Once I owned a R. Scenic RX4. If you wanted to take extra luggage, the seats unclipped and were physically removed from the vehicle (no clever folding seats ). Several times I drove it with only two seats in the car, sometimes for days at a time.

I see now that I utterly failed to notify my Insurance company every time I took the seats out for a trip to the dump. :)

Simple rule, if there is a section in the handbook detailing how to remove seats you will be fine. In our C-max we simply had to fold seats, tilt at 45 degrees and lift. If you have to start unbolting things its clear to me they are not designed to be removed.

I rather like the idea of a 'recent electrician' - what is he now?

No longer a live wire....

I guess i could use the tip ploy abroad. lol

I'd better contact the insurers and coincide the seat removal with the policy renewal to possibly save on an admin fee.

Edited by Will Marshall on 07/08/2013 at 22:16

Finally, I get the response.

It is an unequivocal - we won't cover you if you remove the seats.

What about removing just the fold down rear pair? The vehicle was also available as a 5-seater on release!

Remove any seats and your cover is void.

Well....I am now going to transfer to different insurers for the same premium, but where I do lose out in the cover I have found so far - is 90 days instead of 180 Green card cover in a year.

So, if anyone knows of an insurer that readily accepts mods and also provides 180 days Green Card including 90 days for Turkey I'm interested.

Edited by Will Marshall on 20/08/2013 at 23:14

Thank you.

Adrian flux are fine for the modification, but limited to 90 days green card with no Turkey at all.

I've found a couple more that could be better on the Green card, don't know about the mod, I'll call them tomorrow.

Thanks. I think they only cover modern cars if you already have a classic insured with them.

At last!

Lv will cover the seat removal modification, they provide 180 days EU green Card that also includes Turkey. Yes, an actual Green 'Card' to show at the Turkish border.

Now, is there a broker that can retrospectively cover brain fatigue and the loss of the will to live caused by over-exposure to insurance company call centres?

To be fair, LV staff knew far more about their own product than most.

For anyone interested - working abroad or regularly driving abroad at length - I discovered along the way that Stuart Collins & co offer a years green card cover for EU, plus annual breakdown. cover. I don't know the premiums.

Another useful snippet is that whatever restriction a company places on their EU Green card,i.e weeks or months, the cover reverts from comprehensive to the minimum legal requirement of any member state after the allocated Green Card period is up. I have this from two unrelated sources.

Edited by Will Marshall on 30/08/2013 at 23:18

I just contacted my insurer (Privilege) to ask about removing the third row from an MPV (fold flat, non-removable) so I could fit a spare wheel for holidays. The answer was:

a) This is a modification and therefore you need to amend your policy

BUT

b) If it's only temporary (i.e. you put the seats back for normal daily use) then this is fine, and no amendment to your policy is necessary.