Import Car Insurance – Japanese & Grey Specialists

If you are looking for protection for your imported car, you are bound to have found out that most of the major insurance providers either won’t cover you or will hit you with huge annual premiums. The reason that import car insurance is so important is because the providers deal in the risk posed by you and your vehicle. An insurance company may not be able to accurately determine the risk involved in insuring your imported car.

You may find it difficult to understand why insurance companies insist on charging you so much for import car insurance policies but there are two main reasons. The first is that it is far harder to estimate how much they would need to pay out in parts and repairs as they may be hard to source and cost a lot more. The second reason is that there could be a problem with the vehicle quality standards, depending on where the car has been imported from.

Cars known as grey imports are not built to European standards, and are not EU approved, making it very difficult to obtain import car insurance. Whereas a parallel import is usually from Europe, meaning that it will be much simpler to seek an adequate policy.

Similarly to modified cars, or classic cars, it is usually far easier to obtain import car insurance from a specialist insurer rather than a high street retailer. Before you seek quotations, make sure you have as much information about the vehicle as possible, as the more the insurance provider knows about your car, the more they are able to reduce the annual premium. If cost is a priority, many insurers do not see a right-hand drive vehicle as a higher risk if there are no further modifications, so it is recommended that you ask this first. As import car insurance is always going to be more expensive than any convention insurance, you could use some tried and tested techniques to lower your premiums. These could include any of the following:

• Approved security devices – alarm/immobiliser
• No claims bonus years
• Parking in a garage
• As few modifications as possible
• Low annual mileage

Import car insurance does usually have higher annual premiums than any standard insurance policy, but you do usually save some money as the pre-tax costs are usually a lot cheaper abroad than here in the UK. If you do decide to import a car from abroad, it is essential that you are covered by adequate import car insurance to protect you for every eventuality.

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