Tony @ Greenlight

Hi All,

Due to the area of de-catted exhaust systems being more than a little grey, we had historically maintained the stance that we would not offer terms for de-catted vehicles on the basis that this would potentially give any Insurer the ability to class a vehicle as non-roadworthy.

Whilst we had lobbied our respective scheme Insurers for clarification of their stance upon several occasions, we had never previously managed to obtain clarification from the Government agency as to their stance.

With this in mind we obtained the Government MOT tester's handbooks (inc the "In Service Exhaust Emission Standards for Road Vehicles" operating manual) then set about pursuing DVLA and VOSA for a definitive answer in relation to catalytic converters.

The resulting advice received from a technical advisor at VOSA was that at this time it is not illegal to not have a catalytic converter fitted to your vehicle (post 1992 vehicles), but any vehicle post 1992 would be tested for emissions against the same pass criteria as though a catalyst was fitted.

Thus if your vehicle passes the emissions criteria whilst decatted the vehicle would be roadworthy.

VOSA's technical advisor indicated that this position may change in the future, but until this occurs Greenlight will now be able to accept De-Catted exhaust systems as a modification to your vehicle.


Kind regards

Tony

JamesH

iTrader: (21)

Lets not beat around the bush Tony

So you're saying that if your mate Dave owns an MOT garage and he shoves the probe up a different car pretending to be yours, then the car is roadworthy and insured?

AlexD

iTrader: (3)

Hnady then..

foreigneRS

i don't think so. VOSA can stop any vehicle at any time and do an emmissions test on it. if that is done and fails due to not having a cat on it, which lets face it is not difficult to detect, presumably you have invalid insurance?

would be stupid to risk it imo - what do you achieve by not having a cat fitted anyway? 1 horsepower if you're lucky? can you not fit a proper sports cat in the first place?

JamesH

iTrader: (21)

Well yeah thats why I'm a bit confused by it cos if it passes MOT its insured, but would they check it afterwards presuming it had passed an MOT like it?

TIFF

Top work guys, as usual

Pity you couldnt insure my Skoda though Tony

Stavros

on a decently powerful turbo car? a good amount of power, even a sports cat isnt exactly free flowing, as it sure as fuck is expensive.

foreigneRS

if it's decently powerful in the first place, you won't need to get rid of the cat to get a bit more

Twellsie

iTrader: (1)

ah a sports cat



surely they wouldn't make your car less powerfull

JamesH

iTrader: (21)

JjCoDeX75

Well done, Tony!

Now all you need to do is insure me on the 911 Turbo that I want to buy!

JJ

The Youth.

iTrader: (1)

why the fook not?

surely skips are a low risk

steve

Micky The Finn

bollocks,

if a car is passed for type approval with a cat and it then is removed,its illegal,wheather it passes emmisions tests or not.

greenlight beware!!!!!

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

this is a strange issue, lots of people smash cars up that are in an unroadworthy condition, and still get paid out .. Can't see how having a cat or not affects the safty of the car? .. Not like it's a bald tyre or fucked brake pads etc?

Micky The Finn

but if the insurance apoint an engineer to do an inspection its a different matter.

adamski frst

About time tony shame this wasn't resolved few months back as said at the time you would have had my custom as your qoue was VERY good keep it up and i'll be ringing you next year!!!!

TIFF

Steve

Looks like my Yellow Russian Monster is up there with the M3's mate

Stavros

who said anything about a BIT more?

richm

a properly sized (or multiple) 100cell/sq.in sports cat needn't pose any significantly problematic restriction.
And they don't need to be expensive - just don't buy them in the UK

foreigneRS

exactly

Tony @ Greenlight

Hi Guys,

This wasnt meant to be an emotive issue, so apologies if it's become one.

Every Insurer in the land (Direct or via Brokers) has something called a care of car clause, which usually entails the vehicle having to be roadworthy and meet all UK legal stipulations.

With the De-cat modification being something that appeared to be a grey area it was difficult to get a definitive answer from the respective Insurers as to their position and thus Greenlight as a company took the view that we would exclude on the basis that we couldnt guarantee that any Insurer wouldnt throw a claim out based upon the vehicle being deemed unroadworthy through the emissions.

It just so happens that we are the only Insurance provider trying to remove the 'grey' by overtly explaining our historic stance and getting involved with discussing this issue.

From our perspective we just wanted to make sure our customers were adhering to the terms of the respective Insurers policy.

As you probably appreciate, we deal with various forums and often come across the decat situation, our pursuit of a definite answer as to the legality of this modification would prove useful to all forums/owners clubs concerned.

Having spoken to the relevant authorities, we felt there to be some merit to advising our findings.

As you have identified, there isnt a massive performance increase for this modification and a performance exhaust with a sports cat present would be the alternative option.

Kind regards

Tony

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

Greenlight - I don't even mind paying my policy too much as the service is top notch, and they actually understand properly modified cars .... I can see me being with them a long time

Good to see an insurance company using common sense and being fair