Test drives and insurance cover

DCR00

Evening all

Selling my Megane in a couple of weeks. I was going to state in the advert that if a prospective buyer wants to test drive it, then they have to have the proper insurance cover note.

Its a RenaultSport Megane, so i want to discourage test pilots turning up just to have a blast in my car. I also dont want someone crashing it and me being liable for the damage.

Is this a reasonable thing to ask for ? and if so, what does a cover note look like ?

Cheers

DCR

Tartanyak

A lot of insurance policies cover you to drive a car owned by another person to drive third party, with the owners permission. Will say on their policy.

That makes it legal. The other thing is to agree on a 'you crash it, you bought it' beforehand

DCR00

See thats what i thought, but when i queried this with my insurance company a couple of years ago (so a mate could drive my car back from somewhere), they said that this was a popular misconception, and that they would only cover the 3rd party driver in an emergency

I had to pay £90 to insure him for the day

Alex

Drivers under 25 do not generally get the "third party on other cars" aspect. Also, many budget policies do not include it.

It'll state clearly on the policy if it does.

Day insurance is available, but again, not generally to the under 25s for performance cars.

A covernote looks like an insurance certificate, but will have specific time limitations stated on it at the expense of specific vehicle details.

DCR00

Its a fair thing to ask for though eh ?

Will it put buyers off do you think ?

Tartanyak

I thought it was quite a normal thing to ask for.

cooldad

Generally their insurance will only give third party cover whilst driving other vehicles, so your car won't be covered. As someone pointed out, a lot of budget policies don't even give this.
If you have open drivers on your policy, that would cover damage to your own vehicle, but if not, you would have to extend it. There would still be restrictions on who could drive - normally over 25, with full clean license for more than 2 years.
Need to check as all differ.

cooldad

ps if you want to save yourself the hassle, I'll buy it. Bit broke though so all I can offer is a bag of Haribo. A small one - it's French after all so will break soon.

fletch8928

I reckon you have or are trying to cover your own back.

If I was looking for a certain car and I had to provide my own insurance then I would give them a call. If it was costly I would probably pop along to check the car out and decide if it was worth paying up for a few mins driving. I would expect a cold start, some hard accelerating and stopping, to stall it and then have the AA man come to check it out. To make sure the A/C, windows , fuel cap all work. Look for a chop job. Check the discs for pitting. If its 3 years old it must have had a cam belt change too. I'm not fussy like.

I nearly bought a Mitsubishi L200 a few weeks ago. The test drive was a standard run around. when I asked can I try out the 4X4 levers I don't think the guy expected me to trundle off up a byway (green lane) that I ride on.
If that was a private sale I am not convinced any owner would want that.

DCR00

cooldad wrote:

ps if you want to save yourself the hassle, I'll buy it. Bit broke though so all I can offer is a bag of Haribo. A small one - it's French after all so will break soon.

LOL, i may come back to you when i cant sell it

The general consensus (i posted this question on a couple of car forums as well) is that most buyers won’t have this level of insurance, and that i should be taking them out for a spin in the car, rather than letting them drive it

kenan

Nobody will buy the car without a test drive, I know I wouldn't. When I have sold quick cars in the past I have let the buyer drive the cars, but this is because the people who turned up have been genuine. One flew 500 miles to see one car and the over stayed in a hotel to view my car. Had calls from chavs, to which I just hung up. If someone turns up who you don't want to drive your pride and joy tell them to feck off, I would rathr loose a sale than the car.

DCR00

Ok, have a definitive answer on this. A guy at work is a part-time copper, so i asked his advice.

Seems that nobody outside of the trade will have fully comp insurance, and if they are under 25, they won’t even have 3rd party. So his suggestion was a test drive in either a car park or an industrial estate, to minimise the risk of an accident. Plus to ask for a £500 deposit and proof of funds to buy. He also said something that i hadn’t considered, in that private test drives are only to test that the car works as it should, not how the car performs or “feels”.

So i think its a case of weeding out the scrotes and the test pilots, and then taking the genuine buyers to a local car park for a test

Tartanyak

A part time copper isn't the best to ask about insurance. It being a very odd thing that changes from policy to policy.

For example, the under-25s thing isn't true. It's unlikely to happen, but it's far from impossible.

DCR00

On one of the car forums. someone recommended www.dayinsure.com

Unsuprisingly they offer daily car insurance, and it seem tailored to this sort of thing. So will put that in the ad.

if they have that, they can drive the car no probs

Alex

They do not cover performance cars for under-25s though.
Couldn't even get myself insured on my own car through Dayinsure.

Test drives are about making sure that the engine starts cold, that it settles to the correct idle, that all forward and reverse gears work, that the brakes without pulling to either side, and that the car can be turned at full lock without crunchy CV death.

There shouldn't be any need to exceed 30mph.

DCR00

TBH i dont think that many under 25 will be coming to see it. The insurance would be crippling.

I agree that the test is to ensure the car works as it should, so im going to ask on the fone before they come round if they have driven one yet. If they say no, then i will be telling them to go to a dealer and drive one before they come and see mine.

kenan

For a normal car this could be considered acceptable, but a performance car is a different matter. If you own this type of car you have to accept the normal car ownership rules don’t apply. If someone want to test drive a turbo car for example you need to get the car running on boost to at least check that it holds the boost and doesn’t miss etc. Sold a GTR a few years back and was a know fault that shifting from 4th to 5th at higher revs would indicate box issues. As you can imagine this could not be tested at 30mph. I’m not advising this is all relative to this car, but say that a test drive at 30 would give you the feel for the car is utter tripe.


DCR00, advising them to test drive the car at a dealers seems like a really good idea to me. This way will put off chavs and on the plus side for the buyer they will be more informed and have another car to compare yours to. When looking for my last car I test drive 8 before finding the right one, but to be fair the cars aren’t as modern as yours.

jairaj

I think it is totally reasonable for you to expect the potential new owner to have the valid insurance if they wish to test drive your car. Else they can sit in the passenger seat and you can show them everything works.

If they are not happy about this then its their problem. You got to cover your own a*se.