Progress on 457

[Pooky Bear]

First the good news.
Started the year off by having the car serviced by MJS, 36000 service, Mike noticed that the rear disc's were not wearing very well thus causing the juddering when braking. Although I had ordered the complete set from here I needed the rears asap. I picked up on the thread from DMGRS that he had the rears in stock. So I ordered a set plus pads on the Tuesday and they were delivered on the Friday. Phoned Mike at MJS and booked the car in on March 3rd.

Mean while I took the car to Alltyres in Woodford to get the slow puncture fixed. Ended up with 2 new tyres on the rear, Uniroyal Rainspots. Whilst there I also had the tracking + wheel alignment and camber sorted out. Car no longer pulls to the left. So on March 3rd off I trundled to MJS in Littlehampton to get the disc's fitted. Mike took the car out and came back with the news that the car was a lot better but still had some juddering, although not as bad. So I had the fronts changed plus new pads. I now have a car that stops smoothly, no longer pulls to the left and the tyre noise has dropped. Happy with that.

Now the not so good news.
When I insured the car through Lancaster Insurance, MGOC discount as well, I set the mileage at 5000 miles. I then decided last Friday to get that increased. I phoned and spoke to a young lady explaining what I wanted, basically to double the mileage. She said that she would have to check with the underwriters who then had to speak to the insurers. I thought I was through to the insurers. She said she would phone me back. 3 hours passed. So I phoned back and spoke to a chap and explained everything all over again. He went off to check and said that the underwriters were on the phone to the insurers at that moment in time.

We'll phone you back in 15 minutes was the next comment, But you said that last time, No sir I can assure you I will phone you back. After a further hour I phoned back yet again and got through to the lady that I had spoke to in the morning. Went through it all again, she was amazed that nothing had been sorted out. I said I would wait on the line till she returned.

The answer was No to the increase. Why? Because it would be my main car (!) But she could phone round and get me a better quote. Which resulted in finding a company who went home at 5pm on Friday and did not open up again till Monday at 9am. The time now was 4.45pm and it would be too late to contact them. But she promised to phone me back on Monday and get it all sorted out for me.

I'm still waiting........................................... .......Anyway I'm still with Lancaster Insurance and I'll leave it at that.

I went to the Rover SDi meet in Meldreth Cambridgeshire last Saturday. Sadly the weather kept the cars away. But here is a picture of V8 meeting V8.

[barry monk]

Try "Peter Best"

[colintf]

Try "Peter Best"

absolutely!
When I first got #242 Lancaster wanted £1800 to insure it, Peter Best wanted £250. Ive never given them a thought since, and that was back in 2007

[Pooky Bear]

Ok thankyou for the info.

[Nich]

Good news getting the car sorted. Although most will suggest Peter Best as the insurer of choice I would recommend that you shop around, I have never paid more than £250 per annum for the 260 and have used various companies including Aviva and LVE. The advantage of going with Peter Best is that you can get an agreed value insurance subject to some restrictions, but this benefit has yet to be tested by anyone making an agreed value claim and you have to be prepared to go back to normal insurance if you want to retain your NCB as it runs out after 2/3 years of using the Peter Best policy.

Nich.

[SCP440]

When I spoke to my brokers about agreeing the value on my 260 they said would be very difficult on any vehicle that is not at least 15 years old ( classic) What they did suggest is to keep a history of all the cars that have been sold recently and if the worse does happen you can then prove that is what they actually sell for and not the same as a 2.5 V6.

As with any insurance do be careful about getting a low price, my partner did this last year and managed to insure her car for less than the road tax, anyway a stone from another vehicle took her windscreen out and guess what? She was not covered. This year she has renewed through a local broker with windscreen and all the other bits and bobs with a realistic excess for only another £20 than last year.

Even if I have to pay a bit extra I always insure through somebody I can actually sit in front of, if the worse does happen or you need to change something you can do it there and then and not have to ring 3 or 4 times.

Steve