Bear's bangers: IT'S ALIVE! The RX-7 stops wetting the bed...

[Bear]

Well, I think I've sorted the camper's insurance problems out now - I sent them a screenshot of the Volvo's cancelled policy on Sterling showing 15 years (twats, it was 20) and a note saying "I was told this could be checked off the database and esure has stopped showing old docs in the portal so it's the best I can do unless by some miracle I can reach esure" or words to that effect (I did find that esure finally allows change of address on the revised portable, as I'd been trying since March to update the cruiser and endlessly on hold for over an hour each time - a whole £5 more for the remaining 10 months since renewal, gosh, I moved to such a bad area clearly and that explains the hideous quotes for the Pontiac).

Need a workshop manual for the Trans Sport (I have found the Volvo one, but that doesn't help) so I can get into diagnostics properly and fix this battery drain. For now I've pulled the central locking fuse in the hope that this will allow the poor little Noco charger to get the battery back up to spec without having to wade into the engine bay too much, and in the meantime I'm removing the comedy foglights which include such delicate, professional touches as 'a wire literally just fed under the little black grille trim on the bumper'. FFS. Everything related is soaking in WD40. Gut feeling is that the battery drain is a central locking actuator somewhere as when the battery has gone flat the first thing you hear on reconnecting is a sad little series of clunks from the passenger door solenoid.

A decision has been taken – if I can't find insurance I am happy with (and in the grand scheme of things £400 is not that bad for insurance, but it is when I'm also paying £400 for a motorhome and £200 for a PT Cruiser, and the monthly option is a credit agreement with a third party at just under 40% APR) I am going to punish myself for my rashness.

The replacement for the Trans Sport would have five doors, be technically American, and would share parts with one of my other cars...

No, I can't afford another 300C Touring (especially not a V8, but I'm terrified of owning a Mercedes V6 diesel anyway). If I get rid of the Pontiac it will be for a purple PT Cruiser hardtop. Petrol, sunroof. Ideally manual, but auto tolerable, and pre-2006 to get the pre-facelift style and avoid the hideous tax rate.

However, I wanted this Pontiac and I am determined that I should get to enjoy it - it was lovely driving it back and it's the stupid insurance that has soured the experience. Hagerty etc. all seem to be in the same ballpark so for whatever reason, it seems like the underwriting community has decided to be allergic to this class of import and it would probably cost @brownnova an unreasonable amount to insure it now as well – the Volvo was with the same underwriter and that underwriter now won't quote for it 😕

If that weren't enough battles, I'm also pondering if the DVLA can be persuaded to give the poor thing a name - all the V5 says is Pontiac. Surely they can be persuaded to let it be a Trans Sport and maybe even have GT as the variant. Is Estate right for bodystyle? Who knows or cares. But Pontiac <NONE> is probably not helping insurance firms

[tom13]

19 minutes ago, RichardK said:

Well, I think I've sorted the camper's insurance problems out now - I sent them a screenshot of the Volvo's cancelled policy on Sterling showing 15 years (twats, it was 20) and a note saying "I was told this could be checked off the database and esure has stopped showing old docs in the portal so it's the best I can do unless by some miracle I can reach esure" or words to that effect (I did find that esure finally allows change of address on the revised portable, as I'd been trying since March to update the cruiser and endlessly on hold for over an hour each time - a whole £5 more for the remaining 10 months since renewal, gosh, I moved to such a bad area clearly and that explains the hideous quotes for the Pontiac).

Need a workshop manual for the Trans Sport (I have found the Volvo one, but that doesn't help) so I can get into diagnostics properly and fix this battery drain. For now I've pulled the central locking fuse in the hope that this will allow the poor little Noco charger to get the battery back up to spec without having to wade into the engine bay too much, and in the meantime I'm removing the comedy foglights which include such delicate, professional touches as 'a wire literally just fed under the little black grille trim on the bumper'. FFS. Everything related is soaking in WD40. Gut feeling is that the battery drain is a central locking actuator somewhere as when the battery has gone flat the first thing you hear on reconnecting is a sad little series of clunks from the passenger door solenoid.

A decision has been taken – if I can't find insurance I am happy with (and in the grand scheme of things £400 is not that bad for insurance, but it is when I'm also paying £400 for a motorhome and £200 for a PT Cruiser, and the monthly option is a credit agreement with a third party at just under 40% APR) I am going to punish myself for my rashness.

The replacement for the Trans Sport would have five doors, be technically American, and would share parts with one of my other cars...

No, I can't afford another 300C Touring (especially not a V8, but I'm terrified of owning a Mercedes V6 diesel anyway). If I get rid of the Pontiac it will be for a purple PT Cruiser hardtop. Petrol, sunroof. Ideally manual, but auto tolerable, and pre-2006 to get the pre-facelift style and avoid the hideous tax rate.

However, I wanted this Pontiac and I am determined that I should get to enjoy it - it was lovely driving it back and it's the stupid insurance that has soured the experience. Hagerty etc. all seem to be in the same ballpark so for whatever reason, it seems like the underwriting community has decided to be allergic to this class of import and it would probably cost @brownnova an unreasonable amount to insure it now as well – the Volvo was with the same underwriter and that underwriter now won't quote for it 😕

If that weren't enough battles, I'm also pondering if the DVLA can be persuaded to give the poor thing a name - all the V5 says is Pontiac. Surely they can be persuaded to let it be a Trans Sport and maybe even have GT as the variant. Is Estate right for bodystyle? Who knows or cares. But Pontiac <NONE> is probably not helping insurance firms

Brentacre? You could always change a couple of things and try it on a modified policy as well?

[Bear]

24 minutes ago, tom13 said:

Brentacre? You could always change a couple of things and try it on a modified policy as well?

Haven't tried them yet, but usually unmodified classic is the cheapest route and I think Adrian Flux had done that, just stupidly put an NCB request on the form anyway. The policy is American specialist and it weirdly included third party extension which I don't think I've seen on a classic policy before!

Looking at the documents the actual insurance premium for the Trans Sport with ERS as the underwriter was £301 including tax - then £75 Adrian Flux fees, plus the fact that Sterling basically wiped out a £180 policy taken out in May for the Volvo where normally a change of vehicle would be 'additional premium' not this nonsense. A normal change of vehicle would have been £121, divide by 12 x 9, plus (usually) £15-35 admin fee, so about £120 additional premium until May which I'd have been more than happy with.

If I can find an insurer who does monthly payments without the credit agreement basically being a short term loan at high APR as an additional agreement on credit file (Direct Line treat it as a loan/was 19% APR but it never showed on file that way) then I'll be happy but I suspect most brokers are going to be the same.

Also it's worth noting that the Volvo's insurance wipeout via Sterling probably followed a similar model, so £186 premium was more likely to be £130 + Sterling's fee, runs end of May to August, cancelled, remaining premium pro-rata less £56 from Markerstudy cancellation fee less £35 Sterling admin fee. After I gave them a second chance at the Pontiac (£599! LOL) they waived their fee but sod all I can do about Markerstudy, so I got a whole £38 refund on that. I won't spend it all at once

(I'll have to call Brentacre - their quote form cannot find the car, and it's so bizarre, this keeps coming up - the Trans Sport is a nonexistent vehicle despite being sold in Europe and several roaming around the UK, yet esure's drop down doesn't even list Pontiacs in among the utterly bizarre definitely sold in the UK marques it shows, and I've tried Trans Sport, TransSport, Transport, etc. and it just doesn't exist according to these automated systems - Brentacre just goes 'can't find the vehicle' then resets some form fields in a way that makes me want to enlist their web designer on an intensive 3-month UX course).

[brownnova]

7 hours ago, RichardK said:

Need a workshop manual for the Trans Sport

Good news, I found it!! 
I’ll pop it in the post tomorrow morning. 

7 hours ago, RichardK said:

However, I wanted this Pontiac and I am determined that I should get to enjoy it - it was lovely driving it back and it's the stupid insurance that has soured the experience.

I’m gutted you’re not loving it as much as you’d hoped due to insurance. I genuinely cannot understand the the insurance, considering it was £192 for me in April for the renewal, with the same company! I did have to phone around to get quotes at first, but it’s really not that unheard of! I hope you find insurance, and can get to enjoying what is undoubtedly one of the most fun cars I’ve owned.

 

[LightBulbFun]

12 hours ago, RichardK said:

If that weren't enough battles, I'm also pondering if the DVLA can be persuaded to give the poor thing a name - all the V5 says is Pontiac. Surely they can be persuaded to let it be a Trans Sport and maybe even have GT as the variant. Is Estate right for bodystyle? Who knows or cares. But Pontiac <NONE> is probably not helping insurance firms

sadly not really, not unless you want "PONTIAC TRANS SPORT GT" to all be on one long line on the make section, and dropped from the coded system, (which will make insurance look ups and the such like even worse)

K8 is the DVLA's code for Pontiac,  which it is actually correctly registered under  but they have no model code under that for Trans sport, How many left's A-Z index is a good way to see what makes and models exist in proper coded form with the DVLA, and this is all there is for Pontiac

hence why there is no model info on the V5, the way the DVLA computer system works is, one can enter a non-coded hand typed string into the make field, but not the model field

 

as an aside this was giving me a sense of deja vu, amusingly this is not the first time I have talked about this Pontiac's status with the DVLA  

On 09/09/2022 at 22:06, LightBulbFun said:

I think sadly thats where you went wrong, because until that point, it would of just been seen as a Pontiac Estate on their computer system (as thats what its registered as with the DVLA) and probably would of just gone through no problems as I dont think anyone would blink twice at an estate car

the fact you explicitly sent in pictures probably made some jobs worth stop and fuck with your application sadly,

although you may be able to use this to your advantage in the appeal by showing them that its NOT a Van and here is proof by way of the V5 clearly stating "ESTATE"

 

and its worth noting at least that it is also properly registered under the DVLA's make code for Pontiac, K8, so should you have to deal with this sort crap again, at least you should not have  to worry about any issues in future with it being an import, (there is no model code however but that just means it will simply just show up as Pontiac or Pontiac Unknown thats all  )

 

I do love the wifes email suggestion  very much something my mum or her SO would send me if I was in a similar situation LOL

 

[AnthonyG]

To the best of my knowledge, only the Firebird, Bonneville and Tempest were ever sold here new (albeit through specialist dealers) so it looks like the rest were created when a single car was imported - for instance an ‘Acadian’ was a Canadian market model.

Given ‘Pontiac Model Missing’ seems to be a category I’m surprised they won’t just accept Pontiac TranSport or whatever. 

[Bear]

4 hours ago, brownnova said:

Good news, I found it!! 
I’ll pop it in the post tomorrow morning. 

I’m gutted you’re not loving it as much as you’d hoped due to insurance. I genuinely cannot understand the the insurance, considering it was £192 for me in April for the renewal, with the same company! I did have to phone around to get quotes at first, but it’s really not that unheard of! I hope you find insurance, and can get to enjoying what is undoubtedly one of the most fun cars I’ve owned.

 

Eh, I assumed it would be straightforward - I should have checked first - not your fault, should've just added each other as named drivers on the respective policies and avoided all this nonsense 😂

I have the 940 one going in the post to you tomorrow!

[brownnova]

Just now, RichardK said:

should've just added each other as named drivers on the respective policies and avoided all this nonsense

That would have been a good plan 😂

[Bear]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

sadly not really, not unless you want "PONTIAC TRANS SPORT GT" to all be on one long line on the make section, and dropped from the coded system, (which will make insurance look ups and the such like even worse)

K8 is the DVLA's code for Pontiac,  which it is actually correctly registered under  but they have no model code under that for Trans sport, How many left's A-Z index is a good way to see what makes and models exist in proper coded form with the DVLA, and this is all there is for Pontiac

hence why there is no model info on the V5, the way the DVLA computer system works is, one can enter a non-coded hand typed string into the make field, but not the model field

 

as an aside this was giving me a sense of deja vu, amusingly this is not the first time I have talked about this Pontiac status with the DVLA  

 

Most insurance firms aren't offering Pontiac as a brand - which is baffling in itself!

[Markeh]

13 hours ago, RichardK said:

If I get rid of the Pontiac it will be for a purple PT Cruiser hardtop. Petrol, sunroof. Ideally manual, but auto tolerable, and pre-2006 to get the pre-facelift style and avoid the hideous tax rate.

Pretty much my perfect spec of PT Cruiser - when my folks had theirs and were in the owners club I went along to a meet and saw a lovely purple one with matching steelies, chrome hubcaps and whitewalls - I quite liked the look of it!

[Dave_Q]

@JJ0063 is a tame insurance-wrangler, he might be able to help?

[Bear]

1 minute ago, Dave_Q said:

@JJ0063 is a tame insurance-wrangler, he might be able to help?

It would be much appreciated but I thought location implied Flux, which will be the same pool of underwriters...

Flux's charges aside the £192 policy was Flux + Markerstudy so I don't think they'd have denied me a comparable rate if it were available to them 😕

[JJ0063]

On 8/29/2023 at 5:45 PM, Zelandeth said:

these days Stirling are owned by Flux

Have been for the last 18 years although the Sterling brand was only created probably 4-5 years back. 

On 8/29/2023 at 5:49 PM, RichardK said:

Suspect that Flux becoming so dominant behind multiple brands and subsequent lack of competition might be why the underwriters are being less competitive, too.

They’re the broker so whether you approach them, Brentacre, A-Plan or pretty much any other broker, you’ll likely end up with prices from the same handful of underwriters. Flux are just the biggest broker thus tend to have slightly more keen relationships with the pool of insurers. Re the prices, the whole market is hugely up on even 6-12 months ago, most customers renewals from other companies when they come to me for a quote are up in excess of 20% often way more on last year. Prices not being as competitive is absolutely nothing to do with the broker, everything but to be honest. 
 

Average UK comp premium over the last 3 months is something like £511, 21% higher than a year ago. 

Average claim cost is over 1/3 more than a year ago.

It’s an absolute nightmare for everyone at the moment. The days of paying £200 for insurance are long gone unless it’s a ‘proper’ classic car now. 

2 hours ago, RichardK said:

Most insurance firms aren't offering Pontiac as a brand - which is baffling in itself!

Seen this loads. Issue is trying to find something that is either rare or not specifically destined for UK markets and people trying to insure via online comparison sites or similar. Anything a bit more complex than a run of the mill UK spec car will warrant a call to a specialist. The amount of conversations I have where after 15 mins on the phone the customer says how they wished they’d just called me in the first place rather than messing about trying to find their vehicle online is amazing. 
 

At the end of the day insurance is a necessary evil and we all hate having to deal with it. I’ve helped quite a few out on here, I don’t actively tout for business and quite honesty don’t particularly want to be dealing with it when I use this site in my own time for shit car discussions but out of respect to fellow members I’ll always try and lend a hand and help where I can - multiple members will back this up.

 

29 minutes ago, RichardK said:

It would be much appreciated but I thought location implied Flux, which will be the same pool of underwriters...

Flux's charges aside the £192 policy was Flux + Markerstudy so I don't think they'd have denied me a comparable rate if it were available to them 😕

Don’t hold me to this but I’m 99% sure Markerstudy aren’t taking on any new biz through brokers right now so you’ll be very unlikely to get a rate from them through anyone but going to them direct. This will change again in time but underwriters tend to pull from time to time.

 

 

[PhilA]

Get someone to 3D print a "Model_Missing" badge for it, stick it to the back, photo it and send it in.

Insure it as a Model Missing and job done.

[LightBulbFun]

6 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Given ‘Pontiac Model Missing’ seems to be a category I’m surprised they won’t just accept Pontiac TranSport or whatever. 

1 hour ago, PhilA said:

Get someone to 3D print a "Model_Missing" badge for it, stick it to the back, photo it and send it in.

Insure it as a Model Missing and job done.

Hah!  thats just How many left's lookup table interprets the model code of "000" which is the default no model recorded/code available (which is what this Pontiac will have for its model code)

every service that deals with the DVLA codes directly seem to have their own string for "000" 

the DVSA's MOT checker decodes 000 as "UNKNOWN" and Experian decodes 000 to "NOT RECORDED"

 

so you have some options to pick from LOL, or you could chain them all together like some posh double-barrelled surname   

although as far as what a vehicle is insured as, this one will probably always be my favourite LOL

talk about a Freudian slip...

[Matty]

@RichardK Hagerty have been great to deal with for me. Nothing too much trouble. Maybe try them? All contact done over the phone with an actual helpful person.

[Dave_Q]

48 minutes ago, Matty said:

@RichardK Hagerty have been great to deal with for me. Nothing too much trouble. Maybe try them? All contact done over the phone with an actual helpful person.

I also found Hagerty to be good, both on service and price.

[jonny69]

Ugh, I’m about to have to deal with Flux transferring my insurance from the Inshite to the replacement. They’re fine until you have to deal with them, then I think their true colours shine through. 

[Bear]

3 hours ago, Matty said:

@RichardK Hagerty have been great to deal with for me. Nothing too much trouble. Maybe try them? All contact done over the phone with an actual helpful person.

I can give them a call - their online system chucked £414 at me. I don't mind £400ish if I can pay monthly without being screwed on interest or charges if I change vehicle halfway because it's a 30 year old Pontiac with speedholes

Thing is the firm I work for has advertising and marketing relationships with many of these companies. You'd think pissing me off (which to be clear is not price, but process and cockups like the NCB) would be A Bad Idea when I'm likely to be writing about insuring older used cars...

(Our firm's comparison site is a yellow condiment and has nae chance with anything this off the beaten track).

[Bear]

With the fuse out for lights/locks the battery charged fully - so next task, remove the foglight nonsenses. I need to make sure I don't accidentally remove anything related to the horn as it has airhorns and they may be running off a relay - so work backwards...

This is just...

Yes, the foglight wire was simply dropped across the front and tucked into the little black trim bit.

Nothing of value is being lost here.

As an aside, PT Cruisers have not survived well at all - a scout of the market reveals far fewer for sale than even a year ago when I was shopping for better cabrios - though, there are a surprising number of cabrios for sale including some late 2.4 petrol manuals which I believe avoid the horrid tax the auto incurs.

[Bear]

11 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

It’s an absolute nightmare for everyone at the moment. The days of paying £200 for insurance are long gone unless it’s a ‘proper’ classic car now. 

Don’t hold me to this but I’m 99% sure Markerstudy aren’t taking on any new biz through brokers right now so you’ll be very unlikely to get a rate from them through anyone but going to them direct. This will change again in time but underwriters tend to pull from time to time.

I've heard this from Sterling when the guy I was talking to (Matt) took lots of time to really try and help, and it was genuinely helpful - if not useful in terms of insuring the thing.

They won't take clients direct but it must be a very recent shift as my Volvo (£183 fully comp, May) was Markerstudy. The PT Cruiser is £168ish fully comp normal policy via eSure, renewed in June, but that's a proper UK spec car - eSure couldn't insure the Volvo when I went to change vehicle from the ZT, presumably because of age limits 😕

[Bear]

"Let's put the relay near this handy block of wires with a bolt you could put a bracket on"

"Yes, but, hear me out here, what if we add a self-tapper hole as well to the galvanised body, one GM didn't plan"

"Genius!"

Oh look the splash shield fits now

Definitely improved by losing the shitty foglights. Could use new indicator lenses, those are quite easy to find. Front plate bracket is going to get raised up to cover the hole in the line between the grilles - at some stage.

Relay for horn is on the inner wing, and that wiring is easily identified, I'll rebundle it in plastic at some point.

 

[Schaefft]

Nice to see these little improvements while removing all the shoddy work cars of this age unfortunately usually end up with. Send me a list of things you can't find and I'll do my best to find them in Germany.

[JJ0063]

I’ll just leave this here 👀

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1345199203100698/

[AnthonyG]

£2k is a bit optimistic, that’s just scrap value now. 

Keep an eye on social media and you might find out what scrap yard it ends up at, could be useful for spares. 

Although perhaps an enterprising Ukrainian will buy it to confuse Russian drones! 

[brownnova]

I was offered that one pre-tank decorations, sadly just wasn’t in a position to run 2 dustbusters! 

[Cento16v]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1960234941018956/?ref=facebook_story_share

This popped up on Facebook, looks like it needs to be rescued!

[Bear]

1 hour ago, Cento16v said:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1960234941018956/?ref=facebook_story_share

This popped up on Facebook, looks like it needs to be rescued!

No more convertibles needed

[Bear]

Garage is looking a little tidier...

[auntiemaryscanary]

8 hours ago, RichardK said:

Garage is looking a little tidier...

Very nicely sized garage. I is envious.