I recently renewed my annual car insurance, paying £280 for comprehensive cover on a 3-year-old Skoda Octavia vRS. Some time afterwards I rang to advise of a change of car to a nearly new vRS and was quoted £712.

After a long conversation it transpired that, because the new car had factory fitted options of Xenons, parking sensors and metallic paint, it was considered to have been modified from the standard spec. Your readers might like to be aware that even normal and fairly common brochure options can cause insurance problems if not declared.