Why are people moaning about insurance?
Having read your story about the changes being introduced by the EU’s Motor Insurance Directive and the implications it has for cars currently off the road ( CCW, 13 June), it would appear that owners of classic cars in the UK have their cars lying around uninsured.
The fact is that if you have a car insured for use in France – where I live – it stays insured. You cannot uninsure it until you sell it or scrap it.
This new directive you are writing about does not appear to make any real changes, so what are people moaning about?
My wife and I run six cars – admittedly not all classics – and they’re all insured to varying degrees, which doesn’t cost a lot. They include an MGB GT, a Renault 4L and a Mercedes-Benz 190E. We also have a 1992 Peugeot J5 Chausson Camping car, our highest value vehicle for which we do pay around €30 a month for insurance. The other six together do not exceed €30 in monthly premiums, and for that we can use them as and when we wish, 12 months a year. In France we do not have strange things like SORN and road fund licences for anything, and the equivalent of the MoT is every two years, and every five years if your car is over 30 years old. Nothing is test-exempt in France, except for motor bikes for which there is no test at all!
Perhaps the problem is because older cars have all risen in value in the UK, and insurance premiums too. But then if you are now sitting on something of increasing value, what are you complaining about?
Just get out on the road and enjoy them while you can!
Keith Saunders, France