Insurance Update
Hopefully this might assist new prospective UK owners on the current insurance quote difficulty........
I've spent all of this morning trying to get an insurance quote for the new LC, the FE in my case.
1. My two different current insurers can't help because the car isn't listed yet.
2. Toyota insurance can provide a quote by going directly through their underwriter, but not otherwise because it isn't on the system yet. However, in my case they can't quote as my NCD that I want to use is from a commercial vehicle policy, even though it is my private vehicle and not used for business (L200). they also can't quote with zero NCD. They can quote if I cancel my other private car's policy and use that NCD, which I wouldn't do as it would cause all sorts of other problems. As an aside, they also couldn't quote, even when I put in a current Invincible model as the car's valuation was over their limit! They told me, adviser, and senior managers, that it needed to be sorted by my dealer, ie by registering the vehicle.
3. I was finally allowed to speak to someone within Toyota UK who said that they were only the manufacturer and didn't deal with insurance......and for me to speak to my dealer. After insisting that this was a real issue for customers, they will hopefully escalate and get back to me.
4. My dealer (who have been exceptional) exactly understood my problem and agreed with me that registering the vehicle will not fix the problem and that it was an insurance risk rating issue that needed to be completed. hooray for someone on my wavelength! The dealer will also raise an issue on the Toyota Compass system.
5. I have just sent an email to Thatcham, who carry out risk ratings for the insurance industry and await a reply. The helpful receptionist did say that in the past week they were transferring from the current 1 to 50 rating to a new 125 point vehicle 99 risk rating which I had seen in the motoring press recently, although I thought that this was running alongside the current system for some time now. Anyway, let's hope that they respond soon, either with good news, or at least someone else who can help/escalate.
How many others, who are viewing this forum in the UK, have the same issue or will unfortunately find out when their car arrives? You might want to await my update or help the cause by contacting Toyota UK tel 01737 363633, asking for customer relations (not Toyota insurance who can't help).