Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it?

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Mon 18 Jul 2016 08:08
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - Jazz EXL

Hello everyone, I'm a friendly person in north London who has recently bought a Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012). I hope to get to know some of you in the coming weeks and months.

Main questions:

Scratch and Dent Car Insurance (Cosmetic / Minor Damage / SMART Repair Insurance) - is it worth it?
What are your experiences with claims?
Any recommended insurers?
Do you have to inform your main insurer of a claim?

I've recently bought a used Honda Jazz (2012) from a franchise main dealer. I live on a road - narrow but not super-narrow! - in north London where cars and vans sometimes hit my car and those of my neighbours, causing scrapes, scratches and minor dents.

- I'm considering buying Scratch and Dent Car Insurance (Cosmetic / Minor Damage / SMART Repair Insurance) and would love to know if you've bought similar cover? Is it worth it? If you had to make a claim, was it problem-free?

- Did you have to inform your main car insurer of such a claim? (I thought the whole point of Scratch and Dent Insurance is to avoid making a claim on your main car insurance policy and affect your no claims, premiums etc.)

- Can anyone kindly recommend a good Scratch and Dent Car Insurance company?

(Btw I've also considered GAP insurance but don't feel I need it; i.e. if the car is a write off, the insurance that covers the gap between what your insurance company would pay (market value of car at the time) and the invoice value of the car.)

Any and all advice and help is greatly appreciated - thanks so much in advance! :)

Edited by Jazz EXL on 18/07/2016 at 08:14

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Mon 18 Jul 2016 08:44
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - oldroverboy.

I was offered this with my most recent nearly new car.

The amount of claims/per claim you can make will be limited and personally I decided not worth it.

If you do, don'y buy it from the dealer, but otherwise save the money, and mr dent (or others) are pretty quick and good.

If you happen to be walking past a dealers you might see one of these people doing a job on the forecourt. get a card from them. I paid £70 to get quite a dent out of my wheelarch (paint unbroken) couldn't tell the difference afterwards!

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Mon 18 Jul 2016 09:05
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - Jazz EXL

oldroverboy - thanks so much for your great advice.

If I go ahead and buy Scratch and Dent insurance, I agree that I shouldn't buy it from the dealer. In fact the Honda dealer from where I bought the car was honest enough to tell me this as well!

Excellent idea about possibly approaching someone doing a repair job on a dealer forecourt - thank you. I must say that £70 seems amazingly cheap! Around here they seem to charge that just to say "hello".

If I do get Scratch and Dent insurance, I think one of my main dilemmas will be if I should get a repair job done (if covered) or whether I should wait for more scrapes/scratches/dents to appear and get them done at the same time?!

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Mon 18 Jul 2016 16:56
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - brum
Scratches and dents are what gives a car "character".

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Tue 19 Jul 2016 00:17
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - Avant
".... or whether I should wait for more scrapes/scratches/dents to appear and get them done at the same time."

Welcome to the forum.

That makes good sense if you live on a road where you think this could happen repeatedly. If you don't mind the chips / dents you could wait till you're thinking of selling the car, although you should be careful to take steps to prevent rust.

I had four minor scrapes that needed dealing with when I was about to trade in my last car: the local Chips Away man came and did an excellent job on all of them in a day, which must have been cheaper than having them done one at a time.
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Sat 6 Aug 2016 07:36
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - Jazz EXL

I wish to sincerely apologise for the delay in replying, as I've had a difficult few weeks and haven't checked this forum. Being disorganised as heck doesn't help either.

brum - you'd love living on my road then :) But in a funny way, you've made me feel a bit better about scratches and dents. Avant - thanks for your welcome - I hope to be more actively involved in the forum in future. Thanks also for your kind input and relaying your experiences. Chips Away seem great. I think I'm probably leaning away from buying Scratch and Dent insurance now and may decide to tackle repairs as and when they happen. Partly because I'm not sure if all such dents would be covered and partly because I'm not sure if I have to inform my main car insurer of such claims. In the meanwhile I'll do my best to prevent damage, though car parks etc still scare me.

Edited by Jazz EXL on 06/08/2016 at 07:38

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Sat 6 Aug 2016 08:48
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - FoxyJukebox

For minor scratches-i would recomend a nice tube of T-cut abrasive stuff (£4?) followed by a thick application of wax shoe polish -nearest coating colour to your Honda's(£1, cheaper than the expensive coloured car polishes!)-followed up with a nice car wax of the area-Tescos sell a good one for £3. Job done for £8 max-with plenty left for next time.

Yes indeed--if you selling the car--maybe it is at that stage you "invest" in a "chips away" type service for a couple of hours work-but minor scratch insurance?-why contribute to somebody else's nice earner?

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Sat 6 Aug 2016 21:01
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - hillman

When I buy a new car I’m always on edge until I get the first graze, then I’m far more ‘at ease’. When I had owned my present car less than a month there was a wind-storm one night that dislodged mortar from the roof tiles straight onto the bonnet of the car, denting it a little. I was much more 'at ease' then. In the past when I have wanted to make cars look presentable for sale I have used the services of such people as Chips Away and have been very pleased with the results. However, they are limited by their inability to tackle larger dents. Recently I dented both sides at the rear, one case of ABC and one case of DBC. I took the car into the body shop in a nearby town and the proprietor made a superb job of making it look like new.

I forgot to say, the proprietor also dealt with ten years of supermarket scratches in various places at the same time.

Edited by hillman on 06/08/2016 at 21:04

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Sun 7 Aug 2016 15:37
Honda Jazz 1.4 EXL (2012) - Scratch and Dent Car Insurance - is it worth it? - Ethan Edwards

This is going to sound odd coming from someone who makes his living in insurance. But you always have to remember that people are only going to offer you a policy if they think they are going to make a profit on the deal.

Unless I think I'll really need the product or its the law I tend to say no thanks and run the risk myself. Sometimes you win some you don't. More often than not I find you win. This applies particularly to extended warranty on electronic stuff. Eg Argos offering ext wty on say a cheap hairdryer etc.

Hope that helps you decide.

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