[airguitar]

I own a 4x4 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 the road - the vehicle is sold as a 4x4 and as a vehicle meant for adventure sports. That means that the vehicle will do quite some jaunts off the road.

1. 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 vehicle )
2. Which parts of insurance documents actually cover this part/ why is this not covered in detail ?
3. What do you do currently if your 4x4 had a damage during off road events? Do you expense it out of your pocket?
4. Given the sale of more and more 4x4 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?

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by airguitar

I own a 4x4 and I have been told by friends that one is not eligible to claim insurance for incidents/damage that happen off the road.?

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 mutlitudes 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.

[GTO]

Not that I condone the habit, but have seen that offroad accidents are shown as "on road" accidents for insurance claims.

Originally Posted by airguitar

It's not a vehicle that is meant to run only the road - the vehicle is sold as a 4x4 and as a vehicle meant for adventure sports. That means that the vehicle will do quite some jaunts off the road.

Not really. You can use 4x4 for touring also.

Offroading 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 (High Risk Insurance - For Rallying & Motorsport) for more details on insurance coverage for motorsports.

What do you do currently if your 4x4 had a damage during off road events? Do you expense it out of your pocket?

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 offroading, but even they have been few & far between.

[airguitar]

Originally Posted by GTO

Not that I condone the habit, but have seen that offroad accidents are shown as "on road" accidents for insurance claims.

Oh absolutely, I would never do such a thing either.

Originally Posted by GTO

Offroading 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 (High Risk Insurance - For Rallying & Motorsport) for more details on insurance coverage for motorsports.

Sure, the high risk rally insurance makes sense. But an average offroader ( 80% on touring, 20% offroading ) type of people are short changed by either policy the regular one or the high risk policy. I recently broke the rear bumper of my thar in an offroading event and it was not due to a risky action on my part. It was a careless backing into a tree stub that broke the bumper - such an incident could have very well happened in one's parking slot. I spent from my pocket for the repair, but got me thinking if any addons would get us a middle path for a vehicle that would see/expected to do a fair bit off the road.

So looks like no insurer actually offers offroading coverage addons without us having to break the bank? I either can get a regular policy that won't cover off road incidents or need buy an exorbitantly priced high risk policy that is not really intended for my type of uses. If this is right, we need to push for a middle ground with insurers/dealers. Overall, a lopsided setup for the consumers. Would you agree?

[NewUser123]

I think the "reliability trials" clause is not as clear cut in the favour of the Insurance companies, per this case I read https://indiankanoon.org/doc/114472104/

It seems the court actually described and understood what reliability trails meant. I understand that the context of the case was not for off-roading per se, but I am encouraged by the detailed and specific limitations provided by the court around this term.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

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 its 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 in offroad will surface and the claims guys keep trolling the net and will find it.

[DirtyDan]

Originally Posted by GTO

Not that I condone the habit, but have seen that offroad accidents are shown as "on road" accidents for insurance claims.

I pick up the fix for what I break off-road and bad road.

But there is another ethos in North America where insurance companies are often thought of as corrupt, so by all means, lie to them in turn. Again, this is not what I do, but I understand why people lie about things like this.

Years ago North American insurance companies lobbied for seat belts and airbags. They said they were championing auto safety. Government made many safety laws at insurance company urging. Car damage and medical costs came down appreciably but premiums did not. Premiums continued to rise, drawing the ire of many. People in turn routinely lie about their claims.

And the karmic wheel keeps spinning. (It's balanced and alligned to a fare-thee-well.)

[shankar.balan]

The pictures below show when I went to visit a friend and took a wrong turn on to 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 over confidence. 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 8000 Rupees. 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-1980’s! 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 4x4 go-anywhere vehicle. Best not to let the ‘go-anywhere-ness’ get to your head.