Classic Car Insurance

[MantAscona]

That's a huge plus! Can you expand on how the Agreed Value was arrived at? Do you get to just pick a number and they adjust the premium accordingly or are there market factors involved? Thanks! Matt

Hi Matt,
I simply told them how much I wanted to cover each car for and they based thier rate on that amount. No appraisal, no one comes to look at the car, however they do require photos. I have my Kadett wagon covered for $5,000 and my Manta covered for $25,000 and my premium is $162.00 per year. Hope that helps.

Duane

[newman27]

Originally Posted by MantAscona Hi Matt, I simply told them how much I wanted to cover each car for and they based thier rate on that amount. No appraisal, no one comes to look at the car, however they do require photos. I have my Kadett wagon covered for $5,000 and my Manta covered for $25,000 and my premium is $162.00 per year. Hope that helps. Duane

That's what I was looking for - Thanks!

Matt

[opeljohn]

I just happened to have renewed my Ins. on our 72 GT ( Fireglow ). Cost was 82.00 for the year. No limit on miles. Valued at 7,500.00. The Ins. is sold thru my local Farmers Ins. group agent, but seems to actually be handled by J.C. Taylor AAA, Inc. 320 S. 69th ST. Upper Darby, PA 19082. I had to supply an appraisal with Pictures to determine value. I have not had any claims. Not sure about any other restrictions as we don't drive it to work or such.

[opelkid]

this is sort of on topic, and not. If i do end up getting a gt, what would be a good insurance company to go with for me (a teenager)? My dad has usaa, but i read earlier in the post that they don't insure classic cars??? I want cheap collision insurance and thats all. I just want to make sure before because my mirage is pretty cheap.

[namba209]

O.K. here's the deal I discussed with my State Farm agent this afternoon. As a daily driver I need the basic PL & PD which I have along with all the other stuff CA mandates on auto insurance. They have classic/antique car premiums but only good for going to and coming from cars shows, etc. My discussion centered around having a fender bender and knowing they will cover it with what I have now. The main concern was having the car totalled and losing all the money I've spent restoring and upgrading it. She said as long as I have receipts for what was done, when, and a pic or three, the adjuster would take that all into consideration, and I should get much more than fair market value of the car. I already know I won't get what I've put into it, but knowing I should be entitled to a percentage of what was done sure makes me feel better.

[newman27]

Originally Posted by namba209 O.K. here's the deal I discussed with my State Farm agent this afternoon. As a daily driver I need the basic PL & PD which I have along with all the other stuff CA mandates on auto insurance. They have classic/antique car premiums but only good for going to and coming from cars shows, etc. My discussion centered around having a fender bender and knowing they will cover it with what I have now. The main concern was having the car totalled and losing all the money I've spent restoring and upgrading it. She said as long as I have receipts for what was done, when, and a pic or three, the adjuster would take that all into consideration, and I should get much more than fair market value of the car. I already know I won't get what I've put into it, but knowing I should be entitled to a percentage of what was done sure makes me feel better.

Thanks for the info. So, it sounds like to get Agreed Value coverage you can't also use the car as a daily driver. However, it's good to know that with proper documentation you can at least get something more than blue book value if you were to total the car.

[Phoenix]

I wouldn't trust anything up to now-a-days adjusters. First of all, they're going to go by book value for the car, whatever it is that they feel like using. And then they're going to pick a part the car, no matter how good of a condition that it's in. I think that if you've put in any decent amount of money into your Opel, you should have it appraised. And since Opel is a very small market, I think that it should be a very reputable person with an extensive base knowledge in Opels.

This is something that I've put a lot of thought into recently as I approach making my GT fully streetable and just had my Thunderbird killed by a stupid kid. It was a fight to get every penny for my T-Bird and they could really careless how many reciepts that I had. Granted that late model T-Birds are on a down swing and Opels are on an upswing, but you should take every precaution.

I've read many articles on the internet, looked at a lot of companys that offer collectors car insurance, noted the difference between agreed value and stated value, and spoken with a few people through email regarding their collectors car insurance.

One of the other threads stated that Charles, is a member of the NADA as well as OANA. And as far as I'm concerned I cannot think of a better person to make an appraisal than him. He has an extensive knowledge of Opels, wrote a guide to the evaluatation of Opels, and has the NADA thing going for him. I cannot say if he can or will do appraisals but I have heard that he has done them in the past.

[newman27]

I thought I would update this thread since I just found out today that I was able to get my GT insured at an Agreed Value equal to what I asked for which is the amount I have invested to date in the restoration. I went with Grundy for the following reasons:

• Agreed to the value I requested based on photos of the car alone
• Was able to insure the car at 80% or greater completion (in other words, the car isn't fully restored but the photos showed that it was at least 80% of the way there)
• Option to increase the Agreed Value once the car restoration is complete
• Unlimited mileage
• Competitive annual premium

Matt

[Mini Stock Manta]

We insure our 68 Camaro, 64 & 63 SS Nova through Hagerty Classic Car insurance. Thirty thousand "agreed value" on the Camaro is only $230.00 per year and to add the Novas is an additional $90.00 per year. Zero deductible comp/coll. The best we found after looking for decent coverage. We can't get insurance on our Opels.
MSM

[Gary]

I switched to Haggerty this year. $160.00 for full coverage on my GT. Adding additional antique cars is ~$30.00 each for the same coverage and they do not require special plates.

[Dallas]

I use Hagerty. I signed up with them and only made 2 payments when I dropped the Tonneau cover on the 1/4 panel when test fitting it. I was sick! I called and told them what I did and emailed them a couple pictures. They first said try to spot it in and blend it. I told them that wouldn't work for this car and I at least wanted to paint the entire rear of the car. They quickly agreed and said take it anywhere I wanted. They paid $1200 to paint the rear and never missed a beat. (I have had the entire car repainted already too)They have always been good for me. I insured it for $30,000 and it is $435 a year for full coverage, towing, uninsured motorist and everything. I was quoted a little cheaper but then they put my car in a "modified" class so it went up.
The way they value it is you tell them what you think it is worth and send them some pictures. If they agree it is done. If not then you will have to negotiate it out.

[namba209]

Just as an aside on the car insurance. I get a kick out of all the commercials I see on the TV where folks have saved ungodly amounts of money by switching their insurance to the ones being touted on the tube. So I sit there thinking, that if I switch my insurance on all three of my vehicles, they will pay me to switch to their company, because that's how much money I will save. O.K., here's my reasoning, I've got State Farm, and I pay less than $800, total, for Willit?, 75 monza and a 71 Dodge van, per year, with full coverage on all three. Granted I've got discounts out the kazoo for loyalty, multi-car, good driver, senior citizen, and a few others. I've even got checks from them recently, because the company didn't have to pay out as much to policy holders this year. My thinking on this, is, I've got a really great body shop to do any work that needs to be done to bring my cars back to pre-accident condition, and the State Farm will pay the bill to get it done. It the car is determined to be totalled, by them, we will have a discussion, and I know from experience on the monza, that won't happen. The car will be brought back to what it was before the accident, maybe even better. There's no way in the world I'm gonna recoup the bucks I've put in Willit?, but if it gets dinged, I know at least it will be fixed.

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by namba209 Just as an aside on the car insurance. I get a kick out of all the commercials I see on the TV where folks have saved ungodly amounts of money by switching their insurance to the ones being touted on the tube. So I sit there thinking, that if I switch my insurance on all three of my vehicles, they will pay me to switch to their company, because that's how much money I will save. O.K., here's my reasoning, I've got State Farm, and I pay less than $800, total, for Willit?, 75 monza and a 71 Dodge van, per year, with full coverage on all three. Granted I've got discounts out the kazoo for loyalty, multi-car, good driver, senior citizen, and a few others. I've even got checks from them recently, because the company didn't have to pay out as much to policy holders this year. My thinking on this, is, I've got a really great body shop to do any work that needs to be done to bring my cars back to pre-accident condition, and the State Farm will pay the bill to get it done. It the car is determined to be totalled, by them, we will have a discussion, and I know from experience on the monza, that won't happen. The car will be brought back to what it was before the accident, maybe even better. There's no way in the world I'm gonna recoup the bucks I've put in Willit?, but if it gets dinged, I know at least it will be fixed.

I wish my insurance was 800 a year just for one of my cars. I can't wait to turn 25, only 3 and half more months!

[OpelJim]

We could negotiate a better premium with Hagerty like a group rate policy
I have been with them for 4 years NO PROBLEMS with claim service at all.

Yearly premium is about $107.00 agreed value of $10,000.00 no deductables on collison. Limited use of car not for daily driving.
Earthquake coverage is optional but since we had 2 of them so far today maybe it is a good thing to have
For an extra $40.00 per year I also have the protection network (road side assistance)
Hagerty 1 800 922 4050

[newman27]

FYI - the April, 2008 copy of "Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car" contains an article with a good overview of collector car insurance.

Matt

[newman27]

I just recently received my first renewal from Grundy. The premium increased $9.75 and they automatically upped my agreed value by 5%. So far, very happy with Grundy. Again, not having an annual mileage limit makes Grundy a really good choice IMHO.

Matt

[skittel]

Originally Posted by Gumby What kind of requirements do they have? Sadly USAA doesn't insure classic vehicles so I have to look else where for my insurance needs.

Really? When I got the opel from my uncle, I regisitered it with USAA (which I had 2 other cars at the time) and drove it down to NC. When I spoke with the USAA agent on the phone, they told me to call back when I started restoration for what I thought understood to be classic car coverage... Thanks for the headsup..I'll need to check into that again....