Vehicle information

Model

e.g. Volkswagen Golf GTI

Series

e.g. 1, 2, 3. MK - Identifies major design changes in the life of a car.

Engine CC (Cubic Capacity)

e.g. 1798cc – an exact engine capacity figure . The Search screen calculates an approximate cc to the nearest 50cc. For example, 1600cc will display all Cubic Capacity between 1550cc and 1650cc.

Year of Manufacture ( From – To)

Door Plan

2, 3, 4 or 5. Unclassified refers to vehicles where the door plan was unknown at time of entry.

Body Type

This is used to distinguish “C” Cabriolet and “E” Estate vehicle types.

Fuel Type

“P” = Petrol & “D” = Diesel

Gearbox Type

“A” = Automatic & “M” = Manual

Vehicle Make & Model Code

A unique 8 digit code used by the insurance industry for electronic transmission of data.

Advisory insurance Group

These range from 1 to 20. The higher the group, the more expensive it is likely to be to insure the vehicle. (1 is low, 20 is high).

Security

The insurance industry has its own criteria in which to evaluate car security features (e.g. alarms and immobilisers) built into new vehicles. These criteria are generally higher than those required by European legislation. Since 1995, vehicles sold specifically for the UK market have been assessed by the insurance industry’s research centre Thatcham (www.thatcham.org) to establish the level of standard fit security. Car manufacturers whose vehicles are fitted with systems that meet the Thatcham criteria, benefit from improved insurance group ratings. Older cars may qualify for insurance premium discounts if subsequently fitted with these alarms or immobilisers.

Vehicle Suffix (A, D, E, U, P, G)

Attached to most of the advisory group ratings is a suffix, which illustrates the level of security fitted as standard to that vehicle. The level is group dependent and the requirements increase along with the group. (The higher the group, the higher the level of security required.) A further explanation of the suffix follows: -

A = Meets security requirement for this group.

D = Does not meet the security requirement for a car of this type and the group rating has therefore been increased. (e.g. A group 9 car where the security requirement is not up to Thatcham’s minimum standard for that group will be listed as a 10D.)

E = Exceeds security requirement for a car of this type and the group rating has therefore been reduced. (e.g. A group 9 car where the security requirement exceeds Thatcham’s minimum standard for that group will be listed as an 8E.)

P = Provisional - This is used in cases where the data for group rating was incomplete at time of launch.

U = Cases where the level of security for the model concerned is regarded as Unacceptable. This does not mean that the car will be uninsurable but consumers should be aware that individual insurers may insist on the security being upgraded before providing cover.

G = Import cars - These fall into two categories: -

Parallel Imports - Vehicles built for and sold in Europe conform to European Whole Vehicle Type Approval requirements.

Grey Imports - non-EU, market cars, unlikely to conform to European Whole Vehicle Type Approval.

Vehicle Security Code

Finally there is a security code which indicates that an alarm/immobiliser has been fitted as standard by the manufacturer, and whether that alarm/immobiliser has been submitted to testing at Thatcham. The codes are as follows:

• N2 = An immobiliser not Thatcham approved.
• N1 = An alarm/immobiliser not Thatcham approved.
• T2 = An immobiliser Thatcham approved.
• T1 = An alarm/immobiliser Thatcham approved.

Guide to UK insurance group ratings

These ratings are for all volume manufactured private cars for the UK car insurance market. These details do not apply to American cars, Jap cars and other import cars or specialist cars, such as kit cars.

These insurance group ratings are purely advisory.

These factors do influence car insurance premiums, but brokers do not need to stick to these factors.

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