I think I have worked out what is really happening. The ‘smart; investors (investment banks, private equity firms, etc.) that now own some insurance underwriters also own the large brokerages and ‘price comparison sites’ that sell insurance and the ‘accident management companies’ that step in via the brokers to ‘manage’ claims, but instead put drivers into expensive ‘credit hire’ cars and extend the period of repair. They make a small underwriting loss on the insurance itself, but make that back on the broker percentages, then make their real money from credit hire. I have seen credit hire costs of £33,000 for the hire of a car while a £10,000 repair was carried out and there was one celebrated case of £64,000 paid for the hire of an Aston Martin DB9 while footballer Darren Bent’s Mercedes CLS was being repaired. The investors then use the losses from the insurance part of their business to justify premium hikes paid by the public. Three bites of a very fat cherry from the same compulsory expense that is about to be made continuous for every vehicle whether it is on the road or not. See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/tax-insurance-and-warran...s