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Original poster

'gap insurance' and 'minor damage insurance' when buying a car

10 replies

funnyperson · 11/12/2011 07:44

Has anyone been sold 'gap insurance' or 'minor damage \ insurance when buying a new car. The car sales people are aggressively pushing these. We have said 'no' three times as we already have a fully comprehensive car insurance policy in place but wonder what experience others have and what judgements they have made.

OP posts:

Aftereightsaremine · 11/12/2011 07:50

I don't know about minor damage insurance but we now get gap insurance. 9 years ago we bought a new car (no gap insurance) & 2 weeks later it was stolen - result we lost £1000's overnight! The fully comp insurance did not pay the full value of the car. I never want to be in that position again.

bruffin · 11/12/2011 08:04

I work for a dealer ship and they make their money from extras like gap.
But there have been a few cases where we have sold a car and it had been written off within weeks, some have not had gap and they are left paying off the difference of the value of the car and the debt.

SoupDragon · 11/12/2011 08:25

It's all a gamble, like most insurance.

Minor Damage insurance seems a bit daft. If it's minor, it won't cost much to fix so you're better off putting away the insurance premium into a savings account yourself.

stuffthenonsense · 11/12/2011 08:25

I didnt get gap for my last car, but it wasnt expensive, ive got a new car on order now and will be getting gap for certain because the car costs more than my first house and i just cant afford to lose that much money.
In fact, i find it a bit bizarre, that 13 years ago, that amount of money was considered a mortgage, and now its a loan. Times have really changed.

chopchopbusybusy · 11/12/2011 08:32

We bought gap insurance for our car. We didn't buy it from the dealer though. We shopped around a bit and got it for about a third of the price.
I've never heard of minor damage insurance. Probably wouldn't go for that as we have protected no claims discount.

Original poster

funnyperson · 14/12/2011 19:24

Thanks for comments - I too have a protected no claims discount. I Didn't realise you could get gap insurance from other than the dealer.

OP posts:

trixymalixy · 15/12/2011 19:41

GAP insurance is a good idea especially if you have finance on the car. If the car was written off you could lose thousands.

Minor damage seems like a bit of a waste of money though!

crazycarol · 18/12/2011 22:40

I ve gap insurance as if anything happens to your car, most insurance companies will not give you back what you paid for it and you could be thousands out of pocket. I had a car written off at 4 months old (it was parked!) and was offered about 75% of its new value. I needed a car and didn't have the dosh to pay for it again! This time round I was careful. In my case it only covers you for the first 3 years.

timidviper · 18/12/2011 22:58

We thought gap insurance was just a money spinner for the dealership and refused it then DS wrote the car off within a very short time. We lost a few thousand and he was lucky we were just too relieved he was unhurt to kill him!

bananaistheanswer · 18/12/2011 23:07

I bought a new(ish) car in september and the gap offered by the dealer was £300 I think. I bought my own on line and pay £3.62 a month over 3 years. Worked out about £200 less than the cost of the dealer's gap insurance. It's worth getting to make sure you aren't left with a balance to pay for a loan etc. while having no car, but definitely worth looking about for your own.

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