After Swiftcover did the usual renewal hike in the hopes I wouldn't bother to switch and would just renew, I plumped for Sainsbury's Insurance of all places. Annual premium of £318 seemed quite competitive with the the other quotes I was getting from £250 or so up to £500.
When I got the policy the car was listed as a 'BMW 328i Sport AU', fair enough they've got the model line wrong so I wrote and told them when sending my NCD letter. They replied that I needed to call them and so I just did and of course had the misfortune of dealing with someone who 'knows things I don't know'.
Anyway, the upshot of the call was that:
- To insure a 2012 BMW 328i Sport Auto is £318
- To insure a 2012 BMW 328i Luxury Auto is... £781.50 !!!!!
No amount of telling the person that it's essentially the same car just a different trim level, made any difference. They were adamant that they were right and that they must have access to information I couldn't possibly know... yeah, like it's a new-ish model and they haven't updated their underwriting tables!! Needless to say I have cancelled and am looking elsewhere.
So, if you have a Luxury or Modern then BEWARE of Sainsbury's car insurance unless you want to get stung
EDIT
Seems the problem is with the
Luxury line
saloon cars. Insurance companies just don't know about them.
...and what's also stupid is that there's no such thing as a 2012 328i Sport (the one at the bottom of the list).