GAP insurance: Worth it for "free"?

[MSIC]

HI all,

Am in process of buying a new car and have negotiated a £500 discount off the new car, as well as a decent price trade in for my existing car, and am overall satisfied with the price.

The dealer has now emailed me finance forms, and has additionally (without discussion with me) informed me that he has "been able" to agree with his manager to provide me with GAP insurance for free (ie is listed as me buying it for £399, and is now giving me an £899 discount, effectively making this free).

I am suspicious. I would not normally buy GAP insurance, and suspect that they get some type of kick-back for "selling it" to me.

Should i ask them to remove it? Is there something i am missing?

I am purchasing via a 4 yr HP deal.

many thanks

[Jonj1611]

Here is a great article that may help :-

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...-gap-insurance

[Zak33]

MSIC

I will pm you

[csgohan4]

Consider using car brokers for your new car, they saved 4k for my new car I used drive the deal.com

In terms of Gap insurance I think they are worth it for me. Got mine for 5 years for about 200 pounds. Use price comparison website and make sure they have Defacto 5 stars for added peace of mind.

[MSIC]

Thanks all.
I certainly did go down the broker route, in fact i ended up having a lovely conversation with a great guy at broadspeed. Overall, whilst they could give me a lower price on the new car, none could match the relatively high price for my existing; overall, the cost to swap was very close to similar with my local dealer (under £200 difference). Given that, i feel it was better to pick up locally.

I have previously bought through Drive The Deal, and dont regret it. Broadspeed seemed appealing too, they were very upfront with me about how they make profit, which i appreciated.
Thanks to all, especially Zak33.

[Butcher]

I'm on my third GAP policy, two of which I have paid for, and one of which I have claimed on. I think they're worth it, as long as they are underwritten by a legit company (there's a lot of dodgy dealers out there).

[kalniel]

They will likely have done this by discounting the full 899 and then saying you bought GAP, increasing their commission. Fine if you want to do that, but you can also cancel the GAP post purchase in cooling off and get the money back for it, so you get the full discount off the car without having GAP. Or cancel at the invoice/quote stage.

But having a happy dealer may be a benefit down the road (if they care - mine didn't give a damn about me post purchase despite my trying to help them out too).

[ik9000]

Instant car depreciation really is a weird thing...

If the terms are good it may be worth it, but check the small print for caveats and exclusions. If I ever get the money to afford a new car I'll look into it, but 2nd hand is my only option for the foreseeable future sadly.

[vicar]

Yes to the initial question, since it's also free.

[Zak33]

nothing anywhere ever is free in industry, so the freeness must simply be weighed against the freenss of other things in lieu

someone pays somewhere... but in this case it suited well