Hi All,

Insurance on my current car doesn’t end until March next year (it’s a VW Polo). So I thought great, when I go collect my 90 CSW this weekend I’d just be able to transfer it over as the Polo will be going away.

However, I got into a bit of an argument with my current insurer Hastings Direct who kept insisting that it was a panel van and so i couldn't transfer the policy.

I kept saying no it's not the van version. It’s registered on the HPI check I did as a County SW, Confused.com also shows it as a 3-door estate under their car category with it's reg. I am sure either Adrian Flux or AIB who I also got a quotes from said it was in the estate car category too.

Just to make sure I tried a couple of 90 hardtop vans for sale online and sure enough the confused dot com site recognised those as vans and directed me to their van insurance section. I then also found a few other factory SW for sale put in their respective reg plates and as expected they came back as a 3-door estate like mine on confused dot com, but then on the Hastings direct website they actually still classed these as a panel van?

Does anyone know why Hastings are classing official factory station wagons as vans? This to me doesn’t sit right, the insurance is more expensive (for me) on a hard top than SW. I would also imagine their pay-out would be considerably less if they are under the impression that it’s just a van.

They are either pulling a fast one or are just totally oblivious to the fact two versions of these vehicles exist. If anyone else has a factory CSW please feel free to run your reg plate on the Hastings site and see what it comes back as.

How old is the car?
Might be able to get it under a classic policy, my 93 defender is a classic, the 90 and the series with full comp 260 quid a year.

Mainstream insurers are no good for older land rovers.

lynall said:

How old is the car?
Might be able to get it under a classic policy, my 93 defender is a classic, the 90 and the series with full comp 260 quid a year.

Mainstream insurers are no good for older land rovers.

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She’s a 1999 one of the last of the 300’s made.

A lot of insurers will recognise it as a van unfortunately. Just switch insurers, if they won't give you a decent deal then hit them where it hurts and go elsewhere. I used compare the market at my last renewal and got brilliant deals on both my cars

the_wolf said:

A lot of insurers will recognise it as a van unfortunately. Just switch insurers, if they won't give you a decent deal then hit them where it hurts and go elsewhere. I used compare the market at my last renewal and got brilliant deals on both my cars

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My main concern really was if they see it as a van are they only recognising it as a low spec hard top? Probably pay out much less if I had to make a claim against it

ryan_1993 said:

My main concern really was if they see it as a van are they only recognising it as a low spec hard top? Probably pay out much less if I had to make a claim against it

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If they ever have to pay out you'll probably have to fight them to pay what it's worth anyway, they're an insurance company regardless of the vehicle. Just make sure the agreed value is accurate, defenders aren't particularly easy to value as it is

ryan_1993 said:

My main concern really was if they see it as a van are they only recognising it as a low spec hard top? Probably pay out much less if I had to make a claim against it

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Is it a genuine station wagon, ie does it have the letter that says so in the vin?

ps dont post up your vin!

ryan_1993 said:

Does anyone know why Hastings are classing official factory station wagons as vans? This to me doesn’t sit right, the insurance is more expensive (for me) on a hard top than SW. I would also imagine their pay-out would be considerably less if they are under the impression that it’s just a van.

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I think Hastings just don't like the green oval, I recently bought the L322, tried to convert my Hastings policy to a multicar and they told me they can't cover this vehicle, in this case, I wanted to keep the other car as the daily mile muncher, so it's little different. I used a comparison site and found a multicar option that was cheaper than my renewal offer from Hastings for the single car.