Mercedes own car insurance policy?

[lastfan]

I was wondering if anyone has some real life experience.

Looking to insure new E Class. Cost not only issue - narrowed down to a company that does own underwriting in house, or Mercedes Benz Insurance.

Both options carry a higher price than the pile it high sell it cheap ( well, cheaper) broker who underwrite through companies I never heard of.

The Mercedes carry highest price for me, maybe £150 more or less over others but their sales pitch really pushes the fact they only use Mercedes parts etc etc.

I was wondering in event of a claim do other companies have to use MB parts on a new car. Can you insist they do in event of a claim? With technology being what it is would a non MB insurance approved repairer have necessary know how to put eg an MBUX system back together if needed?

Any experiences with Mercedes Insurance policy would also be really useful.

 

[markjay]

If you are claiming off the other party's insurer, I.e. in a no-fault accident, then you are entitled to insist on dealer repair (or MB-approved body shop) and original parts. The other party's insurer won't give you an argumnet over this.

If claiming on your own policy, than the story is slightly different. My Aviva policy charges me £200 extra if I use my own repairer (MB dealer on anyone I choose), I.e. as opposed to using one of the Aviva-owned repair centres. Personally I'm OK with this charge (and only needed to claim on my own policy twice in the past 25 years anyway). But it varies from one insurer to another.

I would say that you should ignore the MB branding, and judge their offer on merit. As said, the right to have the car repaired at your MB dealer and using original parts is simply a commercial issue, I.e. how much will this option cost you with other insurers compared to the cost of the MB-branded policy.

 

[Riva811]

My uncle was involved in accident and admiral didn't fix the door, they replaced it. This was for a 2012 e220d.
When I first needed to insure my car MB was the second most expensive at 2000, Aviva was 4000... Admiral 1100

 

[W1ghty]

When I had an M.B. insurance quote years ago , it was 3x my current insurer

 

[lastfan]

I had quotes from everyone, companies I had heard of and many I hadn’t!

I don’t just buy insurance on price, having been caught out before I always look for an underwriter I have heard of or at least has decent reviews.

Admiral and Aviva were close at £425ish a year, but wanted £200 to guarantee MB parts including windscreen i.e not to use their preferred repairer.

MB were £599 but no extra if I claim. I had a windscreen claim last year and seem to beprone to finding stones and things flying off the motorway so I went with MB.

As with all of these things I have no idea if I made the right decision but I can sleep at night and take a little comfort I bought the car well and don’t mind spending that bit extra. Then I think I’m mad and should save every penny I can.Lol. I don’t know, but it’s done for another year!

 

[lastfan]

If you are claiming off the other party's insurer, I.e. in a no-fault accident, then you are entitled to insist on dealer repair (or MB-approved body shop) and original parts. The other party's insurer won't give you an argumnet over this.

If claiming on your own policy, than the story is slightly different. My Aviva policy charges me £200 extra if I use my own repairer (MB dealer on anyone I choose), I.e. as opposed to using one of the Aviva-owned repair centres. Personally I'm OK with this charge (and only needed to claim on my own policy twice in the past 25 years anyway). But it varies from one insurer to another.

I would say that you should ignore the MB branding, and judge their offer on merit. As said, the right to have the car repaired at your MB dealer and using original parts is simply a commercial issue, I.e. how much will this option cost you with other insurers compared to the cost of the MB-branded policy.

Thanks Markjay - this reply gave me the questions to ask. Much appreciated.

ian

 

[Deleted member 113659]

Reading this thread with interest as I’ve just bought a used approved MB. It came with the usual 7 days free insurance. When I phoned up to verify the online details the lady asked me if they (MB) could quote me on an annual policy.

I accepted and after 5 minutes of questioning came back with 12 months fully comp insurance for Mrs Ant & me for £241.63

I was gobsmacked as the best price I’d obtained just a few hours before was £335.30 via Confused.com

I accepted on the spot and paid the fee. I’ve already had the policy details through and all is good.

 

[lastfan]

Reading this thread with interest as I’ve just bought a used approved MB. It came with the usual 7 days free insurance. When I phoned up to verify the online details the lady asked me if they (MB) could quote me on an annual policy.

I accepted and after 5 minutes of questioning came back with 12 months fully comp insurance for Mrs Ant & me for £241.63

I was gobsmacked as the best price I’d obtained just a few hours before was £335.30 via Confused.com

I accepted on the spot and paid the fee. I’ve already had the policy details through and all is good.

Cracking deal, bet you did bite their hand off!

Just shows it pays to shop around.

Hope we never need to find out how good their repair services are Enjoy.

 

[grumpytosser]

I just had a quote £955! Your ok will take the AXA one for 360

 

[rf065]

I've bought three Mercedes & had the 7 days free insurance on each. On quoting for a years cover after the 7 days, all three were astronomical.

 

[glojo]

If you are claiming off the other party's insurer, I.e. in a no-fault accident, then you are entitled to insist on dealer repair (or MB-approved body shop) and original parts. The other party's insurer won't give you an argumnet over this.

If claiming on your own policy, than the story is slightly different. My Aviva policy charges me £200 extra if I use my own repairer (MB dealer on anyone I choose), I.e. as opposed to using one of the Aviva-owned repair centres. Personally I'm OK with this charge (and only needed to claim on my own policy twice in the past 25 years anyway). But it varies from one insurer to another.

I would say that you should ignore the MB branding, and judge their offer on merit. As said, the right to have the car repaired at your MB dealer and using original parts is simply a commercial issue, I.e. how much will this option cost you with other insurers compared to the cost of the MB-branded policy.

By the cringe Mark.

In the last 40yrs of driving my wife has been involved in three incidents, the first a car tried overtaking her against the double solid white line markings. Car coming in the opposite direction, offender pulled to their nearside colliding with my wife... I did suggest she should have put her fenders out but that went down like a lead balloon. I think our insurance dealt with that saga but we did have the independent witnesses

Second was when my wife was 'T' boned on a roundabout, our insurance dealt with that, but the third one where someone did not apply the handbrake on their car and that vehicle ro;lled down a slope and collided with our parked vehicle. The offending drivers insurance dealt with that claim, but each and every time I insisted that the repair be done by the approved Mercedes agent. Once I explained this was a requirement to maintain the vehicle 'lifetime' warranty, we never, ever had any type of access to pay. The only'strong-arm' tactic that was used was that if I insisted on this route, they would need an independent assessor to look at the damage. If the insurance company tried charging you the access and the accident was not your fault then could you claim that cost back?

Could you not tell Aviva it was a warranty requirement?

 

[markjay]

By the cringe Mark.

In the last 40yrs of driving my wife has been involved in three incidents, the first a car tried overtaking her against the double solid white line markings. Car coming in the opposite direction, offender pulled to their nearside colliding with my wife... I did suggest she should have put her fenders out but that went down like a lead balloon. I think our insurance dealt with that saga but we did have the independent witnesses

Second was when my wife was 'T' boned on a roundabout, our insurance dealt with that, but the third one where someone did not apply the handbrake on their car and that vehicle ro;lled down a slope and collided with our parked vehicle. The offending drivers insurance dealt with that claim, but each and every time I insisted that the repair be done by the approved Mercedes agent. Once I explained this was a requirement to maintain the vehicle 'lifetime' warranty, we never, ever had any type of access to pay. The only'strong-arm' tactic that was used was that if I insisted on this route, they would need an independent assessor to look at the damage. If the insurance company tried charging you the access and the accident was not your fault then could you claim that cost back?

Could you not tell Aviva it was a warranty requirement?

I claimed directly off the other-party's insurer on two occasions so far, in both cases it was for my wife's car, and the other party accepted liability in the first instance.

On both occasions, first Direct Line, then Aviva, offered to pick-up the car and repair it for us, I declined and the cars went to their respective dealers. The insurers accepted this with no argument.

Also, on both occasions the insurers were very proactive and keen to resolve the issue as soon as possible. From conversations I had with the claim handlers, I got the impression that there biggest worry was that I will get an accident management firm involved, at which point their cost is bound to be higher.

As an example, in the first case I accepted the dealer's offer of a rental car (instead of the insurer's offer), simply because it was easier for me to pick-up the rental car when I dropped-off my own car for repair. A few months later I got dragged into a legal battle between the insurer and the rental company that the dealer was using, over the charges. I refused to be part of it and indeed never heard the outcome.

In the second case, I accepted the car offered to me by the insurer, supplied by Enterprise. No issues there. I think we can safely assume that the insurer made a deal with the rental car provider and were paying a considerably lower rate compared to what accident management firms would be charging them.

The rental car issue isn't trivial, because if your car is off the road as result of the accident, then you have the right to keep the rental car for as long as needed, and the insurer will be losing money if they engaged in protracted negotiations with you while you drive the rental car.

This was my own experience based on these two incidents. I will do the same in future (claim directly off the third party's insurer) if the need arises. However, as said, this is only applicable in cases where the other party accepts liability.

 

[MrGreedy]

Interesting.

Just done a quote with Mercedes Insurance (who were not very competitive), and the interesting thing is the voluntary excess (on top of the £350 compulsory excess):

Excess - Policy Cost
£0 - £847
£50 - £839
£100 - £828
£150 - £818
£200 - £810
£250 - £802
£300 - £794
£350 - £784
£400 - £780
£450 - £773
£500 - £771
£550 - £846
all the way down to
£900 - £846

So it's worth checking the excess values, as bigger excess doesn't always mean cheaper insurance. Not intuitive, but there we are.

 

[Dryce]

In the second case, I accepted the car offered to me by the insurer, supplied by Enterprise. No issues there. I think we can safely assume that the insurer made a deal with the rental car provider and were paying a considerably lower rate compared to what accident management firms would be charging them.

When I have visited my local Enterprise branches over the last few years a substantial proportion of their activity seemed to be dealing with accident replacement rentals. Most of the phone calls at the branch seem to be related to these whenever I have visited. Comments from the staff would suggest it's a significant part of their business.