As mentioned by a couple of guys, until something like this is challenged in court and a precedence is set there is no definitive answer. The big difference I see with the front assist system is that it does give an insurance discount. Therefore the insurers are acknowledging its existence and the help it can provide and then calculating your [reduced] premium based on this. Does having ESP on your car affect your insurance premium? If not then I would imagine they wouldn't care if it was on or off...
As previously stated, unless your insurance has a clause in it specifically telling you that to switch off a safety aid which may have prevented a collision would void your insurance, an insurance company wouldn’t have a cat in hells chance of wriggling out of a payout on the non-use of a user selectable device. Even with inclusion of such a clause, they’d have to clearly define what is considered a driver safety device as it could be argued that the sensor is a cruise control system assist device to maintain a distance rather than purely to brake/alert. At that point you may end up in court to decide whether the clause was fair and enforceable if you had a smash and the insurance company used non-activation of the front assist system (and no other reason) as a reason not to pay out.
These systems aren’t infallible, they are an aid to recognising a dangerous situation, not a guarantee to prevent it happening (or even a guarantee that they will recognise a situation in every occurrence). There are times when I cover the brake and allow my car to get a bit closer to the car in front, knowing that the gap will open up again and the times the system does not seem to recognise the car in front by displaying the “!(car symbol)!” warning when I am close to the car in front leads me to think that I cannot rely on it. I have it on in the hope that if I ever missed a situation myself that it might alert me, but I wouldn’t bank on it.
Absolutely no chance with the current tech, under current law that an insurance company would be able to nail you to the wall for switching off your front assist and not be accountable for reneging on your cover.
Fitment of this system on the GTD has not reduced the grouping risk compared to the MK6, so the argument for “fitment has reduced premiums” does not stack up for the GTD. Insurance is all about risk – they will base their premiums partially on the risk that X% of drivers will fully use this aid and may benefit from it but currently cannot insist upon its activation at all times. What’s the insurance grouping difference between a Demo GTI without the sensor and a proper retail/full spec version? I’d bet it isn’t 5 groups, bet it isn’t even 2 groups. Chances are, they’ll be the same group.
