Bongo Fury

Having found a bongo at the right price and reasonable condition I thought I'd re-check insurance before hitting the go button.

I'm finding the brokers are coming in around the £500-600 mark (tintop 8 seater), ouch! I used the comparison sites and am getting a real mixed bag. So far using compare the market I've found Elephant coming in at £277, using other comparison sites and they come in at £380. Going direct Elephant come in at £480!

Anyone using Elephant? Anyone found this odd price difference going on? Makes me rather confused as to why the spread in prices. Its the only thing holding me back on buying one as I don't fancy paying out 400+ in insurance a year.

Post moved to the "Insurance" section.

I've just looked through the database of just under 3,000 members and exactly 4 have used Elephant. Whether that is a good deal or not depends on many factors including postcode and personal circumstances, but I would not expect to pay more than £300 to £350 for fully comp insurance on an 8 seater low top. and probably a lot less than that.

Have a look at other discussions in this section, and also look at the Insurance page on the main website, quick link at http://igmaynard.co.uk/insurance/. 2Gether, Lifesure and Insurance Choice all give significant discounts to club members for Bongo insurance, at least in year one.

Do you actually need 8 seats?

I enjoy a reduction with Adrian Flux having removed a row of seats (the back one) and declaring it as a 5 seater.

This also has the advantage that i can turn down suggestions by other people that I should transport them and their kids around.


Frank

I have 8 seats but added a rear kitchen with sink and hob.
Then you have a 8 seater camper.
Remember it comes out of the factory with 8 seats 6 of them convert to a bed or table you are adding a sink and hob, then in the eyes of most insurers its camper, even though the log book says MPV.
I have done this for the last 5 years with Flux, 2gether and some others who I have forgotten.
The kitchen cost me about £150 to build and the services are not connected up as we never use it.

You have to be careful using comparison sites because you don't always get the chance to declare it as a grey import, which may account for why Elephant were a lot higher when you called them.

Good advice above. I paid about £200 with 2gether, all mods declared

Hi boris77 , it might be worthwhile trying Admiral, Elephant is a subsidiary of Admiral.

Large variations are not surprising. Some companies won't want to know

Thanks for all the replies.

francophile1947 - You were right. Despite filling in that it was an import on compare the market it didn't set the "its an import" box on the Elephant quote, which pushed the price back up to 400 quid.

Seems I need to do some more research, wasn't expecting insurance quite so high. I'll look in to some of the suggestions around seats and camping set up.

I got exactly the same quote from Elephant and Admiral for my 2002 Petrol unconverted Tin Top (£200)
If you go on the web sites all the questions are the same, so I realised ,as previously mentioned, that they are the same company.
I struggled to get a good quote last year and ended up paying £340 with Aviva,
I rang Admiral and because I also insured my wife's car with them at a good price, my insurance for the Bongo came down to £150. (2 years no claims and a couple of minor accidents) I also insured my house with them at a lower price than currently.
Very pleased all round.

What I don't understand is why I paid over twice as much last year and why Admiral weren't competitive then.

It's all down to where you live, where it is parked overnight, what you use it for and how many miles pa you expect to do.

Living in Central (or indeed most of) London (other high risk large cities are available), parking it on the street overnight and commuting 200miles per day will not get you insurance for £200 pa.

scanner wrote:It's all down to where you live, where it is parked overnight, what you use it for and how many miles pa you expect to do.

Living in Central (or indeed most of) London (other high risk large cities are available), parking it on the street overnight and commuting 200miles per day will not get you insurance for £200 pa.

Indeed. I live in a low crime area, off road parking, low mileage and only a windscreen claim so miffed at the prices I've been getting. By contrast my kitcar insurance with breakdown cover is just shy of 200.

Shopping around is the key, if its not used for commotion and is a camper with a milage limit it all keeps costs down

boris77 wrote:

scanner wrote:It's all down to where you live, where it is parked overnight, what you use it for and how many miles pa you expect to do.

Living in Central (or indeed most of) London (other high risk large cities are available), parking it on the street overnight and commuting 200miles per day will not get you insurance for £200 pa.

Indeed. I live in a low crime area, off road parking, low mileage and only a windscreen claim so miffed at the prices I've been getting. By contrast my kitcar insurance with breakdown cover is just shy of 200.

Have you asked your existing insurer if they will do a multi car deal?

Just had renewal notice for my '96 unconverted AFT, old git in Somerset, parked on drive - £215.

Not going to bother shopping round at that.

Edit: That's with LV.