Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Does anyone have an insurance co to recommend for multicover that would include a van?

Currently with Admiral and the renewal has come back rather high.

Call Admiral and say that you've shopped around and offers from other insurers are coming in just below your current premium. I've done this 3 times and Admiral have revised down the renewal offer significantly.

YMMV of course.

Rather high in comparison to?
I’ve multicar with Admiral and no one has come close to competing with them.
They have discounted my premium every year when i phone them EXCEPT last year - October 21. They are still a lot cheaper than any alternatives.

Aye, mine was mental for the our two (shit) cars with admiral as well. Funny you remind me as I’ve just missed the 14 day cancellation period. Worth noting that insurance is up 14% across the market (my renewal was a bit over that). I did ring them up but they wouldn’t budge on a discount this year (got a tiny bit off which was then undone by my employment status changing employed to self employed despite reducing business use).

Thanks @ElGonzo and @TGR

I'm comparing vs the renewal of my car alone (£320 online by staying with 1st Central), and what the van cost me to insure a year ago (£420).
Admiral's current offer makes it (van premium) go up a whopping +£200 [on multicover].

It likely a van is classed differently. My car alone was around £300 not with Admiral. Multicar was £315. No way any insurer was going to insure my wife’s car for £15.

I had a muntjack deer casually stroll out in front of me yesterday evening. Shopping ended up in the footwell, muntjack lived to play A10 chicken another day.

Muntjac taste better than chicken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRtjeWsIscc

So... Just called Admiral and got a nice discount out of them. By splitting my covers and removing the car I'm saving a total of nearly £225 which allowed me to purchase full European cover (on my car).
I really don't understand why they didn't offer me a "fair" renewal price in the first place.

No one ever offers cheap renewal. I have saved money in the past by phoning to change my bank details - total fluke call saved me £70. Now, I phone every year.
Good job with your savings!

Watched that the other day. Brilliant, the dynamics between the 3 of them are very interesting.

Yes it is a very insightful thing to watch.
What still strikes me is how nice this car looks, also underneath.

It's incredible, the mechanical design and execution is superb. Probably my favourite era of F1 too.

They never do - I've called admiral every year and got rid of most of their annual increases each time. Their behaviour on their renewal hikes and hoping people don't call them out always feels vaguely unethical

Is there a sensible way to hire a car in the UK for a week?

Need to ferry 3 of us from Kent to the lake district for a week in March, train currently going to cost 270gbp

Admiral are not alone in this practice. I’ve had plenty of insurance providers and they have all done this. After a phone call, the premium dropped. Excepting Admiral last year but they were still the cheapest.

It’s such a shit game

Interesting episode of the Salvage Hunters on Quest last night (possibly a repeat) on the restoration project of a Peugeot 205 GTI.

I used to be a 'fairly' loyal customer of Elephant and Direct Line in the past. After a couple of renewals, it seemed that neither really cared whether I stayed or went to the competition. Kinda sad. Maybe working in an insurer's call centre is the most mind-numbing job there is, idk.

I had a similar experience with a company local to me. Premiums still went up. With Multicar they were unable to come within a mile of the Admiral quote but I still ring them at renewal time. I will have a huge insurance headache next year when my daughter learns to drive - already losing sleep over it!

Anyone serviced their own car?

When I had the air conditioning redone the guy told me to get a new polen filter. It was cheap and easy to do.

I do my own oil and brakes on my motorbike, so wondered how hard it would be for the interim service on my car.

This guy does it in 20mins (mainly one handed)
https://youtu.be/syjPcWQXQhI

The biggest thing is even though I have a drive its on a tapering slope. I'm normally happy doing bike stuff at the top of the drive, but wondering what extra stuff I need for a car. Some sort of jack or blocks right? Any particular type? I want the cheapest and don't plan on properly lifting the car for more extensive work - ie I'd get my brakes done by a garage.

Depends on what your car is worth, and what the service history looks like currently - unless it was very cheap (or very interesting/rare) I'd automatically ignore a car without a documented service history. By documented I mean stamps in the book by a garage.

Yeah I was going to say the same thing. An actual invoice for a service from a reputable garage is probably worth it if you're considering selling in the near future.

@Dammit - you driving through France today? Saw a Brit in a Mercedes van powering down the (French) A1 this morning. Looked in a hurry.