| Joined: | Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 |
| Location: | South Lakeland, UK |
| Posts: | 4066 |
| Status: |
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My Marlin has (by todays standards) lousy brakes, poor weight distribution and untested crash resistance, almost nothing in the way of crash survival technology and a very high (relatively speaking) power to weight ratio. Premium: £126 fully comprehensive which includes claims management? and road side assistance and recovery. Which may even go down with the new gender rules, (which BTW I don't agree with). I would expect roadside assistance and recovery to cost best part of that premium???
The way I see it is that people who own premium high performance cars TEND to drive them carefully, as do Marlin owners. Of the 600 members of the owner club this year I have heard of one collision sustained by a Marlin, that was with a large rock on a trial. It wiped out the o/s suspension upright and steering arm. The owner posted a request on the forum for bits and was up and running in days for the price of a beer.
I suspect it has little to do with the nuts (and bolts) of the car, more to do with the nut behind the wheel. The insurance companies have all the statistics and experience they need to cover their exposure, it seems that young (male) drivers are statically, a disproportionally high risk.
The trouble is today we live in a world of litigation and blame, when I was a young lad and we had a bump we hammered it out and were back on the road later the same day. Now it involves claims and blame. It's partly because of the general wealth of the nation, OK, scoff but when I first started motoring £5 wasn't unusual price to pay for a good runner. Today I am hard pressed to find anything under £200. Most people would expect to pay well into four figures, so when it get's bent, either by mistake, carelessness or recklessness the bills are high. Consequently the claims are even higher. Don't get me started on whiplash... A widespread fraud which we are all paying dearly for.
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Robert.