Just asking - if you own a greyhound instead of a pug, is the insurance more expensive because it's much faster? :-)

Are you suggesting an American bus is faster than a French car?

;>)

During the first lockdown, I took my car off the road, and it stayed in a locked garage for some months. I was with Saga then, and asked for some rebate for that period.

They refused.

Then they asked me why I did not renew with them.

It often depends upon what estimated milegae you had beforehand - most insurers premiums level off at around the 4,000 - 5,000 miles pa mark, probably because low vehicle usage drivers' skills can deteriorate and thus, per mile, may have more fault claims.

Sometimes you can 'get lucky' with an insurance update, as I did in 2018 when I changed (downsized from 16in to 15in) my car's wheels and tyres - even though it was a 'mod', it was a 'downgrade', but they (esure) still had to requote, and presumably when I did, premiums generally were a bit cheaper, so I got a £15 refund even after the £25 charge for changes was applied.

I think that was because I had already told them when I renewed at the normal time when the change was to happen, and so they promised it wouldn't go up. A shame that such good customer service disappeared 2 years later when they jacked the price up quite a bit around the start of the pandemic, so I moved to another provider and stuck with them (lower 2021 quote than the 2020 price) since.

I think that some of these 'specialist' insurers often only pretend to give a better and cheaper service to customers. Well worth shopping around for better quotes for the next renewal with the caveat of checking for customer service reviews - best from people you know, especially who've needed to claim.