The name’s Bond, James Bond. Five words to fill even the most seasoned motor insurance broker with trepidation. The world’s best known secret agent has made no secret of his love for fast cars. But his driving record leaves a lot to be desired. And it doesn’t seem to matter who takes the lead. From the wise-cracking Roger Moore, to the dulcet-toned Sean Connery or the magnificently chiselled Daniel Craig, every Bond seems to do his utmost to send motor insurance premiums sky-rocketing.
Here the 00 claims team at specialist motor insurance intermediary Adrian Flux get in the mood for the next chapter of the Bond story, No Time to Die, which will be released this November, by taking a look at Bond’s track record to find out which caused the most vehicle damage. (All Bond crash damage valuations are estimates).
George Lazenby — total insurance claims: £50,000
The most memorable crash scenes during George Lazenby’s only portrayal of Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service come when Countess Teresa “Tracy ” di Vicenzo played by Diana Rigg saves him from Blofeld’s men in Switzerland.
After a chase round a snow-covered mountain, Tracy drives her Mercury Cougar XR7 into a stock car rally. Most of the racing cars sustain damage and a chasing Mercedes full of baddies rolls and goes up in flames. The Cougar (the car, not Dianna Rigg) escapes with a few superficial scratches and dents. Estimated total loss is a modest £50,000.
Sean Connery — total insurance claims: £700,000
Sean Connery appeared in seven Bond films, most were shot in the 60s when filmmakers were a little more parsimonious; the crashes weren’t so grand, the bangs not so loud, the flames not so ferocious. Connery’s Bond started in a modest Sunbeam Alpine and caused £4,000 damage when he clipped a crane during a chase. Cripes!
He rumbled the Bond modus operandi when he got behind the wheel of an £80,000 Aston Martin DB5 — the eponymous 007 car — later in the same film. Under fire he crashes into a wall causing £60,000 worth of damage. In Diamonds are Forever he famously leads the Las Vegas police department on a chase through the city. Hapless cops collide into each other as they try to catch our hero – a dozen cop cars are written off. Bond makes good his escape by flipping his Ford Mustang Mach 1 onto two wheels to get away down a narrow alley.
A chasing traffic officer copies the stunt but, you guessed it, he rolls the car and it’s another write-off. We have pencilled in a damage allowance of £100,000 per film — Connery racks up £700,000 in claims.
Timothy Dalton — total insurance claims: £1 million
Timothy Dalton weighs in by destroying not one but four Kenworth oil tankers stuffed full of smuggled cocaine in Licence to Kill in 1989. The cost of the damage was an eye-watering £624,000. (We’re not sure how much Charlie you could stuff in an oil tanker but at around £45 a gram we reckon the total loss would be in excess of £180,000,000, a sum not to be sniffed at, and probably not covered by insurance.)
For good measure Dalton also totalled an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, about a quarter of a million pounds worth, in the Living Daylights – that bumps up his insurance claim to about a million quid.
Roger Moore — total insurance claims: £1.2 million
Roger Moore, like Connery, appeared in seven Bond films trashed supercars and regular rides with abandon. Among the more memorable crashes is the Citroen 2CVS in For Your Eyes Only, a Renault II TXE which ends up with no roof and no rear end in A View to a Kill, the collision with a train in a Mercedes 280S in Octopussy and losing the roof of an AEC Regent double decker bus by driving under a low bridge in Live and Let Die.
The Moore catalogue of carnage concludes with the sinking and writing-off of a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud in a river (also in A View to a Kill). The total cost of his damage claims? About £1.2million and counting.
Pierce Brosnan — total insurance claims: £1.75 million
Pierce Brosnam’s James Bond can cut up a little rough too. He certainly did in The World is Not Enough in 1999 when his company car was a heavily modified BMW Z8 convertible. Mods included remote control driving function, titanium armour plating and heat seeking surface to air missile launchers hidden in the front wings.
His plans ended in pieces however when he came under attack from two helicopters armed with giant buzz-saws hanging from their under-carriages. Brosnan downed one spectacularly with a heat seeker but the second snuck up on him from behind and chopped the Z8 clean in half, regardless of the armour plating.
Clearly a write-off, with Q’s gadgets in abundance we reckon the claim would be about a million and a half quid for this car alone. Factor in Brosnan’s bumps, scrapes and high speed collisions in Goldeneye, Die Another Day and Tomorrow Never Dies and we reckon the loss assessors would be looking at about £1.75 million.
Daniel Craig — total insurance claims: £4.5 million
The harum scarum driving of Daniel Craig, who stars in the new film No Time To Die as well as Spectre, Skyfall, Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale, is the James Bond top trump when it comes to trashing cars.
You would have to go a long way to beat the carnage he caused during Spectre in 2015. Seven specially designed Aston Martin DB10 sports cars, a Land Rover, a Jaguar C-X75 and a variety of other vehicles were destroyed in various chase scenes. That resulted in an estimated cost of £24m — more than 10% of the film’s entire budget.
But given the fact that it was seven DB10s for one chase sequence, meaning there could be only one insurance claim, we reckon his claim would be around £3.5 million. Factor in the thrills and spills of countless car chases and collisions in Crag’s other Bond films and we reckon he is streets ahead in total claims. We have totted it up to in excess of £4.5 million.
If you drive a supercar, have a poor claims history, a flakey driving record like our Mr Bond or a car loaded with lots of cool mods and you feel you are being stung with sky high insurance costs, it’s probably time to try a specialist broker like Adrian Flux. Our best deals are not available on the price comparison sites so you will get to talk to an experienced insurance broker who can come up with a sensible quote for your motor insurance.
On average people quoted £2,000 or more for their insurance by another company can save around £700 with a short phone call to Adrian Flux. Call 0800 369 8590 or book a call back at a time that suits you during office hours.