PRICE comparison website MoneySuperMarket said that nearly 129,000 van drivers attempted to apply for car insurance for their vans through the site in the last year. Conversely, 48,564 registrations not belonging to vans were entered into the site’s van insurance comparison tool.
Such high numbers suggest one of two things – drivers are confused around the official classification of their vehicle or are unaware that vans require a different type of insurance to cars.
Knowing if you’re driving a van or car may sound obvious, but vehicles such as the Volkswagen Caddy and Citroen Berlingo for example, both feature in the top 10 most popular vans insured by MoneySuperMarket in 2020 – yet both could easily be mistaken for cars.
MoneySuperMarket’s van report also highlights six more vehicles that look like cars but are actually classified as vans –
- Ford Fiesta Sports Van
- Toyota Hilux Invincible
- Vauxhall Corsa Van
- Mitsubishi L200
- Nissan Navara
- Renault Clio Van
According to MoneySuperMarket internal data, almost 40% of people insuring a van do so solely for personal use and Interestingly, the most common occupation given for van owners is ‘retired’ and the 6th most common occupation is ‘housewife or househusband’. Over 50% of vans insured had three seats all these factors suggest the vans insured through MoneySuperMarket will be largely used for social, domestic and pleasure reasons.
Rose Howarth, Van insurance expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: “The high number of van drivers applying for car insurance through MoneySuperMarket highlighted some confusion around people not knowing their vehicle classification or insurance categories – when looking at some makes and models classified as vans, this isn’t surprising”
“Drivers can check the classification of their vehicle by checking their V5 logbook, however to make it easier MoneySuperMarket have created a handy tool that can identify whether your vehicle is a car or a van and direct you to the right Insurance type for you.”
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