I recently renewed the insurance on my 4200CC. I had switched to Churchill last year via an internet search of all the usual suspects. (Haven't Compare The Market become more expensive of late? It must be all those cuddly meercats and cinema tickets). Anyway, Churchill's renewal for this year was very close to last year's price. Before Churchill I was with Saga who this time had quoted about £75 more than Churcuill but on line I found them to be only about £27 more than Churchill and that included some extras that would have cost more to add to Churchull cover, so I went with the Saga on line quote. When the quote was confirmed I saw it was for a Spider! So I phoned them and they were adamant that my registration number was on a Spider! I said "do you want me to send you a copy of my registration document?" He said "no but I will switch it to a Coupe". Then he said "That comes out about £45 more because of the additional risk" I said why? and he said "Because a coupe is more easily vandalised than a spider"! I said "Surely it is a lot easier to shove a knife into a spider soft top than it is to shove it into any part of a coupe's metal bodywork?" He wasn't convinced but said "Oh well, I will keep the premium as it is this time and just change the vehicle to Coupe". So I am insured for 12 months. I then had another look on the various on line sites and sure enough, several of them had my car as a Spider. How can this be as surely they get their info from DVLA?
This reminds me of about 8 years ago when I had an Alfa 166 3 litre Sportronic Lusso and when my renewal came through I realised it had been insured as a 2.5 litre. I phoned the insurer and was told that they had my registration as a 2.5l and my model description (3 litre Sportronic Lusso) did not exist. It was sorted somehow, I can't remember how, maybe I switched to another insurer. But the question remains - how do they get these details wrong and how do you convince them they are wrong?