My new car is AMAZING, but yet another setback :(

The Oily Bits S2 Specific Topics
1

I picked up my car on wednesday (after already being delayed by a day) which was (or would have been) the greatest day of my life so far. The car is perfect in every single way and i am already completely in love with her (dont tell my girlfriend haha :smiley:).

However, i have yet another set back :angry: which is driving me mad. I was not insured on the free 7 day ‘driveaway’ cover note to drive the car home (25 years of age plus only), so my dad had to drive it home which doesnt really bother me at all. Especially as I already have an insurance quote already sorted and saved on the internet just ready to click ‘buy’ and put in my card details…done and dusted. I had used a registration number off a used 2010 exige to get the quote so all i had to do was replace that reg number with my new ‘60’ plate reg number.

Then came the bombshell, i typed in my reg number and the website didnt recognise it as being registered with a car :confused:. It was because my car had only just been registered, it had not yet been added to the online database from which the insurance companies get their information from. I then rang up the DVLA to find out how long this would take…ANYWHERE BETWEEN 2 AND 5 WORKING DAYS!!!

My heart sank. SO MY CAR IS AT ON THE DRIVE AND I CANNOT DRIVE IT YET :angry:

It officially got registered on tuesday 7th sept at 5:30pm so im roughly guessing the latest it will be until its on the system is monday or tuesday however it could be tomorrow :slight_smile: fingers crossed

its driving me mad because im desperate to drive it especially because its at my house, but i cannot because of this hiccup. I mean in this day and age with everything being done electronically on computers, surely the information should come on the database instantly???

Ive had such mixed emotions the past day or so (no im not a girl haha) becuase on one side im completely over the moon because i have my dream car bought and outside my house right now, however on the other side im SOOOOOOO frustrated i cannot drive it yet haha

The only thing stopping me from going insane is the fact that
a) i actually physically have the car
b) i actually have got insurance quotes ready to insure my car (a big bonus coz of my age)
c) its only a few days at the most to wait really

As they say, things can only get better eh? haha

2

Sit in it on the drive and make brum brum noises LOL, seriously though look on the bright side your under 25 and have a brand new amazing car. Enjoy (once it’s insured)

3

I assume you got a quote off confused.com or the like can you not phone the company that has underwritten quote directly and speak to someone in the flesh :wink:

4

Thinking about it your should be able to manually input the car data and then put the reg in when accepting the quote, I was in the motor trade for 4years and had to get insurances from customer before the car was registered, there must be a way, who was your quote with?

5

I hear your frustrations but you’ll forget all of that when you drive the car :slight_smile:

I’m not sure what the weather has been like near you recently but take it easy on those tyres. Trust me, I speak from experience. When I was 19 (31 now) I had a Caterham Suoerlight on Avon slicks and only spun it once, but it was enough for me to respect the car and take up some driver training.

I’m not suggesting you won’t respect it and I’ve no idea if your past car history, but I went from a 1.25 litre Fiesta to a 140bhp 430kg Caterham Superlight…at 19, so I’m probably ok to give advise hehe :slight_smile:

Anyway enjoy your car! It really is fantastic and you’ll probably get where I am now where there is no other car, at a sensible price, that could replace it!

6

Also the insurance company should be able to insure the car on make and model alone.

If you phone them up and tell them the problem they will be able to insure you I’m sure!

The DVLA will have the cars details, even if their systems haven’t updated.

7

Ring them up tell them the reg number and it will be insured, bought an import Celica not so long ago and it just didn’t show up on the database, but the insurance company were happy to insure it when I rang them, you just need all the correct details, get on the phone to them now :wink:

8

Enjoy the car m8 :smiley:

Just one note of caution tho …
Do all you can to make damn sure no one is able to nick it while it’s sat there uninsured… Hide the keys / block it in well etc etc . ( i once had one nicked whilst blocked in with other cars … the swines used a flatbed truck with a Hiab to lift the car out of the gap)
The worst thing in the world is having an uninsured car taken :frowning: :frowning:

9

Thanks mikespeed,i have sat in it endless times and made brum brum noise but no matter how well i try to make the sound its stil doesnt feel the same as driving :wink: haha. But your right im really lucky to have the car especially at my age, i couldnt be any happier with it.

Thanks c8uer, i totally appreciate what your saying (the dealer told me similar lol) and i am glad you have shared your experience with me. I completely understand to take it extra careful (super careful in wet conditions), especially due to my inexperience with rear wheel drive cars. i have come straight from having a 225bhp focus st which means i was used to a decent amount of power but even still the exige is such a different car in many ways and i will deffo respect it :slight_smile:. I was also planning on doing a car limits day with walshy eventually :slight_smile:

Thanks jfk but the car is insured on a cover note until wednesday next week with my dad on the policy (plus is blocked in a corner with 2 cars parked behind and to cars parked to the side :slight_smile:). we have a hideen drive way at the back of our house which i have been clearing due to it being overgrown with plantation (not been used for years). i am going to parked it down there today once i have finished.However we also have a garage down there which i could clear out which would prob be a better idea :slight_smile:

I understand what everyone is saying about ringing them up (and i almost certainly think this would work) but there is a pecaution as to why i dont want to speak to them on the phone (and yes i have been using compare websites). sorry if this gets confusing but here goes:

Basically i am on my dads insurance policy (thats why i can get insured lol) so a month or so back (before i ordered the car) i got a quote on the internet off admiral for the exige s 220 model which was a good price. but becuase i was looking at getting the 240 model (which i have) we rang up admiral to try and tell them about the performance pack including telling them many times its a factory fitted option etc. Now i do completely understand that mainstream insureres hate modifications at all but the girl who we spoke to on the phone about the pack went to speak to a superviser. Next thing we know the superviser comes on the phone and says that they cannot insure the under 25 driver (me) with these modifications. You might think fair enough then but when i do the quote completely on the internet (even with admiral) and add the modifications on seperately (ie upgraded brakes, increase in bhp by upto 10% etc) i can get a perfectly good quote and all i have to do is to buy online without talking to anyone.

So basically what i am saying is that when we rang up admiral i think that due to actually speaking to someone (especially the supervisor and about a optional extra called “PERFORMANCE” pack)caused him to personally read through the quote which triggered me up as a young driver. Whereas, the internet quotes are done by computer and therefore less likey to activate the same trigger. So i thought i am only going to use the internet from now on and try not to speak to any insurances on the phone. I do have other quotes saved from a few other companies anyway so admiral wasnt my only chance thank god.

Now i know you might be thinking that surely i am only going to have to ring up with the reference code from the quote (with all the modifications noted on) on the website and ring up, give it in and explain about the car only just being registered etc etc and that everything will be fine. Or that i enter the car details maunally (without the reg number) on the website, buy the policy, and then the insurance company would ring up asking about the reg number or whatever.

And this could work out to be fine and i think theres a high certainty that this would be the case, However my worry is that there is a small percent it could also have the reverse effect and something may flag up again beacuase a human is reading through the data.

Sorry for the long and confusing description lol. Thanks for the help everyone. only a matter on time i guess :slight_smile:

10

While you have the time, invest some of it in finding a specialist insurance company that knows the car you have.

I realise the issue with your age, however you really need to get the right cover for you, & not just a ‘piece of paper’ that makes it legal for you to drive. In the event of a claim you’ll be glad for choosing a company involving direct conversation & one that’s recommended by the good peeps on here.

I use AON/Footman James (not cheap) who are totally hassle free :slight_smile:

Hopefully others will add other good names for you to try also.

Don’t just go with the cheapest that gets you legal & without 100% understanding of the cover you are buying.

Great choice of car btw.

11

I’d make sure that you are completely clear on all of the car details - and that you are correctly covered.220S will be different to a 240PP in the insurers eye’s.

You don’t want to find out that in an event of a claim the website didn’t correctly pick up the PP etc

Mainstream insurance co’s these days will wriggle out of any claim if they can find a loophole.

12

a hidden drive way at the back of our house which i have been clearing due to it being overgrown with [color:#FF0000]plantation[/color] (not been used for years).

Isn’t that where you grow your heroin ! :smiley: or is it coffee :confused:

13

Hi John :slight_smile:

OK a few things.

Firstly, on your insurance problem, I had a similar issue with my insurer (Elephant) who saw my �Performance pack� as a modification and it�s not the first time I�ve had problems like this. When I had my Elise SC (my last car) they actually insured it as an Elise with a supercharger! Technically it is, but they thought it was an aftermarket superchanger and because the SC wasn�t on their system, my quote was more than expected. In fact, it came in at over �1300! When they cleared the mess up, my quote was �485!!

The Performance pack caused me problems and I had to tell them that it was an optional extra, much like air conditioning, the touring pack, etc. I made it clear that it was factory fitted and not an aftermarket modification. What they actually did was to list exactly what the kit included and my quote was around �500 again. Like I say, I�m 31, so I don�t think that�s a bad price to pay. I�m pretty sure Elephant and Admiral are the same company as well, so you�ll probably have the same issues I had. The good news is that it can be sorted :slight_smile:

Back on driving the car, don�t worry, I wasn�t preaching at you. It�s just that I�ve been there and am aware of what it�s like to have a powerful car like this with �those� tyres, especially coming from a hot hatch. At 19 I had a Caterham Superlight, then an Elise S2 Sport 135 at 21, then a JCW Mini (new shape one) with 210bhp, then a MKV Golf R32, then back to the Elise SC, now the Exige PP 240. So I�ve been around the houses with cars, from very light sports cars (Caterham) to heavier hot hatches, then back to Lotus� again. Out of all of the cars I�ve had, the Exige PP blows them into the weeds. Not one of my previous cars comes close, not just in performance, but in handling as well.

I have friends who have had Focus ST�s, RS�s, etc and they are night and day in comparison. Trust me, in the dry, the grip of the Exige will leave you speechless if you haven�t driven something like this before. I�ve been on a number of track days and you can leave the Exige in 6th gear and bimble round corners whilst cars like the ST screech and are right on the limit of their grip. This is in the dry! The A048�s are�.well lets say interesting in the wet! They are fine when they�re new and have a lot of tread on them, but with a couple of track days and mostly road driving, mine latest just over 5000 miles before they were at the legal limit. They are very soft tyres!

I was driving along the M25, after it had rained, with my just legal AO48�s and I hit a very small bump in the road. It was enough to shake the rear end of the car left and right�enough for me to have to correct it. Don�t let this put you off, but just keep an eye on them and their wear rate. They are utterly superb tyres in the dry that produce levels of grip that I�ve not had from any other car. I have had my car geo�d by Steve Gugliemli as well, so that has helped with the overall feel and stability, but these are not like normal road tyres.

Anyway, I�m sure you�ll be fine but if you can get yourself to an airfield to play around with the car, then that would be a great idea. Not only because it�s blooming good fun, but it also lets you feel where the grip is and how the car reacts when it lets go.

Going from a Focus ST to the Exige PP is a big jump. If you look at the cars the Exige competes with, they compare it to Porsche GT3�s, etc. The �Focus Boys� are a nice bunch and I�m a member of many car forums (FOCUSSTOC being one of them), many due to my friends running a variety of cars. Whenever any of them have been out in my car (and I take it easy on the public roads!), they are speechless! :slight_smile:

14

[quote=chrisexigegt]I’d make sure that you are completely clear on all of the car details - and that you are correctly covered.220S will be different to a 240PP in the insurers eye’s.

You don’t want to find out that in an event of a claim the website didn’t correctly pick up the PP etc

Mainstream insurance co’s these days will wriggle out of any claim if they can find a loophole. [/quote]

I Agree Try Competition Car Insurance and Adrien Flux :wink:

15

CCI and Richard Egger are good, although they will probably quote a little more.

16

C8UER what you saying is so true, I was working at Audi when we got our first N/A Exige, and I remember jumping into a TT V6 after driving the exige for a few weeks and it just felt slow, It’s no rocket ship, but it had felt quite quick before the lotus altered my perception of speed :slight_smile: :smiley: :wink: :sunglasses:

17

Sadly, an “under 25” (or even under 28 in some cases) is going to struggle with insurance.

However, whatever you do, be totally & completely honest with the insurers, or you may live to regret it for the rest of your life.

18

I agree OrangeD,

The main differences for me between “hot hatches” and the Exige is that the Exige makes everything so easy. Because the Exige is so much more nimble and stops so well, you don’t need to use the performance on the road.

Not that I’d do this on the public road, but I’ll use a roundabout for an example because it’s easy to visualise.

If I was trying to keep up with my Exige in my old Golf R32 when coming up to and exiting a roundabout, I would have to brake really hard to slow the mass of that lump of metal down. Then I’d have to balance the throttle lightly over the roundabout to stop it from understeering. On the exit of the roundabout, I’d have to really floor the throttle, but even then I would be a spec in the mirror of the Exige.

From the same point of view in the Exige, I’d brake lightly but much later because the AP brakes just wipes off any speed with ease. Slot it into third gear and balance the car through the bend. The grip alone would take me around quicker than the speed of the Golf exiting the roundabout. On the exit, I could probably shift up at 4000rpm and still pull away without any problems. Taking it to the three shift lights, I wouldn’t use more than third gear otherwise I’d be well into three figures!

What I’ve really noticed on track is when using much more of the performance, how lately you can brake and how quickly you can get back on the power again. I followed an Astra VXR into a few bends and he was braking while I was still on the throttle. Not only did I brake later, but once in the bend, I was on the power right on the apex, where he had to wait until he was almost exiting before he could get back on the power.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying my Exige is the fastest thing out there, because the Audi / Honda’d cars are much quicker. But as a factory produced car, at the price it is, it’s a cracking all round package!

19

I was 24 when I got my exige S (26 now), and elephant were happy to insure me including modifications - was just under �700 back then with full no claims, clean license etc etc.

Not sure I’ve mis-read what you said, but it sounds like your are going on your dads policy as a named driver. I had a vx220 when I was 20, and thats how I insured the car (don’t recommend it to be honest). A couple of years later, elephant mirrored my full no claims under my own policy which actually worked out cheaper than been a named driver!

Insurance for younger drivers is a pain I’m affraid. Lucky for me, my company now pays for my insurance on the exige :smiley:

20

Im with admiral, yes there were cheaper than cci etc. Ended up with the PP pack listed as 10% engine mod and told them everything it has. As long as it is factory fit its covered.

Gav