The Car thread

[Tommy G]

1 hour ago, Greg2607 said:

we are in a "soft market" for insurance, so if you have a clean claims history, businesses will be clamouring for your custom. lots of undercutting and ridiculous pricing happening in the market. mainly unprofitable, so expect premiums to raise a bit next year.   We typically follow the US market and it's started to harden again in the US, so this time next year will see prices going up again a little. 

Same with our business insurance, we were paying about £0.3m last year and its fallen ~£75K with the business 15% bigger YOY.

 

Brokers clamouring for the business. This is off the back of 4/5 years of increases mind. 

Edited 23 July 2025 by Tommy G

[Greg2607]

7 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Same with our business insurance, we were paying about £0.3m last year and its fallen ~£75K with the business 15% bigger YOY.

 

Brokers clamouring for the business. This is off the back of 4/5 years of increases mind. 

oh absolutely, it's even more competitive for commercial insurance. Brokers are coming in with some crazy rates which won't be sustained.  Underwriters all have targets to hit in terms of "business written" so they are under-pricing the risks to secure the business and hoping that the loss ratio isn't too painful.  

[FoyleFox]

The same clearly isn't happening with house insurance, just renewed that, up £50. And that was my renewal price with the same insurance company. I did comparethemeerkat.com and they were all cira £150 more! 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

On 21/07/2025 at 10:31, FoyleFox said:

I'd noted car insurance seemed to have stopped increasing quite as ridiculously in recent months. My renewal came today and it's £220 down on last year. 

Sadly, I can't rush out and treat myself with the money as this year starts me having to pay £195 for car tax. 

Better than paying both though. 

Yeah my insurance is the lowest it's ever been this summer. 

[kenny]

15 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

The same clearly isn't happening with house insurance, just renewed that, up £50. And that was my renewal price with the same insurance company. I did comparethemeerkat.com and they were all cira £150 more! 

Thats going to get worse. Buildings all over the place with defects due to the weather. Its keeping us busy and most are insurance claims.

[MC Prussian]

Back to discussing cool cars.

 

I have a soft spot for the Alpine A110 and the Nissan Z (not available in Europa for now)...

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

Exciting new pain in the arse for EV owners where I live; at least 11 of us have had our cables snipped and half-inched.

 

Scrap value is apparently negligble, so about as small and twatty a crime as you could have. £200ish to fix though. 

 

Doesn't really seem to be a thing anywhere else, Leicester really blazing a trail for low reward/high inconvenience offences

[Grebfromgrebland]

3 hours ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Exciting new pain in the arse for EV owners where I live; at least 11 of us have had our cables snipped and half-inched.

 

Scrap value is apparently negligble, so about as small and twatty a crime as you could have. £200ish to fix though. 

 

Doesn't really seem to be a thing anywhere else, Leicester really blazing a trail for low reward/high inconvenience offences

Happening around Clarendon Park too.

[The Bear]

6 hours ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Exciting new pain in the arse for EV owners where I live; at least 11 of us have had our cables snipped and half-inched.

 

Scrap value is apparently negligble, so about as small and twatty a crime as you could have. £200ish to fix though. 

 

Doesn't really seem to be a thing anywhere else, Leicester really blazing a trail for low reward/high inconvenience offences

willy pullers. 

 

Can you claim on house insurance? 

[Bellend Sebastian]

3 minutes ago, The Bear said:

willy pullers. 

 

Can you claim on house insurance? 

I'm not sure what cost of repair is yet, but I know someone with a different one who has been quoted £200. I'm lucky enough to be able to charge at work most of the time so won't rush to do anything.

 

2 hours ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

Happening around Clarendon Park too.

Quite surprised to be honest, assumed it was just a local saddo. Someone needs to come up with a solution for this, as unlike most of the hysterical crap that gets shared about EVs, I can see why this would be really off-putting.

 

A bloke near me encased his in a really sturdy wooden box yesterday, possibly because the theory was that they wanted the cable and connector but that doesn't seem to be the case as they took mine when it was plugged in to the car, so literally just took a bit of cable.

 

You can secure the unit as much as you want, but they'll just nick the cable when you use it

[Dreadnought]

I assumed the thefts round our way were tethered cables that weren’t plugged into a car. 
To take them when they are plugged in surely risks a hefty shock??

[The Bear]

43 minutes ago, Dreadnought said:

I assumed the thefts round our way were tethered cables that weren’t plugged into a car. 
To take them when they are plugged in surely risks a hefty shock??

All home chargers have to be wired with an RCD (residual current device) by law, which cuts the power if it detects any interruption in the circuit. So it would automatically kill the power to the cable as soon as it is severed. 

Edited 25 August 2025 by The Bear

[Bellend Sebastian]

39 minutes ago, Dreadnought said:

I assumed the thefts round our way were tethered cables that weren’t plugged into a car. 
To take them when they are plugged in surely risks a hefty shock??

I don't know what the risk is, to be honest.

 

Mine was plugged in but the charging would have finished by the time it was cut (charger end first, then the car end), but whether he would have known that I've no idea. I think it tripped the fuse it's on as there's no light on the unit now

[dsr-burnley]

On 25/08/2025 at 20:08, The Bear said:

Can you claim on house insurance? 

I doubt it's worth it.  I claimed £450 or so for water damage a few years back and paid it back in increased premiums within two years.

[Bellend Sebastian]

On 27/08/2025 at 11:09, dsr-burnley said:

I doubt it's worth it.  I claimed £450 or so for water damage a few years back and paid it back in increased premiums within two years.

I would've agreed 100% but I've just been told it's nearly 400 quid to replace the cable.

 

I don't think I'll bother - I use it so rarely it will be cheaper for me to top it up at Sainsbury's than pay that

[Grebfromgrebland]

5 EV cable thefts on our street and the next in one night.

 

Surely they're not worth that much on the black market for the copper?

[Greg2607]

9 hours ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

5 EV cable thefts on our street and the next in one night.

 

Surely they're not worth that much on the black market for the copper?

Shows how desperate some people are for money.  I reckon you could quite easily plot an increase in crime to a comparative increase in poverty and it would align perfectly.  

 

There is such a hidden world of poverty in the UK that most of us dont see.   That, coupled with a lack of policing presence at a local level and it's relatively risk free for the perpetrator. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

11 hours ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

5 EV cable thefts on our street and the next in one night.

 

Surely they're not worth that much on the black market for the copper?

Where do you live? I've not heard of any new ones in Western Park.

 

My sparky reckons there's about 3-5 quid's worth scrap value in a standard domestic EV cable. Having looked at the cross section of mine now it's been cut, there's really not that much metal in there - it's mainly plastic - maybe twice as much as a standard mains cable? The profit relative to the cost of putting it right is bonkers

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, Greg2607 said:

Shows how desperate some people are for money.  I reckon you could quite easily plot an increase in crime to a comparative increase in poverty and it would align perfectly.  

 

There is such a hidden world of poverty in the UK that most of us dont see.   That, coupled with a lack of policing presence at a local level and it's relatively risk free for the perpetrator. 

Oh yeah, always. Finances are squeezed in the lower income groups and property crime goes up, completely predictable. 

 

In the 80s and 90s people would break into your car for the shittest stuff - my brother had a car radio nicked that had half of its front plate already snapped off. Since then we've had phases of fuel pipes being cut and petrol tanks drained, catalytic converters being pinched, lead off building roofs etc etc. There's always something

[Grebfromgrebland]

9 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Where do you live? I've not heard of any new ones in Western Park.

 

My sparky reckons there's about 3-5 quid's worth scrap value in a standard domestic EV cable. Having looked at the cross section of mine now it's been cut, there's really not that much metal in there - it's mainly plastic - maybe twice as much as a standard mains cable? The profit relative to the cost of putting it right is bonkers

I live in Knighton. You'd have to nick a lot of cables to make it worth while.

[Bellend Sebastian]

4 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

I live in Knighton. You'd have to nick a lot of cables to make it worth while.

It's spreading! It's a bit weird - looking on the internet it doesn't feel like a thing, and a couple of folk I've spoken to who have been talking to the charger providers have said they struggled to get them to grasp what has happened.

 

I'm not rushing to get mine fixed, that's for sure.

 

If anyone has theirs nicked or someone tells you it's happened to them, please encourage them to report it to the police. In WP several of them have gone unreported, it's bonkers

[Milo]

A bit of car p0rn happening near me. Fella across the road has suddenly produced these outside his house. 

 

Anyone know much about these - years, value, rarity, etc

 

[The Bear]

Is that Bananaman's car collection? 

[Milo]

3 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Is that Bananaman's car collection? 

It’s certainly brightened the street up!

[Greg2607]

22 hours ago, Milo said:

A bit of car p0rn happening near me. Fella across the road has suddenly produced these outside his house. 

 

Anyone know much about these - years, value, rarity, etc

 

Schimiters aren't they???