Engine spec from insurance company different than log book

Pixelbastardo

Hey guys, can anyone advise me on how to resolve an issue with my car.
I've got a Golf 1.4 80 BHP mk5 GT sport. And its doing my head in for 3 years now every time i go to renew my insurance it comes up as a "140 BHP TSI" model.
Alot of back and forth from different insurance companies and i end up paying TSI prices each year... They always say, your reg comes up as a 140 TSI, i tell them its only 80BHP non TSI, but they cant do anything about it.

Does anyone know who can i contact to correct my cars specs with the reg as im paying alot more for insurance each year due to this error ?

Log book shows all correct specs, reg, etc. Its a proper pain in the arse.

colm_mcm

Get a reg of a base model 1.4 and see if it makes any difference. It may not.

Pixelbastardo

Well one broker i rang specifically said that them TSI models are expensive to insure, i say its a base model to him but he cant do anything about it. I know a lad who got insured recently in a 1.4 for less than half what i payed last year.

bazz26

You might need to chase this from the other side i.e. with Shannon to correct it on the vehicle registration database system. You might be met with more "the computer says no" answers there too though but if it can be fixed at that end then that is where insurance companies pull their data from. It could be as simple as getting a dealer to verify that it is a 80bhp non TSI via the car's vin and stamp a declaration form or it could be something way more overly complex.

User1998

It’s probably an import and got registered incorrectly. I think the people you need to contact are the Driver & Computer Services Division

Gorgeousgeorge

Whats the engine code on the vin

Pixelbastardo

bazz26 wrote: »

You might need to chase this from the other side i.e. with Shannon to correct it on the vehicle registration database system. You might be met with more "the computer says no" answers there too though but if it can be fixed at that end then that is where insurance companies pull their data from. It could be as simple as getting a dealer to verify that it is a 80bhp non TSI via the car's vin and stamp a declaration form or it could be something way more overly complex.

Each year for the last 3 years i try and fix the issue, last year or the year before i contacted them to no avail. I might just try again and press teh issue more.

User1998 wrote: »

It’s probably an import and got registered incorrectly. I think the people you need to contact are the Driver & Computer Services Division

Ill look into this, cheers

Gorgeousgeorge wrote: »

Whats the engine code on the vin

Its - Edit

teediddlyeye

Down as a 1.4 BUD engine on VW. Take it up with shannon

Seems to be an original irish car also.

listermint

Also remove your vin from here too..don't have vins floating around the internet.

Wishbone Ash

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

...Ill look into this, cheers...

You can usually tell by the registration. Used Imports are added retrospectively to the indexes issued for the particular year so if the number is very high, its most likely an import.

Wishbone Ash

listermint wrote: »

Also remove your vin from here too..don't have vins floating around the internet.

...and same to the poster who quoted the VIN.

Tzardine

Probably less grief to actually buy a new car than to have the paperwork changed/corrected.

Depending on how much extra the insurance is costing you it may even be the most economical option.

boetstark

User1998 wrote: »

It’s probably an import and got registered incorrectly. I think the people you need to contact are the Driver & Computer Services Division

Absolute shower of muppets working in Shannon or vrt section.
I purchased a BMW 430i from a dealer in Dublin. A few days later noticed reg cert and invoice for sale said 2993 cc petrol. When I tried to insure the car the insurance database was coming up 430d as only 430 with 3 litre engine is a diesel.
Dealer tried to resolve by giving me a build sheet from bmw showing it as a 2 litre petrol, 430i is only badge designated to set it apart from a 420i.
Anyways hitting my head off of a stone wall. Somebody when registering car went into drop down and selected 2993 cc engine size because v5 said 430i 😭.
Cannot get a reply from Shannon due to covid, insurance company have amended details as I showed them all my paper proof. Now local vrt office say that there could be more vrt owed as car was classified incorrectly. It is a 2016 car imported in 2018.
I can't sell the car either because everybody that does a cartell check thinks its diesel.
You could not make this **** up

coylemj

I had a Mk V Golt GT 170 bhp but Shannon had it down as a 140 bhp. Both models were 1,400 c.c. so it was a clerical error somewhere. I highlighted the discrepancy every year to my insurer at renewal time and they accepted it as the higher model.

My point being that if you tell your insurance that the car is more powerful, they'll have no problem jacking up your premium. Telling you that they can't do anything about it when your car is a lower spec. is BS.

boetstark

coylemj wrote: »

I had a Mk V Golt GT 170 bhp but Shannon had it down as a 140 bhp. Both models were 1,400 c.c. so it was a clerical error somewhere. I highlighted the discrepancy every year to my insurer at renewal time and they accepted it as the higher model.

My point being that if you tell your insurance that the car is more powerful, they'll have no problem jacking up your premium. Telling you that they can't do anything about it when your car is a lower spec. is BS.

Absolutely. The 430i petrol is a higher rating so they could see it was a genuine error, 430d is cheaper to insure

Gorgeousgeorge

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

Each year for the last 3 years i try and fix the issue, last year or the year before i contacted them to no avail. I might just try again and press teh issue more.



Ill look into this, cheers

Cool man def a standard 1.4 alright.

Pixelbastardo

boetstark wrote: »

Absolute shower of muppets working in Shannon or vrt section.
I purchased a BMW 430i from a dealer in Dublin. A few days later noticed reg cert and invoice for sale said 2993 cc petrol. When I tried to insure the car the insurance database was coming up 430d as only 430 with 3 litre engine is a diesel.
Dealer tried to resolve by giving me a build sheet from bmw showing it as a 2 litre petrol, 430i is only badge designated to set it apart from a 420i.
Anyways hitting my head off of a stone wall. Somebody when registering car went into drop down and selected 2993 cc engine size because v5 said 430i ��.
Cannot get a reply from Shannon due to covid, insurance company have amended details as I showed them all my paper proof. Now local vrt office say that there could be more vrt owed as car was classified incorrectly. It is a 2016 car imported in 2018.
I can't sell the car either because everybody that does a cartell check thinks its diesel.
You could not make this **** up

Damn dude, Let us know if you get anywhere with it.

coylemj wrote: »

I had a Mk V Golt GT 170 bhp but Shannon had it down as a 140 bhp. Both models were 1,400 c.c. so it was a clerical error somewhere. I highlighted the discrepancy every year to my insurer at renewal time and they accepted it as the higher model.

My point being that if you tell your insurance that the car is more powerful, they'll have no problem jacking up your premium. Telling you that they can't do anything about it when your car is a lower spec. is BS.

lol oh for sure, the whole thing is a racket.

Wishbone Ash

coylemj wrote: »

.... if you tell your insurance that the car is more powerful, they'll have no problem jacking up your premium. Telling you that they can't do anything about it when your car is a lower spec. is BS.

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

....lol oh for sure, the whole thing is a racket.

In fairness from the insurance company's perspective, they'd risk having some chancers declaring that their car is less powerful when it isn't. No one with a less powerful car is going to declare it as more powerful so it makes common sense for them to accept it when it happens.

coylemj

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

No one Hardly anyone with a less powerful car is going to declare it as more powerful so it makes common sense for them to accept it when it happens.

FYP

Pixelbastardo

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

In fairness from the insurance company's perspective, they'd risk having some chancers declaring that their car is less powerful when it isn't. No one with a less powerful car is going to declare it as more powerful so it makes common sense for them to accept it when it happens.

But if we're talking about fairness from insurance companies, then showing them the log book should be enough to correct the clear error thats been robbing me for the last 3 years.

coylemj

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

But if we're talking about fairness from insurance companies, then showing them the log book should be enough to correct the clear error thats been robbing me for the last 3 years.

By 'log book' do you mean the registration cert? Surely that shows what's on the system in Shannon and is the same as what comes up on the screen in the insurance company when they input your reg. no?

Pixelbastardo

coylemj wrote: »

By 'log book' do you mean the registration cert? Surely that shows what's on the system in Shannon and is the same as what comes up on the screen in the insurance company when they input your reg. no?

Yes the registration cert. Not sure, but i rang the VW shop that the car was sold from 2 days ago, and it comes up as the right engine on their system funny enough. But always wrong engine when talking to insurance or ordering a part using the reg sometimes get the wrong part..

coylemj

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

Yes the registration cert. Not sure, but i rang the VW shop that the car was sold from 2 days ago, and it comes up as the right engine on their system funny enough. But always wrong engine when talking to insurance or ordering a part using the reg sometimes get the wrong part..

It's no surprise that the VW dealer has the correct details, they're get their data from the plant which manufactured the car. Whereas insurance companies and anyone using the reg no to (e.g.) order parts is picking up the (incorrect) details that are stored in the registration database in Shannon.

Your problem is that someone in Shannon seems to have allowed all petrol Golf GTs to default to the 140 bhp model i.e. they couldn't be bothered to discriminate between the various models.

Can I follow up on the question I asked in post #21 above, it relates to what you said in post #20 where you implied that the correct details are shown in the registration cert. That's sounds very peculiar because the cert should be exactly the same as what's in the database in Shannon.

Pixelbastardo

coylemj wrote: »

It's no surprise that the VW dealer has the correct details, they're get their data from the plant which manufactured the car. Whereas insurance companies and anyone using the reg no to (e.g.) order parts is picking up the (incorrect) details that are stored in the registration database in Shannon.

Your problem is that someone in Shannon seems to have allowed all petrol Golf GTs to default to the 140 bhp model i.e. they couldn't be bothered to discriminate between the various models.

Can I follow up on the question I asked in post #21 above, it relates to what you said in post #20 where you implied that the correct details are shown in the registration cert. That's sounds very peculiar because the cert should be exactly the same as what's in the database in Shannon.

Yeah, the cert shows the correct 1.4 80BHP spec. Well anyway i emailed shannon today (since their phoneslines are down). Sent them a picture front and back of cert along with the front of the car with the bonnet up, clearly showing the registration and engine. Along with explaining the whole issue with the insurance company's. I wonder if its even possible to get it fixed now, i mean the car is from 2008 so im assuming others have attempted to sort the issue in the past.. idk but when i contacted shannon afew years back i got nowhere with them. This time im going to press the issue more and wont let them give me the run around.

Del2005

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

Yeah, the cert shows the correct 1.4 80BHP spec. Well anyway i emailed shannon today (since their phoneslines are down). Sent them a picture front and back of cert along with the front of the car with the bonnet up, clearly showing the registration and engine. Along with explaining the whole issue with the insurance company's. I wonder if its even possible to get it fixed now, i mean the car is from 2008 so im assuming others have attempted to sort the issue in the past.. idk but when i contacted shannon afew years back i got nowhere with them. This time im going to press the issue more and wont let them give me the run around.

What power has the VLC got in P.2? Having the spec right doesn't matter it's the power that counts.

Pixelbastardo

Well after contacting shannon, they're saying get in contact with "revenue on ros.ie" as they would have issued the documents on day one..

The run around has started again.. but ill contact ros today and see.

Del2005 wrote: »

What power has the VLC got in P.2? Having the spec right doesn't matter it's the power that counts.

Idk what any of that means ?

coylemj

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

Well after contacting shannon, they're saying get in contact with "revenue on ros.ie" as they would have issued the documents on day one..

The run around has started again.. but ill contact ros today and see.

Yes, the revenue issued the cert. And it shows the correct spec. So the best they can do for you is to forward the details of your car to Shannon again.

coylemj

Del2005 wrote: »

What power has the VLC got in P.2? Having the spec right doesn't matter it's the power that counts.

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

Idk what any of that means ?

On the inside left page of the registration cert there is a field called (P.2) which shows the power of the car in kilowatts.

Does the number in your cert match the actual power of your car?

According to a 2008 catalogue, VW rated the 80 bhp at 59 kW and the 140 bhp at 103 kW.

Pixelbastardo

coylemj wrote: »

Yes, the revenue issued the cert. And it shows the correct spec. So the best they can do for you is to forward the details of your car to Shannon again.

I feel the run around coming on again from this crowd of time wasters.

coylemj wrote: »

On the inside left page of the registration cert there is a field called (P.2) which shows the power of the car in kilowatts.

Does the number in your cert match the actual power of your car?

According to a 2008 catalogue, VW rated the 80 bhp at 59 kW and the 140 bhp at 103 kW.

its 59KW on the cert.

Del2005

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

I feel the run around coming on again from this crowd of time wasters.



its 59KW on the cert.

Since it's 80bhp on the VLC get onto the insurance ombudsman. Their system is wrong and you've been over charged for years, Shannon or revenue have nothing to do with it as the vehicle is correctly registered.

coylemj

Del2005 wrote: »

Since it's 80bhp on the VLC get onto the insurance ombudsman. Their system is wrong and you've been over charged for years, Shannon or revenue have nothing to do with it as the vehicle is correctly registered.

I don't the insurance ombudsman has a role to play here.

If the OP goes to Mick's Garage to buy a pair of wiper blades and enters his reg. no., it will show the the incorrect model.

I was in the same situation as the OP, I had a 2007 Golf GT Sport 170 and the insurance companies said it was a 140. What appears to happen is that the folk in Shannon classify all Golt GTs of that vintage as 140 bhp because they're all 1,400 c.c. which means that the annual tax is the same for all of them.

So as far they were concerned, they were all the same. And they weren't bothered to create new models in their database for the 80 and 170 bhp models. When Revenue notified them of a new registration for a petrol Golf GT, it got registered in Shannon as a 140 by default because there was no other options. That's my theory. My GT 170 had 125 kW in the VLC so both the OP and I had the correct power recorded by revenue but Shannon registered both of us as a 140.

Shannon has to fix the problem, it's nothing to do with the insurance ombudsman or the insurance business generally.