DEALER TALK
Five minutes with RH Specialist Insurance.
With laid-up classics being returned to the road, lockdown projects nearing completion, road trips being planned and track days open for business, RH Specialist Insurance’s services are in high demand. We caught up with Emma Airey, Head of RH, to find out what’s happening... How are you finding business right now?
We’re very busy, which is great. A fair number of RH clients placed their vehicles on laid-up cover for most of 2020, but as we emerge from lockdown, those cars are being readied for a return to the road and their insurance policies are reverting accordingly.
We assume the RH team is busy dealing with plenty of policy adjustments, then?!
Yes, but this is exactly why we attract so many enthusiasts — RH doesn’t charge for midterm adjustments. Whether it’s adding a driver, changing address, switching a car from laid-up to on-the-road or any other alteration, there’s no administrative fee. Most other insurers will charge for each amendment, which during the course of a full year of cover, might end up nudging toward the cost of the policy itself.
Are you experiencing many new business enquiries as lockdown eases?
We’ve certainly seen a spike in the number of firsttime classic car owners taking out cover. It’s been interesting to see how this particular demographic has been buying more impulsively than traditional vintage vehicle owners or collectors would. For example, we’re welcoming many new clients who didn’t experience the loss of work and income they predicted in 2020. A high number of these enthusiasts took out a mortgage holiday to ease their financial worries and subsequently found themselves in charge of unexpected disposable income. As a summer of freedom beckons, and with the romance of classic car ownership taking hold, they’re buying vehicles at the lower end of the price spectrum in anticipation of a season of fun on four wheels. They’re not necessarily club members or have spent a huge amount of time researching the pros and cons of the vehicles they’re buying — they simply want to enjoy classic car ownership as a means of having fun, something we can all appreciate, no matter how long ago we were bitten by the bug!
Are Porsches ranking high on the list?
Early Boxsters are proving hugely popular with RH clients. Despite 2021 being the model’s twentyfifth anniversary, the 986 continues to offer an affordable entry point into Porsche ownership. Obviously, it helps that the Boxster is an excellent sports car. In fact, I almost bought one a couple of weeks ago, but that’s a story for another day.
What does RH class as a classic?
In general terms, we consider a classic to be a vehicle more than twenty years old, garaged or parked on a driveway overnight, not covering more than five thousand miles per year and, crucially, not its owner’s everyday car. In other words, they have a separate vehicle to use for regular driving. As far as age of the classic is concerned, a car between eleven and twenty years of age and built by a premium manufacturer, such as Porsche, may still be able to qualify for classic cover, and providing the owner is paying more than £268.80 (including insurance premium tax) to insure their commuting car, we will work with them to match their existing policy price. If in doubt, give the RH team a call on 0333 043 3911 or contact me directly through the RH Facebook page. I personally answer every message sent and I’m happy to hear from anyone who wants to chat about classic vehicles.
What other benefits does RH offer over policies from other insurers?
How many times have you heard people say they’ve been invited to buy their car back from their insurer after it has been considered a financial write-off? Providing the car is over twenty years of age and repairable within DVLA guidelines, we give you your settlement fee, plus we hand the car (cherished salvage) back to you free of charge. Additionally, when most other insurers offer ‘buyback’, the settlement figure they give is usually significantly lower than the car’s actual value — they typically deduct up to forty percent of the settlement value. We’ll even offer to reinsure your car! Breakdown recovery is another strong feature of an RH policy. You don’t necessarily need to have suffered a breakdown away from home to qualify for recovery — we include a true home start service, or we pop your car on a flatbed and take it to a repair shop of your choice at a time convenient to you. As I always advise friends and family, check the smallprint in your insurance policy documentation. What you think you’ve got as a benefit of cover and what you’ve actually got might be two very different things. You don’t want to find out the hard way, when you’re putting your insurance cover to the test.
Where can we find RH online?
Visit the RH website at rhspecialistinsurance.co.uk, where you’ll find all the required contact details for new policy enquiries. You can also follow us on Instagram and, as mentioned above, you can speak to me directly via our Facebook page. I look forward to hearing from you.