How car modifications affect your car insurance policy?

While car modification is a good way to personalise your wheels and improve its performance, the only downside is that it can bump up the cost of car insurance policy.

What is a car modification?

It is a change that can be made to a vehicle so that it appears different from the manufacturer’s actual factory specification. The changes to the vehicles can be made for improving its aesthetics, performance or any other functional modification. 

How do car modifications change the price of car insurance?

Your car insurance policy is based on risk factor and when quoted for cover, the insurers use all the factors before reaching the price.

Car modifications can have a serious impact on how insurers assess any insurance policy in two major areas:

• Risk of Accident – The car modification can change the performance and look of a vehicle and it is assessed as a higher accidental risk by insurers. Some of these risk factors as per insurers are sports seats, engine changes, spoilers, body-kits, etc.
  
• Risk of Theft – Some modifications, like phone kits or car key replacement, may increase the risk of vehicle theft. So, the price of car key replacement insurance increases than the usual policy amount. 

How to insure a modified car

If you are insuring a modified car, it is important to make the insurers aware of all the car modifications that you have done already. When running insurance quotes, you will be asked about any modifications on the application screen. So don’t miss out any information in the application form. Different insurers see different modifications as risk, so it is best to check whether your insurance policy will be impacted or not. 

Additional Read: Do Car Modifications Affect Your Car Insurance Policy?