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Bike Rack And Car Insurance


barrycoll
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Finally got around to contacting IAM insurance broker, regarding the fitting of a dedicated Thule tow bar supported bike rack attachment to the 2013 T Spirit

The car insurance is not affected, nor is any extra payable, but the rack itself, or the bolted on tow hitch is not covered. In the event of bikes coming off the rack, then third party cover is in place for any damage to others.

Considering the £100 excess, protected NCB, and legal cover, the premium for both the Prius and the IQ of an annual £460 is very satisfactory

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A shame they're not covering the modification (the towbar) but as long as you're happy thats the main thing :)

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The previous main comments about fitting the rack, was that it was a modification, and would nullify the insurance.

If I am tail ended, so be it, but most importantly the car is still insured despite the 'so called' modification. I have never mentioned this to any insurance co. before, but 2 previous Golfs had tow bars fitted.

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Hi Barry,

I changed insurance company at the begining of the month on my RAV4 and like you I have a retractable tow bar fitted, so I phone the company to check whether or not that a tow bar was concidered a modification.

I was asked if it was a dedicated tow bar for my car, which it is, then she checked and told me that it was not on the list of modification and I was ok. If this is the case your tow bar/ bike rack is now part of your car and any damage happen due to an accident then I would think that it would be replaced.

I also know about your bike rack which was the first one to be especially made for the Prius, this is a great idea to be able to remove and refit the rack in second and also lock it in position.

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The issue here is that insurance companies can and do have different opinions on what changes they will accept and what cover they will offer. The fact that company A accepts and provides cover for a tow bar/cycle carrier doesn't mean that company B will. The assumption that once fitted, a tow bar becomes 'part of the car' and will be replaced if damaged isn't necessarily the case.

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I agree that not all insurer have the same standards, it could be that like a caravan is insured when connected to the car but if it broke away from the car while being towed then its not insured.

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the best idea, is to just quietly pay the premiums, and NOT test the Insurance companies small print Ts & Cs,

On the other hand, after a recent £1500 windscreen replacement, I thought that my premium would rise this year...but it didn't

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My 2010 Prius was rear-ended (whilst stationary) by a car travelling at ~ 40mph and written off a few weeks ago. I had a US-style receiver hitch fitted that I normally use to take a bike rack (far and away the best way to fix a bike rack to a Prius, I think). The bike rack wasn't fitted at the time of the accident, and the receiver hitch is right underneath the rear of the car, with nothing projecting at all beyond the lower edge of the bodywork.

The insurers had no problem at all with the rack mount being fitted (I claimed for it and sent them photos and the receipt) and they paid up to the maximum allowed for damage to accessories on my policy (even though I wasn't at fault and this ended up leaving me about £30 out of pocket). I'm planning on fitting the same type of receiver hitch to my new Prius Plug In (as soon as I can be sure that it will fit - no one seems very clear as to whether the Plug in underbody mounts are the same as the normal Prius mounts at the moment). I've checked with my insurers and they said the same as above, fitting this as a bike rack carrier doesn't invalidate the insurance or affect the premium.

Using it to fit a tow bar (which is possible, if you can get the right adapter) would invalidate the insurance, though, and leave you with third party only cover. The reason, apparently, is down to the car not being Type Approved fot the fitment of a tow bar.

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Using it to fit a tow bar (which is possible, if you can get the right adapter) would invalidate the insurance, though, and leave you with third party only cover. The reason, apparently, is down to the car not being Type Approved fot the fitment of a tow bar.

Doesn't even leave you with that! The insurer who invalidated your insurance will have to pay out any damages/injuries to the third party if you were at fault. But because the policy was void they will then acome a looking for you to pay them back.

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Using it to fit a tow bar (which is possible, if you can get the right adapter) would invalidate the insurance, though, and leave you with third party only cover. The reason, apparently, is down to the car not being Type Approved fot the fitment of a tow bar.

Doesn't even leave you with that! The insurer who invalidated your insurance will have to pay out any damages/injuries to the third party if you were at fault. But because the policy was void they will then acome a looking for you to pay them back.

Good point! Perhaps not something that is obvious from reading the small note in the handbook that refers to the car being unsuitable for towing.

Still, use of a receiver hitch for holding a bike rack is fine, at least with some insurers, and my personal experience of having a bike rack mounted like this has been very positive indeed. The overwhelming advantage over most (all?) other rear mounted bike rack options is being able to open the tail gate with the bikes still on the rack, something I've found particularly useful.

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Using it to fit a tow bar (which is possible, if you can get the right adapter) would invalidate the insurance, though, and leave you with third party only cover. The reason, apparently, is down to the car not being Type Approved fot the fitment of a tow bar.

Doesn't even leave you with that! The insurer who invalidated your insurance will have to pay out any damages/injuries to the third party if you were at fault. But because the policy was void they will then acome a looking for you to pay them back.

Indeed. It really isn't worth the risk. Any changes from factory build specifications are always best run past your insurer, and providing isn't not a nasty budget insurer most will be ok with minor changes.

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Yes, mine is a receiver hitch type of fitting too Jeremy, and totally out of sight until the the arm is slotted in....

without doubt, it is by far the only way to carry bikes, as the bikes dont touch each other, AND, as you say, the boot is accessible

the rear of the car is probably beefed up with the extra ironwork in position, and hopefully the chap who went into you, suffered greatly for it

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It did protect the back of my car a lot, to the extent that the hatchback still opened fine afterwards, the rear lights were intact and there was only fairly minor rear end damage. What wrote the car off was that the force of the impact pushed my car forward a few metres into the back of a big 4 x 4 pick up, which had a tow bar that was just in the right position to smash through the front of the Prius and do a great deal of damage inside the engine bay. The repair cost was over £11,000, apparently, but the insurers settled with me within a week or so for £12,700, which seemed reasonable for a March 2010 T4 in pretty good condition.

There's a video here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22506359@N04/14436290410/

from the dash cam I had fitted. The dash cam was crucial in getting the other cars insurance company to pay out, within 30 minutes of me sending

it off they admitted full liability. Needless to say the first thing I fitted to my new Prius Plug In was the dash cam! The car that hit me was a little Fiat Punto, that ended up in very bad shape, I was impressed at how tough the rear of the Prius is compared to the front of the Punto.

The lady driving it had, apparently, been distracted by something in her handbag on the passenger seat, and not seen the stationary cars in front until she was a few metres away from hitting me (the police measured her skid marks at 2m long, just a fraction of a second between her hitting the brakes and hitting me).

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pics don't seem to be available Jeremy........but which model dash cam have you installed???

and just out of (an IAM) interest, did you have the foot parking brake depressed when the lady 'struck'???

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I'd be interested to see the footage too Jeremy.

A keen user of dash camera's, I've a twin camera setup myself for front and rear POV's, it got a good clip of a smart car rear ending me in my last car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHeF4rh5N9c

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I've amended the link, not sure went wrong, finger trouble my end I suspect! The video should now be viewable from that link.

The dash cam I had when that accident happened was a cheap one from eBay, a small one that had 720p resolution. IIRC it was around £30, and I'd had it for around 2 years and pretty much forgotten it was there, as it was hidden behind the mirror.

I've now fitted a somewhat better version of the same camera, that's higher resolution (1080P)and has a GPS to position code the video. I thought it worth investing in the more expensive one as the cheap one saved me an awful lot of time in settling the claim. The one I have now is usually referred to as an "Ambarella 0801", and a search on eBay will soon find a few. It's very compact and is almost entirely hidden behind the rear view mirror. I ran the USB power lead behind the roof lining and down the pillar behind the trim by the door seal (staying clear of the air bag) and then to the power point in the glove box. I used a USB extension lead with a right angle mini USB connector to allow the camera to fit a bit closer to the centre and better hide behind the mirror. In this respect the new camera isn't quite as good as the old one, as the mount is bigger, so it sticks out slightly to the drivers side of the mirror. Not at all a problem, just a bit less discreet.

The parking brake wasn't on, as I'd just come to a stop when I got hit. The footbrake was on, but only enough to keep me stopped behind the car in front on level ground, so I probably wasn't applying a lot of pressure to it. The car was still in drive, so the transmission lock was off.

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Yes, you were still rolling when struck......and as the chap turning right was almost about to move, then a parking brake wouldn't have been used

do some cameras show rear vision as well?

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Some do, and I'm thinking of putting the old one I had in the written off Prius on to the rear of my new Prius (I recovered it before the car was scrapped). I think the only problem will be finding a good place to mount it, as the lower rear hatch window gets very dirty, very quickly, so ideally it needs to look through the area swept by the rear wiper.

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Yes, you were still rolling when struck......and as the chap turning right was almost about to move, then a parking brake wouldn't have been used

do some cameras show rear vision as well?

Yes, mine does. I'll include some pics of its mounting if you want me to?

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that would be very useful Jonathan.....many thanks

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that would be very useful Jonathan.....many thanks

Not uploaded pic's to a TOC post before, so hope this works haha.

post-71251-0-70244300-1411073139_thumb.j

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It's one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121093876067?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT (although a different seller on eBay I used)

and this is the footage quality, which seems to work well through rear tinted windows

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very impressive Jono., thank you very much.....its amazing the sort of kit that you can buy for that minimal money, that wouldn't buy you half an hour of some aspiring professionals time in the UK.

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That looks suspiciously like the notorious Acle straight, near my favourite Spanish restaurant!

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very impressive Jono., thank you very much.....its amazing the sort of kit that you can buy for that minimal money, that wouldn't buy you half an hour of some aspiring professionals time in the UK.

Indeed it is, to think I paid £300 for a unit with poorer video quality (although it does have GPS tagging) back in 2008. Can get similar with GPS for about £120 now.

That looks suspiciously like the notorious Acle straight, near my favourite Spanish restaurant!

You would indeed be correct Pete. Whats the restaurant like? Never used it myself and never seems to be many cars in the car park.

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That looks suspiciously like the notorious Acle straight, near my favourite Spanish restaurant!

You would indeed be correct Pete. Whats the restaurant like? Never used it myself and never seems to be many cars in the car park.

I've sent you a PM as interest is likely to be limited

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