Briefly: Ensuring you get a new car

MOTORISTS can take out an insurance policy that will guarantee a replacement model if a new car is written off or stolen within three years. A used car will be replaced by a similar model costing the same as the original.

Cover Plus from First European Finance aims to compensate for the falling value of used cars. It provides three years' protection at a cost of pounds 160 for new cars, or pounds 150 for cars six months to three years old, and can only supplement an existing insurance policy. Up to pounds 12,000 cover is available to meet the difference between the primary motor insurer's write-off payment and the cost of a new car.