With the likes of the Thar & Jimny 4x4s gaining popularity, how can the right balance be struck?
BHPian airguitar recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I own a 4×4 and I have been told by friends that one is not eligible to claim insurance for incidents/damage that happen off the road. Now that looks like a sensible position for an insurance firm to protect their self-interest but I feel that it isn’t fair to the customer. It’s not a vehicle that is meant to run only on the road – the vehicle is sold as a 4×4 and as a vehicle meant for adventure sports. That means that the vehicle will do quite some jaunts off the road.
Do you feel that it’s unfair on the insurer’s part to not accommodate insurance claims for off-road incidents? I feel that we are short-changed right now. (I know that I will be asked by forum members as to what is the end to all this, i.e. you could throw your vehicle off the cliff and come back asking for a huge sum; I don’t mean that, I just want the clauses to relax to include trails etc., reasonable things given the purpose of the vehicle)
Which parts of insurance documents actually cover this part/ why is this not covered in detail?
What do you do currently if your 4×4 had damage during off-road events? Do you expense it out of your pocket?
Given the sale of more and more 4×4 vehicles, what is the future of insurance claims for off-road damages? How can the right balance be struck between the insurers and the insured?
Here’s what GTO had to say on the matter:
Not that I condone the habit, but have seen that off-road accidents are shown as “on-road” accidents for insurance claims.
Not really. You can use 4×4 for touring also.
Off-roading is a sport and can be high-risk in some situations. Our vanilla car insurance policy doesn’t cover motorsport; it’s only meant for “regular driving” on public roads. Check this thread out for more details on insurance coverage for motorsports.
Luckily, in all these years of offroading, my Classic has suffered minimal body damage and it’s the same with most Jeeps (unless there is a rollover).
In fact, I’ve only spent money on mechanical & electrical parts damaged due to off-roading, but even they have been few & far between.
Here’s what BHPian shankar.balan had to say on the matter:
Yes, you are very probably correct in your surmise. I am attaching here the screenshot of standard disclaimers on two of my ‘just renewed’ Comprehensive Insurance Policies, one of which is for an off-road capable vehicle.
An insurer can potentially take refuge behind the specific point which states ‘reliability trials’ and thus avoid paying out a claim for an off-roader if the damage sustained is while driving off the road and is declared as such in all honesty. (I would never ever advocate being less than honest in all these matters, considering that it is a matter of conscience and personal honour to be truthful, irrespective of what others may or may not do.)
But with the advent of this ‘brave new world’ of ‘democratised off-roading’ where vast multitudes of ‘un-supervised, less-than-skilful, novice marauders take to the trails every weekend for a thorough flora, fauna and overall environmental destruction spree, it is about time that the Insurance Companies offered some updated coverages against potential damages to the vehicles as well as other people’s property. Of course, we consumers shall have to pay a little extra for such coverage but I think that is perfectly fair.
Update: The pictures below show when I went to visit a friend and took a wrong turn onto a logging trail and got deeply irretrievably stuck. On rocking the vehicle back and forth and reversing and going forward to get out, I tore off my rear bumper. You can see it began to hang loose and it was torn and the mounting bracket also was cracked. This incident was not ‘off-roading’ per se, it was just a normal usage pattern gone wrong owing to overconfidence. I could have claimed bumper replacement damages from Insurance. And Sireesh Auto or indeed any service centre would have got it done. Yet, I chose at the time to pay for the damage and replacement myself. The bumper unit itself didn’t cost much. The painting and other accoutrements did. This misadventure cost me about Rs 8,000. A price paid for stupidity and stubbornness in pushing onward when the sensible course would have been to stop, listen to Dad and retrace the steps. And this is coming from me, I have had a great deal of experience in the real world of off-road work along with my Dad, in various conditions right since the early to mid-1980s! And this incident happened in 2021!
So irrespective of one’s ‘experience’ one can still become both foolhardy as well as over-confident when one is driving a 4×4 go-anywhere vehicle. Best not to let the ‘go-anywhere-ness’ get to your head.
Here’s what BHPian Tejas@perioimpl had to say on the matter:
The rally cover is your best bet. However, rally cover is given only for a particular event.
We need an add-on cover for the full year which unfortunately the companies aren’t giving.
The rally cover isn’t really expensive. For a 5 day rally, it’s around 500 or so as far as I remember.
Also, remember, social media is your best friend and biggest enemy.
The earlier practice of showing offroad damage as on-road is not so easy anymore because somewhere the pic of your car rollover offroad will surface and the claims guys keep trolling the net and will find it.
Keyword: Off-roading accidents in a 4x4 SUV: Will insurance claims be honoured?