Technical Windscreen Replacement!

[Palio]

Hi I had to get my screen replaced it’s just heated went to national windscreen sorted with in a week

To be fair, the problems were 10 years ago. The Panda had only been out a couple of years and the heated screens were a new thing for Fiats back then.

You’d hope it was a bit more known these days.

 

[JayAre]

I’ve never come across a requirement to list original spec from an insurer. Modifications yes (including things like stripes!) but not factory options. Apart from anything else, would you know which of the many options we put on my Mum’s 2013 Panda 4x4 if we sold it to you? (It’s not for sale, but just making a point - I can’t remember now - CBC, leather steering wheel, leather gearstick, side airbags, reversing sensors, height adjustable seat, met paint, and a space saver I think, plus private plate…. , ).

If you’re worried, by all means tell them, but I don’t see it’s relevant. The only restriction I’ve ever seen is a limit to audio equipment cover on a policy.

I genuinely don’t see how future owners could be expected to know what’s was on an Antarctica, compared to a normal 4x4 , compared to a Lounge for example, so it would be entirely unreasonable to say it had to be declared.

I raised this because my ‘new’ 2016 Panda TA 4x4 has the Winter Pack option and reading this thread prompted me to consider that a replacement for my heated w/screen is likely to cost 100s pounds more than for the ‘standard’ model. And since insurers make such a big thing about an agreed excess on w/screen replacement it just seemed likely they might also want to know if the windscreen is going to cost 100s more pounds to replace…

I agree with the points you make including “how future owners could be expected to know what’s was on an Antarctica, compared to a normal 4x4 , compared to a Lounge for example” (I only knew about the winter pack because I’m a nerd + read everything I could find about the TA, including the ‘period’ brochure!)

But bear in mind that some people buy new BMWs etc for £50,000 which quickly becomes £75,000 after they’ve put a few ticks on the options list - and insurers wouldn’t want to know about that?

Anyway, Autoexpress did a feature on this about 5 years ago:

Car modification: impact on insurance cover revealed | Auto Express

Exclusive investigation into car modification reveals that even innocuous upgrades can affect your insurance premium

www.autoexpress.co.uk

Finally, good news (for me) is that during my further researches I found a whole page on the LV= website devoted to this subject titled: “Are factory fitted options classed as changes to my car?” followed by a one word answer:

No.

P.S. New car options are sometimes fitted by the dealer. This happened to me when I specified the a/c option on a Subaru (years ago) and the dealer fitted it from a factory kit! Apparently such options may not be classed as ‘factory-fit’ and therefore may be disclosable to some insurers, eg Adrian Flux website states “anything that wasn’t in the manufacturer’s standard specification upon creation, or wasn’t fitted as an option during the manufacturing stage.”

But, yeah, how would a subsequent owner know that?