You don't have to have finance on a car to have GAP insurance. It merely covers the GAP between what your insurance company pay out in the event of a right off, and the cost to take you back to invoice price or return to value (whichever option you bought cover on). Of course up to the value that you bought the cover for.


----------



## m1pui (Jul 24, 2009)

I've always understood that an insurance payout would, in theory, put you in the same position that you were before the loss.

ie. You paid £16k for a brand new Octavia. It was 4 years old and worth £6k at the time of an accident so the payout (and your declared insurance valuation) from the insurance will be of an amount that will get you back into a 4 year old Octavia (£6k for example).

I've never realised that you could use a GAP policy to take you back to the £16k figure to get you a brand new car, 4 years into ownership. I find it pretty bizzare as they have just eliminated depreciation and have a system that sounds ripe for abuse.


----------



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Blueberry said:


> You don't have to have finance on a car to have GAP insurance. It merely covers the GAP between what your insurance company pay out in the event of a right off, and the cost to take you back to invoice price or return to value (whichever option you bought cover on). Of course up to the value that you bought the cover for.


Yes I understand that bit well enough.

But do you know of a policy that will either return to brand new price after 3 years or an agreed value of 200% of the car?


----------



## m0bov (May 2, 2007)

The company has suggested I look at this policy https://www.directgap.co.uk/products_agreed_value.aspx I have not purchased a policy yet!


----------



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

m0bov said:


> The company has suggested I look at this policy https://www.directgap.co.uk/products_agreed_value.aspx I have not purchased a policy yet!












They agree at best to pay 105% of Glass's retail value from when the policy starts.

You will be left in the position if the worst does happen you will only be given a top up of cash back to buy another used car.

I would also hope that an insurance company would pay out somewhere near Glass's prices as they are the industry standard and also usually the lowest.

Over the next year I would hope that the Octavia wouldn't lose much money as most of the depreciation does happen early.

Unless the policy is cheap you will be paying out for a GAP insurance policy that won't actually be covering a big amount of value.

You will need to work out if the cost of the policy outweighs the likelyhood you are going to suffer a total loss and for the amount of money it will recover too.


----------

