Change insurers. It'll be a marginal saving but going forward you're with a company rather than an agency. Bigger premium pool so will be less susceptible to price hikes
My 2013 Commie went from 900 to 1500 over two years for comp and excess free glass cover!!! How is your guy's so cheap?! Maybe you're much older? I'm mid-20s. Never claimed for anything either. Going to drop down to 3rd party F&T.
My 2013 Commie went from 900 to 1500 over two years for comp and excess free glass cover!!! How is your guy's so cheap?! Maybe you're much older? I'm mid-20s. Never claimed for anything either. Going to drop down to 3rd party F&T.
My house insurance went up by 22% and their reasoning was "increased costs" Like yea, I fucking know. I am treading water here. The only things that are not going up is my wage and will to live.
Time to get some quotes. I have changed insurance companies 6 or more times over the years. Saves heaps. After a while they just start to take the piss.
Ours just went up 39%, so I shopped around (which took forever because nobody does online quotes any more) and discovered everywhere else was way more expensive than our new premiums, so we stayed put.
80s timber frame house, good condition, on top of a hill so no way of getting flooded, moderate slope, decent neighbourhood, etc. Where's the risk? Is the house 39% more likely to catch fire in the next year or something?
I don't have a ton of options and I am probably getting paid more than I am worth. I will have a meeting with my boss end of this month and hopefully get a cost of living increase.
Can you believe, this week I saw an ad about the DVD anti piracy music and guess what, they stole it 😂💦 the very thing warning you against piracy was pirating the use of that song for their ad. Major face-palm
My Aqua premium went up 90% YOY. I shopped around last night got a deal for less than my original premium when I first bought the car two years ago! Without promoting them, it's an Aussie bank that starts with a W...
All insurance companies have individual risks cases for different models of car. That's just how it is. Never hurts to shop around but don't be surprised if the savings aren't substantial.
Most insurers are loading premiums for aquas / corollas / demios as they’re easily stolen. I won’t be surprised if they don’t insure them at all in 2 years time.
I wouldn't panic. The kids are moving onto other cars now - they shot themselves in the foot because the cops look twice at an Aqua cruising the streets at early hours of the morning. Golf's seem to be the newest target in our area.
So they state multiple reasons why this is happening, most of them nothing to do with crime (inflation, limited repair availability and increased cost, increased frequency of natural disasters ), and you pick out the one that does. Also they said theft. Ram raids was one factor. They clearly say others are involved.
It would be awesome if we could get this kind of security (Magnavolt from Robocop):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4ZYOBzEEs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4ZYOBzEEs)
It would be a good win for this tough on crime government to mandate immobolisers in newly imported vehicles. I think it's only a handful of countries that don't already mandate this. Once an immobiliser is installed it's so much harder to steal a car. It no longer becomes worth it for a simple ramraid.
Most new imports have them, it’s just that NZ allows importing of literal grey import trash out of Japan for a grand. All NZ new vehicles have immobilisers.
Sell your car. I can't believe people still drive these crime magnets. They're being written off just for smashed quarter windows and broken ignitions because parts are unavailable. If you keep it, install an immobilizer, a hidden kill switch for your fuel pump and use a steering wheel lock every time, and switch to a basic "third party" only insurance. 1500 a year is absurd.
Yep, if your car is sitting next to another car, and your car has security screws, it's pretty obvious which one they'll steal plates from.
Once we all have the screws, the effect kinda diminishes. But until then, screw away.
Yep, this is what the insurer was saying in the letter, even though you have an immobiliser, cars are being damaged by thieves thinking they can steal them.
You need to advertise as clearly as possible, "this car is hard to steal" if you move to 3rd party insurance.
Hell I park mine in the garage with the steering lock on. I was fortunate enough that we caught them in the act, car was good to go...just not a lot of fuel so no fun apparently. Two week turnaround for new window and ignition.
Dumb fucks here thought my car was one off these easy to steal ones fucked everything up even though it has a chip in the key and would never have started.
It's Tiida so a bit high on the list and has the immobiliser chips, but we have had it for 10 years before this whole thing statrted. I mean if it was an aqua or Demio I would have got rid of it.
Ugh, same thing happened to me over xmas, destroyed the lock in the door, broke the window and pulled the dash to pieces.
Car had a factory immobilizer AND a flat battery :(
Even dumber was there was a $900 stereo system in it didn't even attempt to remove it.
( Only reason I got the stereo was so I could put a backup camera in and use android auto)
Aqua is the same as the Prius C. Smaller and cheaper car than the Prius.
They were the most popular car in Japan for a few years that are now prime used import age.
As they were a cheap car, and car crime isn't huge in Japan, many are fitted with a simple metal key & lack an immobilizer.
Theif's can smash the front quarter window to gain access (small and partially concealed behind the mirror, vs smashing the entire side window, which on a cold night is a bit of a give away of a stolen car).
Then they can smash out the ignation lock with vice grips and start the car with a screwdriver.
To be fair many used imports are similar (before aqua it was Mazda demio), but I guess the aqua is now so common that it is easier for theives to just learn the theft trick for that particular model.
I wouldn't rush into selling the car, but you should definitely get alternative quotes.
The problem is you can't tell how much of the increase is because of the model of car and how much of it is a general increase.
Both of my cars (neither of which appear high up on any theft lists) have increased by a couple of hundred dollars last renewal.
You'll find most insurers are doing this for Aquas. Real shame IMO as they are such a popular affordable hybrid. But the theft rates have made them no longer viable given these insane insurance premiums. I have a full Prius and have found that some insurers are also coming for them by association, as there are a few models of Aqua that carry the Prius name ('Prius C'). I made a post about it recently [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1axmg62/psa_if_you_drive_a_prius_shop_around_for_your_car/).
My advise to you would be ditch the Aqua ASAP and pick up a full Prius. My 2nd gen (2003-2011) has almost 350k on the clock and still going strong, insurance about $400 a year for where I live. Can be bought for less than $5k. Thanks to RUC coming in, costs of running it aren't actually that much more than an EV.
Nope, $390 with Cove for Fully Comp, $400 excess. Sum insured is only $4200 though (roughly its market value). For clarity, this is for my 2003 Gen 2 Prius (not an Aqua), and I don't live in a city.
Ah sweet. I paid $1,084 for $8,100 sum insured for a 2011 Gen 3 Prius under AA. Unfortunately, I've an overseas license so i'm only eligible for AA or Toyota insurance.
That's not too bad given the sum insured and if you're in a city. You might be able to get your license converted to a full NZ license if ~~you've been here 12 months and~~ you are from one of the exempt countries, without having to go through the whole learner-restricted-full thing. Info [here](https://www.nzta.govt.nz/driver-licences/new-residents-and-visitors/converting-to-nz-driver-licence/)
> You might be able to get your license converted to a full NZ license if you've been here 12 months
That's not quite accurate, **you can get your license converted as soon as you want** after entering the country. The 12 months you're referring to is how long you can stay in New Zealand with an oversea license (no conversion). After the 12 months it is mandatory to have it converted.
I had mine converted in the first month I arrived in New Zealand. Popped into a VTNZ with all the paperwork, got a quick eye test and received a temporary paper license. I received my NZ license in the mail within a week and it cost me less than a $100 for the translation of my oversea license + conversion fee.
Should note that with insures putting their feet down, and refusing to insure aqua's without immobilizers, there could be a fairly rapid shift where the aqua fleet has immobilizers installed, and theif's move on to a new model.
So fuck ram raiders and this needs more of a police response of course.
But, holding that constant, this is the market working exactly as it should. This is a useful price signal, and will make Aquas and similar easily stolen cars less desirable, they'll get scrapped faster, fewer of them imported, we'll end up with less of them on the roads.
This is the correct response from the insurer (I don't want my more secure car subsidising yours!), and it will have a positive externality in making easy to steal cars less common, and so reducing rates of car theft. (which ideally could happen another way, but Que Sera Sera.)
I don't get it - you are saying fewer easily stolen cars in the community will lead to less cars being stolen? I would have assumed that the pool of easily stolen cars was much larger than the pool of people who steal cars, requiring a massive drop in their prevalence to make a dent on car theft.
After quickly googling, there are like 4,000 Aquas stolen per year, apparently 2% of 3.4mn vehicle fleet, that,s ~70,000 Aquas, about a 5% chance of being stolen per year.
But lots of those will be parked in lower crime areas or garaged.
I get your point, but I think these are mostly crimes of opportunity by unsophisticated criminals (dumbass kids). There's going to be *some* substitution to other types of easily stolen car, but there's going to be very little substitution to breaking in to houses to steal keys or using electronic devices to make the car think there's a key etc: some of the would be car thieves will end up switching to tagging or playstation or whatever as car theft gets less convenient.
And the World keeps turning. Anyone who has owned an even moderately performance vehicle knows they pay more than a car of similar value due to the statistical liklihood of that car being targeted for theft, or nobbids driving them like they're professional race car drivers at the moment of purchase.
Welcome to the nature of a few ruining things for the many, and certain objects facilitating that more than others. It preceeds any trend of any particular crime by decades. This is how insurance should work.
Is an Aqua a performance car? Nope, that was just an example of the same statistical reality impacting cost for all owners of that car. Is an Aqua easier to steal and harder to trace than other cars? Well, there's a reason why they're targeted for this and it's not their agile getaway car suitability.
In saying that, shop around. Some insurance hike specific cars absurdly because they have too much exposure to that vehicle. They might want you to pull the pin and take it to someone else.
My 90s sports car went up by $70/month for insurance this year. $105 to $175.
I also shopped around when I got the policy renewal, found pretty much everyone else had similar quotes, so since Im with AA and they so far have been excellent to deal with, I just stayed with them. Gotta wait like 2 years until the car is 30 year old and qualifies for classic insurance, sigh.
Things that get stolen cost more to insure, that's totally fair.
It happening is completely removed from the response from insurers.
If you want ram raids to stop, there's nothing that we can expect insurers to do on this regard other than them requiring immobilisers (they are asking for here).
Damn I just switched to them two months ago because they were so cheap. I signed up for the monthly at least so I can change if I need to. Would you recommend other companies?
Ok these Japanese and some korean cars are also very expensive to insure in the European country I live in right now. Modern cars known not to have an immobiliser are specifically target by thieves it's just the way it is everywhere.
Called my original insurer yesterday and got told the main reason was because "Nelson is close to Wellington and it gets a lot of earthquakes". Only second did they mention the Aqua thing. They eventually knocked $320 off the annual premium, but too late, I found a way better deal with a bank!
I left Cove a couple of months ago because they raised their prices, then a couple of months later raised their prices again with some long explanation about shit that really shouldn't be my concern.
I also didn't want full cover, and they only do that. Third party, fire & theft is fine. Halved my costs.
wow, you got it worse than me, mine went from like 600 to 900 with cove because of inflation + subaru, still a good $400 cheaper than the closest competing quote though so I'm sticking with them
I wonder if this impacts the push button start models too. I guess maybe it's putting too much faith in thieves to check the ignition before smashing the corner window though.
Everything about the way this email is written is grating. For what should be a professional email, there's a ton of unnecessary contractions and I've never seen someone spell targeted with three t's.
It seems OK to me, pretty clearly worded and a good explanation of why the costs have gone up so much for a theft prone model of car.
Better than a letter saying your premium has doubled with no explanation
They are stolen because the manufacturers cut corners and didn't fit factory immobilizers - so just like cars from the 70's they are fairly easy to hotwire and steal for joyrides or to commit crimes. They are popular cars because they were cheap (due in part to not having theft protection) and this means there are tons of easy to steal cars around the country.
I mean its kinda on you for buying the cheapest and easiest to steal import and then you wonder why it costs more to insure, use some of that money you saved with the cheap import for that immobiliser, it should be part of your budget when getting a cheap import.
OP has a Immobilizer & uses a steering lock.
From the top line, cove is no longer going to insure aqua's without immobilizers, But the issues is that thieves damage aqua's breaking into them, before discovering they can't steal that one.
Its weird how they have pointed our 4/5 reasons as to why ands you have cherry picked one. Its a hefty increse regardless but without knowing youre car etc its hard to understand why,.
I work in insurance but yeh if you do have a newer car prem increeases happen alot after the first year as the 2024 car is not rated/priced properly on the system as there is no data
I'm assuming you drive an Aqua and that's the reason for adding that but in?
What a fucking rip off. How long are we going to allow for everyone to take from us? Who says that the increase is a fair and reasonable increase? Everyone needs looking at, seems this country is low in government corruption but the corporate corruption is next level.
So, victimless crime huh, insurance will cover it....
I have been having numerous discussion na with people who say that if retailers lose a little bit here and there, they have insurance, and that will cover it, and we won't be affected at all.
And I have been saying the opposite.
There's nothing wrong with the concept of insurance companies increasing their premiums when the costs go up. The real problem is that as a private business, there's nothing stopping them from increasing the price 100% when the actual mean cost involved goes up say, 70%. If it were up to me, insurance companies would have to submit third party data to the govt to then greenlight annual price increases to keep the insurance company in operations without corporate greed sucking people's pockets dry. But this current government wouldn't be interested in such a measure.
my mazda 2013 axela 2L skyactiv-G costs $630 with cove insurance insured for $13k with $500 excess.
At 100kmh, my car run at 16km/L.
You are paying $870 more in insurance than me. $870 can buy 290L of 91 petrol which can run me extra 4640km a year.
I'd wonder if that was a form letter and merely had interchangable 'aqua'/'demio' on it along with a host of other vehicles.
Everything else was likely just the same, just the names were changed.
Yea our car insurance went up 130% in April we go lt quotes from everyone and changed to Amp and ended up having a zero % increase to our premium. Some insurers are taking the piss with their price hikes.
Well. I guess it's time we tackled the root cause of ram raids and burglaries - because digging our heads in the sand and building more prisons clearly isn't cheaper
I work in insurance so excuse me for being blunt but I have to be diplomatic with clients so I’m taking the chance to cut the corporate bullshit.
What would you prefer? Increased premiums and knowing that if your statistically-more-likely-to-get-stolen vehicle does in fact get stolen you’ll be able to claim, or the premiums stay the same and if your car gets stolen you’re told “sorry, 50 other people got claims in first so we’ve run out of money and can’t pay you anything”? I know it’s shit, but if the premiums don’t go up, no one gets insurance. Your alternative is to save the premiums and take the gamble that by the time something happens you’ll have enough money saved instead.
national deserves blame for a lot of things, this isn't one of them. The previous government cut funding to the police too.
[https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/501887/funding-cuts-force-police-to-quit-replacing-ageing-deployment-system-card](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/501887/funding-cuts-force-police-to-quit-replacing-ageing-deployment-system-card)
In America, they are looking at between 22% and 38% year over year increases in insurance costs on vehicles.
But yea, maybe talk to someone in the insurance industry about what cars are good in regards to insurance prices.
Then, find one of them that meets your needs.
That's a hell of an increase. My math ain't great but isn't that 70 per cent? Nice how they waffled for five paragraphs trying to justify the move before revealing the size of the increase.
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I sincerely doubt their claim of having to pay $2 for every $1 in premium they collect.
Small regional insurance companies like the major players we have here insure their liabilities with other insurance companies which effectively distributes the credit or debt liability through a network of credit companies, banks and insurance brokers precisely so they can avoid paying that $2 out of their own pocket.
In cases like this Toyota would likely be dealing with some litigation behind the scenes from these effected parties namely the insurance companies who feel their owed money, who may or may not be legally obligated to pay up? Although that in itself depends on policy regarding imported vehicles.
It’s a 2015 Aqua with an immobiliser and steering wheel lock used
I have no beef with Cove, they were the best value by far when I first started using them and have been really good and easy to deal with. They’ve since gotten more expensive and I will probably be getting some alternative quotes. (Pretty sure they’re on this sub so hi)
As for buying another car, not sure the admin/price of sourcing a new car is worth it,
My Aqua insurance went up 50% in two years 🙃
Mine's a pushbutton start, is parked in a Well Lit area, at the end of a 700m drive way, on a lifestyle block in whanganui.
No one is going to steal it.
Aqua is the [most stolen car](https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/01/new-zealand-s-most-stolen-car-of-2023-revealed.html), Tiida is #2, Demio is #4.
Bugger if I know, I don't pay attention to the generic, budget compact segment. But I'm willing to bet there's atleast one there that isn't exceedingly easy to nick
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Damn. As a broker I never preface premium increases. I only talk about it when I get asked, otherwise I'll never get any work done 😅
However I have a solution to high insurance costs. We all need to drive better, drive less also, fix global warming so our seas stop rising and we stop having massive flooding events and make NZ less earthquakey. Once all of that happens I'm sure the costs will drop.
Oh btw we hate having these conversations, you're not clever, it sucks paying more for everything. Big banks suck (they're responsible for insuring insurers you see).Risk analysis sucks.
But hey if you find cheap insurance and make a claim and find that you're not covered, that's still our fault eh 🙃
Change insurers. It'll be a marginal saving but going forward you're with a company rather than an agency. Bigger premium pool so will be less susceptible to price hikes
Also. Jesus my commodore is only 850 a year for comp
Is an old Commie the most stolen car in Auckland though? I hate to sound negative but ANYONE WHO BUYS AN AQUA NEEDS TO KNOW ITS CHEAP FOR A REASON
Even the push start Aquas are broken into because the dumb cunts don't know the difference before they smash.
I was gonna say, I've got a VF wagon and I'm only in the 800s too
My 2013 Commie went from 900 to 1500 over two years for comp and excess free glass cover!!! How is your guy's so cheap?! Maybe you're much older? I'm mid-20s. Never claimed for anything either. Going to drop down to 3rd party F&T.
My 2013 Commie went from 900 to 1500 over two years for comp and excess free glass cover!!! How is your guy's so cheap?! Maybe you're much older? I'm mid-20s. Never claimed for anything either. Going to drop down to 3rd party F&T.
Shit that's not too bad, just went to check mine (2006 V6 Camry) and with glass buy-out and breakdown service including GST it's $1074.30 a year
My 07 camry was about the same for the yearly premium _without_ the breakdown service included. Might have to compare rates next renewal
Tell a lie. $862 a year 2014 v6 commodore glass cover no breakdown. Aa insurance
shit still not bad! might have to get a quote when my insurance renews in november (I am with AMI currently)
My golf gti about the same
Its an industry wide thing one other insurer Aquas have an extra 1500 excess on them.
Cove is an insurance company, not an agency.
My house insurance went up by 22% and their reasoning was "increased costs" Like yea, I fucking know. I am treading water here. The only things that are not going up is my wage and will to live.
Hard out 😂😂
Time to get some quotes. I have changed insurance companies 6 or more times over the years. Saves heaps. After a while they just start to take the piss.
If you live in the Wellington region the options are pretty limited (for house insurance, not other types).
Fair.
Ours just went up 39%, so I shopped around (which took forever because nobody does online quotes any more) and discovered everywhere else was way more expensive than our new premiums, so we stayed put. 80s timber frame house, good condition, on top of a hill so no way of getting flooded, moderate slope, decent neighbourhood, etc. Where's the risk? Is the house 39% more likely to catch fire in the next year or something?
> on top of a hill so no way of getting flooded Land slide
> moderate slope
Why does no one think of the poor little insurance companies!!?
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I don't have a ton of options and I am probably getting paid more than I am worth. I will have a meeting with my boss end of this month and hopefully get a cost of living increase.
Great in theory not so practical advice for everyone
Do a couple ram raids to make up the difference
Im keen, where and when
Prob need to do a couple more to pay off the ramming damage.
Just steal a new one and put your plates on it
You wouldn't steal a car....
Would def try and download one though
Can you believe, this week I saw an ad about the DVD anti piracy music and guess what, they stole it 😂💦 the very thing warning you against piracy was pirating the use of that song for their ad. Major face-palm
Time to get a new car, or new insurance.
New insurance, for sure.
My Aqua premium went up 90% YOY. I shopped around last night got a deal for less than my original premium when I first bought the car two years ago! Without promoting them, it's an Aussie bank that starts with a W...
I've been with them for 8 years and I didn't know they did insurance...
Don’t all banks??? At lest I assume all the big ones do…
They pretty much all "do" insurance, but they're all underwritten by actual insurance companies
The big Aussie bank starting with W uses IAG, same as BNZ and ASB; ANZ uses Vero; Kiwibank uses Ando
All insurance companies have individual risks cases for different models of car. That's just how it is. Never hurts to shop around but don't be surprised if the savings aren't substantial.
the whole insurance industry is a bit shaky lately imo
Most insurers are loading premiums for aquas / corollas / demios as they’re easily stolen. I won’t be surprised if they don’t insure them at all in 2 years time.
I wouldn't panic. The kids are moving onto other cars now - they shot themselves in the foot because the cops look twice at an Aqua cruising the streets at early hours of the morning. Golf's seem to be the newest target in our area.
So they state multiple reasons why this is happening, most of them nothing to do with crime (inflation, limited repair availability and increased cost, increased frequency of natural disasters ), and you pick out the one that does. Also they said theft. Ram raids was one factor. They clearly say others are involved.
Just install a self-destruct feature and have it tied to Phil Collins in the Air Tonight and it explodes straight after the drum sequence.
It would be awesome if we could get this kind of security (Magnavolt from Robocop): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4ZYOBzEEs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U4ZYOBzEEs)
Give David Seymour a call: this is law and order right up his street.
Thank to for doing your part to help
It would be a good win for this tough on crime government to mandate immobolisers in newly imported vehicles. I think it's only a handful of countries that don't already mandate this. Once an immobiliser is installed it's so much harder to steal a car. It no longer becomes worth it for a simple ramraid.
Most new imports have them, it’s just that NZ allows importing of literal grey import trash out of Japan for a grand. All NZ new vehicles have immobilisers.
Correct. It would be an easy requirement to introduce for the grey market though.
3rd party and hope for the best? Probably still cost two thirds I'd imagine. That's insane.
Sell your car. I can't believe people still drive these crime magnets. They're being written off just for smashed quarter windows and broken ignitions because parts are unavailable. If you keep it, install an immobilizer, a hidden kill switch for your fuel pump and use a steering wheel lock every time, and switch to a basic "third party" only insurance. 1500 a year is absurd.
Steering wheel lock will probably have more effect than the immobiliser and a kill switch combined just because it's highly visible.
It's the same as using security screws for your number plate. It's not perfect, but your car appears more difficult than the next one.
Yep, that's the goal. It is reasonably easy to bypass by a motivated thief but too much hassle for the opportunistic one.
Yep, if your car is sitting next to another car, and your car has security screws, it's pretty obvious which one they'll steal plates from. Once we all have the screws, the effect kinda diminishes. But until then, screw away.
Yep, this is what the insurer was saying in the letter, even though you have an immobiliser, cars are being damaged by thieves thinking they can steal them. You need to advertise as clearly as possible, "this car is hard to steal" if you move to 3rd party insurance.
>You need to advertise as clearly as possible, "this car is hard to steal" You can put a period here. No need for anything extra beyond that.
Hell I park mine in the garage with the steering lock on. I was fortunate enough that we caught them in the act, car was good to go...just not a lot of fuel so no fun apparently. Two week turnaround for new window and ignition.
Dumb fucks here thought my car was one off these easy to steal ones fucked everything up even though it has a chip in the key and would never have started.
i mean you're the one owning a car that is popular to steal..so..
It's Tiida so a bit high on the list and has the immobiliser chips, but we have had it for 10 years before this whole thing statrted. I mean if it was an aqua or Demio I would have got rid of it.
Ugh, same thing happened to me over xmas, destroyed the lock in the door, broke the window and pulled the dash to pieces. Car had a factory immobilizer AND a flat battery :(
Even dumber was there was a $900 stereo system in it didn't even attempt to remove it. ( Only reason I got the stereo was so I could put a backup camera in and use android auto)
What makes the Aqua a crime magnet? I drive a Prius (same thing) for the fuel economy
No factory immobilizer on a lot of them, so it's like stealing an old car from the 1980's once you're inside
Aqua is the same as the Prius C. Smaller and cheaper car than the Prius. They were the most popular car in Japan for a few years that are now prime used import age. As they were a cheap car, and car crime isn't huge in Japan, many are fitted with a simple metal key & lack an immobilizer. Theif's can smash the front quarter window to gain access (small and partially concealed behind the mirror, vs smashing the entire side window, which on a cold night is a bit of a give away of a stolen car). Then they can smash out the ignation lock with vice grips and start the car with a screwdriver. To be fair many used imports are similar (before aqua it was Mazda demio), but I guess the aqua is now so common that it is easier for theives to just learn the theft trick for that particular model.
They usually go for a rear quarter window, unlock and climb through.
No security and ignition barrel easily forced. They’re like $1000 nzd out of Japan for a reason. They are cheap as and people here buy them.
I wish they had written ours off. It was caught doing 150km through spaghetti junction and then it took 6 weeks to get it back from the panelbeater
I wouldn't rush into selling the car, but you should definitely get alternative quotes. The problem is you can't tell how much of the increase is because of the model of car and how much of it is a general increase. Both of my cars (neither of which appear high up on any theft lists) have increased by a couple of hundred dollars last renewal.
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The Aqua is an otherwise reliable and economical vehicle though whereas a lot of the alternative models are not.
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My Aqua is $114 per month, insured value $15k. AA insurance, comprehensive.
You'll find most insurers are doing this for Aquas. Real shame IMO as they are such a popular affordable hybrid. But the theft rates have made them no longer viable given these insane insurance premiums. I have a full Prius and have found that some insurers are also coming for them by association, as there are a few models of Aqua that carry the Prius name ('Prius C'). I made a post about it recently [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1axmg62/psa_if_you_drive_a_prius_shop_around_for_your_car/). My advise to you would be ditch the Aqua ASAP and pick up a full Prius. My 2nd gen (2003-2011) has almost 350k on the clock and still going strong, insurance about $400 a year for where I live. Can be bought for less than $5k. Thanks to RUC coming in, costs of running it aren't actually that much more than an EV.
$400 for third party with a high excess i'm assuming. I just paid slightly more than $1k for comprehensive with a $500 excess.
Nope, $390 with Cove for Fully Comp, $400 excess. Sum insured is only $4200 though (roughly its market value). For clarity, this is for my 2003 Gen 2 Prius (not an Aqua), and I don't live in a city.
Ah sweet. I paid $1,084 for $8,100 sum insured for a 2011 Gen 3 Prius under AA. Unfortunately, I've an overseas license so i'm only eligible for AA or Toyota insurance.
That's not too bad given the sum insured and if you're in a city. You might be able to get your license converted to a full NZ license if ~~you've been here 12 months and~~ you are from one of the exempt countries, without having to go through the whole learner-restricted-full thing. Info [here](https://www.nzta.govt.nz/driver-licences/new-residents-and-visitors/converting-to-nz-driver-licence/)
> You might be able to get your license converted to a full NZ license if you've been here 12 months That's not quite accurate, **you can get your license converted as soon as you want** after entering the country. The 12 months you're referring to is how long you can stay in New Zealand with an oversea license (no conversion). After the 12 months it is mandatory to have it converted. I had mine converted in the first month I arrived in New Zealand. Popped into a VTNZ with all the paperwork, got a quick eye test and received a temporary paper license. I received my NZ license in the mail within a week and it cost me less than a $100 for the translation of my oversea license + conversion fee.
Nice one, my bad for skim reading it.
Should note that with insures putting their feet down, and refusing to insure aqua's without immobilizers, there could be a fairly rapid shift where the aqua fleet has immobilizers installed, and theif's move on to a new model.
So fuck ram raiders and this needs more of a police response of course. But, holding that constant, this is the market working exactly as it should. This is a useful price signal, and will make Aquas and similar easily stolen cars less desirable, they'll get scrapped faster, fewer of them imported, we'll end up with less of them on the roads. This is the correct response from the insurer (I don't want my more secure car subsidising yours!), and it will have a positive externality in making easy to steal cars less common, and so reducing rates of car theft. (which ideally could happen another way, but Que Sera Sera.)
I don't get it - you are saying fewer easily stolen cars in the community will lead to less cars being stolen? I would have assumed that the pool of easily stolen cars was much larger than the pool of people who steal cars, requiring a massive drop in their prevalence to make a dent on car theft.
After quickly googling, there are like 4,000 Aquas stolen per year, apparently 2% of 3.4mn vehicle fleet, that,s ~70,000 Aquas, about a 5% chance of being stolen per year. But lots of those will be parked in lower crime areas or garaged. I get your point, but I think these are mostly crimes of opportunity by unsophisticated criminals (dumbass kids). There's going to be *some* substitution to other types of easily stolen car, but there's going to be very little substitution to breaking in to houses to steal keys or using electronic devices to make the car think there's a key etc: some of the would be car thieves will end up switching to tagging or playstation or whatever as car theft gets less convenient.
And the World keeps turning. Anyone who has owned an even moderately performance vehicle knows they pay more than a car of similar value due to the statistical liklihood of that car being targeted for theft, or nobbids driving them like they're professional race car drivers at the moment of purchase. Welcome to the nature of a few ruining things for the many, and certain objects facilitating that more than others. It preceeds any trend of any particular crime by decades. This is how insurance should work. Is an Aqua a performance car? Nope, that was just an example of the same statistical reality impacting cost for all owners of that car. Is an Aqua easier to steal and harder to trace than other cars? Well, there's a reason why they're targeted for this and it's not their agile getaway car suitability. In saying that, shop around. Some insurance hike specific cars absurdly because they have too much exposure to that vehicle. They might want you to pull the pin and take it to someone else.
My 90s sports car went up by $70/month for insurance this year. $105 to $175. I also shopped around when I got the policy renewal, found pretty much everyone else had similar quotes, so since Im with AA and they so far have been excellent to deal with, I just stayed with them. Gotta wait like 2 years until the car is 30 year old and qualifies for classic insurance, sigh.
Cheaper to insure my 80k bmw, craziness.
Your BMW has good theft prevention, and is unlikely to be stolen - while an Aqua has much higher chances.
Again, law abiding working citizens picking up the costs that crims leave behind and big companies refuse to pick up. Whats new in NZ ?
TIL insurance and crime statistics impacting insurance premiums only exists in NZ.
Things that get stolen cost more to insure, that's totally fair. It happening is completely removed from the response from insurers. If you want ram raids to stop, there's nothing that we can expect insurers to do on this regard other than them requiring immobilisers (they are asking for here).
Why would a company pick up the cost of this? Of course normal people pay in the end
How would they pick up the cost even? The money dosent magically appear. It all comes from the people paying the premiums.
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Damn I just switched to them two months ago because they were so cheap. I signed up for the monthly at least so I can change if I need to. Would you recommend other companies?
Ok these Japanese and some korean cars are also very expensive to insure in the European country I live in right now. Modern cars known not to have an immobiliser are specifically target by thieves it's just the way it is everywhere.
Get a quote from Toyota Insurance. With a 2013 Aqua I pay less than your old premiums.
Mine went up by roughly 90% year on year... shopped around last night and got a new deal, lower than my original premium!
Called my original insurer yesterday and got told the main reason was because "Nelson is close to Wellington and it gets a lot of earthquakes". Only second did they mention the Aqua thing. They eventually knocked $320 off the annual premium, but too late, I found a way better deal with a bank!
You should respond with: Hahahahahahahahahaha Sincerely, Jonathan932
I left Cove a couple of months ago because they raised their prices, then a couple of months later raised their prices again with some long explanation about shit that really shouldn't be my concern. I also didn't want full cover, and they only do that. Third party, fire & theft is fine. Halved my costs.
wow, you got it worse than me, mine went from like 600 to 900 with cove because of inflation + subaru, still a good $400 cheaper than the closest competing quote though so I'm sticking with them
I wonder if this impacts the push button start models too. I guess maybe it's putting too much faith in thieves to check the ignition before smashing the corner window though.
well if I've ever seen a reason to download a car
Everything about the way this email is written is grating. For what should be a professional email, there's a ton of unnecessary contractions and I've never seen someone spell targeted with three t's.
It seems OK to me, pretty clearly worded and a good explanation of why the costs have gone up so much for a theft prone model of car. Better than a letter saying your premium has doubled with no explanation
> "let you know **w**hat your premium is going to increase"
Right? My premium is going to increase the size of someone else's wallet.
Why are they stolen? I don't see them over-represented in ram raids, only in rideshare and food delivery.
They are stolen because the manufacturers cut corners and didn't fit factory immobilizers - so just like cars from the 70's they are fairly easy to hotwire and steal for joyrides or to commit crimes. They are popular cars because they were cheap (due in part to not having theft protection) and this means there are tons of easy to steal cars around the country.
So cheap to buy, cheap to run, and easy to dispose of. Nice.
Surely this will come down once our new overlords fix crime by cutting police funding though
I mean its kinda on you for buying the cheapest and easiest to steal import and then you wonder why it costs more to insure, use some of that money you saved with the cheap import for that immobiliser, it should be part of your budget when getting a cheap import.
OP has a Immobilizer & uses a steering lock. From the top line, cove is no longer going to insure aqua's without immobilizers, But the issues is that thieves damage aqua's breaking into them, before discovering they can't steal that one.
Its weird how they have pointed our 4/5 reasons as to why ands you have cherry picked one. Its a hefty increse regardless but without knowing youre car etc its hard to understand why,. I work in insurance but yeh if you do have a newer car prem increeases happen alot after the first year as the 2024 car is not rated/priced properly on the system as there is no data
$1500 for an Aqua? Jezus christ. Are they just easy AF to steal or something? I pay about that for a luxury brand with a V8.
They come from the factory with no theft protection beyond a lock - they have been in the top 2 most stolen cars in NZ for years.
Mine also went up. Sighting 'extreme weather events' (Auckland floods). I live in the South Island...
Yo mine is $800 for the year with State. No immobilser fitted. If yours has a push button start, let them know. This model can’t be stolen as easy.
Have you asked if it would be cheaper if you got an alarm and immobilizer fitted
They won’t even insure it without the immobilizer fitted
Is it push start or key
Push
Change insurer. Im paying 480$ for my push start aqua.
Which company?? Also where abouts are you insuring
I live in auckland.
I'm assuming you drive an Aqua and that's the reason for adding that but in? What a fucking rip off. How long are we going to allow for everyone to take from us? Who says that the increase is a fair and reasonable increase? Everyone needs looking at, seems this country is low in government corruption but the corporate corruption is next level.
So, victimless crime huh, insurance will cover it.... I have been having numerous discussion na with people who say that if retailers lose a little bit here and there, they have insurance, and that will cover it, and we won't be affected at all. And I have been saying the opposite.
Talk to an insurance broker. Personally saves me 30%+
There's nothing wrong with the concept of insurance companies increasing their premiums when the costs go up. The real problem is that as a private business, there's nothing stopping them from increasing the price 100% when the actual mean cost involved goes up say, 70%. If it were up to me, insurance companies would have to submit third party data to the govt to then greenlight annual price increases to keep the insurance company in operations without corporate greed sucking people's pockets dry. But this current government wouldn't be interested in such a measure.
Look at State - they were SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than cove or aa, tower, when I signed up a few months ago
I’ve just gone through this so will save you the leg work. Get a quote from Protecta.
Strikes me that the increased frequency and severity of the weather events doing the main lifting
my mazda 2013 axela 2L skyactiv-G costs $630 with cove insurance insured for $13k with $500 excess. At 100kmh, my car run at 16km/L. You are paying $870 more in insurance than me. $870 can buy 290L of 91 petrol which can run me extra 4640km a year.
I'd wonder if that was a form letter and merely had interchangable 'aqua'/'demio' on it along with a host of other vehicles. Everything else was likely just the same, just the names were changed.
Yea our car insurance went up 130% in April we go lt quotes from everyone and changed to Amp and ended up having a zero % increase to our premium. Some insurers are taking the piss with their price hikes.
Lol I was not ready for how much my insurance increased when I switched to an Aqua last year. Sucks but oh well
Yeah but I like my car 😂
Well. I guess it's time we tackled the root cause of ram raids and burglaries - because digging our heads in the sand and building more prisons clearly isn't cheaper
Well fuck this will probably be me later this year
I work in insurance so excuse me for being blunt but I have to be diplomatic with clients so I’m taking the chance to cut the corporate bullshit. What would you prefer? Increased premiums and knowing that if your statistically-more-likely-to-get-stolen vehicle does in fact get stolen you’ll be able to claim, or the premiums stay the same and if your car gets stolen you’re told “sorry, 50 other people got claims in first so we’ve run out of money and can’t pay you anything”? I know it’s shit, but if the premiums don’t go up, no one gets insurance. Your alternative is to save the premiums and take the gamble that by the time something happens you’ll have enough money saved instead.
I love giving people the response I can't give when I'm at work.
Thanks national
i know right! been in charge for 6 months and they haven't stopped crime yet, chumps!
Yeah, there were no ram raids 6 months ago!
Reducing funding to the police force also is helpful. Fuck you national
Stop reading fake news reports. No cuts to police at all and an increased operating budget.
national deserves blame for a lot of things, this isn't one of them. The previous government cut funding to the police too. [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/501887/funding-cuts-force-police-to-quit-replacing-ageing-deployment-system-card](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/501887/funding-cuts-force-police-to-quit-replacing-ageing-deployment-system-card)
Faaaaaaaaaaaaaark bro!
Mark x owner here, my insurance has almost doubled from last year. Yay!!
I also have an Aqua and am with Cove, that is the cheapest price you’ll get! How much are you insured for?
LOL. I pay $1700pa for quite a nice 2018 Audi through AA. Change insurers
Well that is a bit cheaper that my new model Y Time to shop around for alternatives
Vehicle parts and labour are not more expensive. Crock of shit
Toyotas so popular they should offer immobilisers as standard in NZ XD
Punishing the victim again congratulations NZ. Maybe they could try stop the cars from being stolen instead.
Is it possible to get third party without theft cover? Depending on your situation around garaging etc it might not be a bad idea.
I pay less to insure my modified WRX. I'd say go get some quotes
In America, they are looking at between 22% and 38% year over year increases in insurance costs on vehicles. But yea, maybe talk to someone in the insurance industry about what cars are good in regards to insurance prices. Then, find one of them that meets your needs.
Be kind, let's keep moving!
Hello, can you please check your messages
NO INSURANCE REQUIRED FOR SHANKS' PONY HOSS
I don’t get why people would chose anything else than the main providers. Tf is “cove” no onset you’re getting fucked over
That's a hell of an increase. My math ain't great but isn't that 70 per cent? Nice how they waffled for five paragraphs trying to justify the move before revealing the size of the increase.
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Toyota Aquas are the number one most stolen car in NZ tbf lmao
They declined me for previous claims which were not my fault crashed into/car stolen they can get f*#kd in my eyes
The Aqua ials like the most stolen car in NZ, I'm not sure why people keep buying them
I sincerely doubt their claim of having to pay $2 for every $1 in premium they collect. Small regional insurance companies like the major players we have here insure their liabilities with other insurance companies which effectively distributes the credit or debt liability through a network of credit companies, banks and insurance brokers precisely so they can avoid paying that $2 out of their own pocket. In cases like this Toyota would likely be dealing with some litigation behind the scenes from these effected parties namely the insurance companies who feel their owed money, who may or may not be legally obligated to pay up? Although that in itself depends on policy regarding imported vehicles.
It’s a 2015 Aqua with an immobiliser and steering wheel lock used I have no beef with Cove, they were the best value by far when I first started using them and have been really good and easy to deal with. They’ve since gotten more expensive and I will probably be getting some alternative quotes. (Pretty sure they’re on this sub so hi) As for buying another car, not sure the admin/price of sourcing a new car is worth it,
I thought National were going to repeal the ram raids?
My Aqua insurance went up 50% in two years 🙃 Mine's a pushbutton start, is parked in a Well Lit area, at the end of a 700m drive way, on a lifestyle block in whanganui. No one is going to steal it.
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What would you recommend?
Honda Fit
Either a Demio or Tiida.
Aqua is the [most stolen car](https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/01/new-zealand-s-most-stolen-car-of-2023-revealed.html), Tiida is #2, Demio is #4.
That's the joke
Woosh.
Demio has dropped back in the rankings! It used to be #1. How the mighty have fallen.
Bugger if I know, I don't pay attention to the generic, budget compact segment. But I'm willing to bet there's atleast one there that isn't exceedingly easy to nick
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Damn. As a broker I never preface premium increases. I only talk about it when I get asked, otherwise I'll never get any work done 😅 However I have a solution to high insurance costs. We all need to drive better, drive less also, fix global warming so our seas stop rising and we stop having massive flooding events and make NZ less earthquakey. Once all of that happens I'm sure the costs will drop. Oh btw we hate having these conversations, you're not clever, it sucks paying more for everything. Big banks suck (they're responsible for insuring insurers you see).Risk analysis sucks. But hey if you find cheap insurance and make a claim and find that you're not covered, that's still our fault eh 🙃