I have current insurance thru USAA where I get great rates, but they will only insure the Cutlass for the original MSPR WTH!?! So is there a way to increase this or do I have to have 2 separate insurance companies? Any ideas?

 

I have Hagerty agreed value on my car. See the thread below - we've discussed insurance a lot! Again it's a question of what you want coverage wise, cost wise, etc.... A lot of companies out there - you just have to research them and find one that fits your needs! Everyone has their own opinions. Several threads in the General Discussion forum back around October you could look at.

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums/general-discussion/17566-agreed-value-vintage-car-insurance.html?highlight=insurance

 

If your car will be a 2nd use pleasure car and will be stored inside a garage at night you can get classic car insurance. Mine is through Hagerty insured for $42,000 for $350.00 a year.

 

go to http://www.hagerty.com/ to get an agreed value policy. I have them for 2 of my cars.

 

hmmmm i just got off the phone with them and they cant offer me a policy because my 2nd vehicle
(my truck) is not registered to me so according to them this would be my daily driver, which is not the case at all....GRRRRRR

 

Keep looking!!

 

American Collectors will do $10K value for $276 a year. Is that good?

 

That's not too bad. From what I've been able to gather, all of the major players offer similar terms, claims are handled well, and the rates do not wildly vary. Unlike it was many years ago.
I've been with American Collectors for 20 years. Never had a claim, so I'm not a good reference for that. As my policy was coming due, I checked with Haggerty to compare rates and Haggerty came up about 10% more. I do not know if being a long time customer had anything to do with it or not.

 

I'm waiting to hear back from Grundy too.

 

I have $20,000 worth of coverage for $238.00 yr. which includes short distance towing. But, it's through Hagerty, who ain't on your list any longer by the looks of it.

 

I have J.C TAYLOR TRY THEM 1800-345-8290

 

I have Condon & Skelly.
They're an agent and are underwritten by Met Life. My wife has worked at a major auto insurance company's headquarters here for thirty years and knows about this stuff, not in the cafeteria either.
She likes Condon & Skelly because of their reputation and because they're an agent and not the principal underwriter.

 

Still no insurance

 

Why not? What's been happening since March?

 

Well just financially I started school again and drive my truck mostly. The drivers side mirror fell off on the freeway so no mirror, the only company I found was Chrome insurance, today, which i $287 every 6 months. Also I need to get smogged and don't know where I can go to pass.

 

$287 a half-year is an very good rate for a young, unmarried person. Does that include collision insurance?

How did the mirror fall off? You know, when they get loose, you're supposed to tighten them up. Maybe you can get something aftermarket to stick on there long enough to get the car inspected.

We don't have smog inspections where I live, so I don't what that entails. We have other Californians on here with cars the same vintage as yours, and they can probably tell you what you need to do to get it to pass.

 

I don't know why you guys pay so much. I've been with American Collectors for 16 years now. They have my 72 Cutlass covered for an agreed value of 18K. My yearly premium is $135.00 and that includes 100K liability. Of course we're talking Antique and not Classic.

 

Go back and read through the thread again, and then you might figure it out.

She tried to get collector car insurance, but the companies won't give it to her because the Cutlass is the only car in her name and thus they assume she uses it as her daily driver. ANY of these collector car insurance companies, including yours, ask you on the application form to list at least one car that you own that is late-model and that you use for daily transportation. If you can't provide such a thing, they won't give you the low rate on the old car. They probably won't give you insurance at all and will tell you go to a regular insurance company like State Farm or Allstate or any of the zillion other ones.

So the $287-per-half-year rate is for regular, daily-driver car insurance. For that kind of insurance, it's an excellent rate for someone her age.

 

@Boowah - I am 26, which may be a factor. Also a ton of speeding tickets LoL oops! No mileage limit and you can drive it for pleasure not just for car shows and events. Full coverage, same as my daily driver. $500 spare parts and free towing up to 20 miles.

@Jaunty - By pass smog I meant find someone that will pass me without making me do repairs blah blah blah. Also I dont know how the mirrors were attached but I didnt know it was loose. Besides Fusick who carries mirrors?

 

Insurance rates usually drop significantly when you turn 25, so that's probably why your insurance is $287 a half-year and not double that. Too bad about the speeding tickets as you could probably get an even lower rate if you didn't have them. Stay out of trouble for a while and the rate will probably drop.

Correct mirrors for a car this old are going to come from Fusick, some place similar, or a junkyard car. Anything NOS or reproduced will not come cheap, I'm sure, but that's what you want if you want the car to look right. Otherwise, you could probably get an aftermarket mirror at Pepboys, etc.

As far as the smog check, what you're proposing, I believe, is called breaking the law.

 

Haha well yea I'm sure it is, but in Nevada you have to bring the car to pass by doing over $100 in repair or I can give the smog place $40 and they pass me LoL well thats how it works in California, haven't got settled here yet to find a place. If I repair it, it wont be on the road for over a year There is a big car show here Sept 23-26 I want to go to. And Grundy insurance accepted me but they want a ton of paperwork and its $410 a year, and Chrome want $under 600 a year and no paperwork, no mileage restrictions, etc.

 

This is the company I am most likely going with::

http://www.anpac.com/products/p_c/chrome/default.aspx

 

Looks good to me. Is there an agent in your area? That's actually better than some classic car insurance companies, where you deal with them on the phone and through email and regular mail. My company, J. C. Taylor, is in Pennsylvania. It's no problem dealing with them via the phone and the various types of mail, and I've done that since I got my first old car in 1991. But having a local person you can actually go see face to face if you have a problem is pretty good.

 

Agreed value doesn't mean you'll get what it's insured for.

You'd need a written appraisal and documentation with photo's is what I was told.
I've seen quite a few people get screwed with Agreed Value policies
only to get the KBB value after it's all done.

I can't get Hagerty or Grundy because both REQUIRE your car be stored in a garage.
So I've just used regular State Farm policies til I can find a cheaper alternative.

 

[quote=Aceshigh;205862]Agreed value doesn't mean you'll get what it's insured for.

With Hagerty, that's what I get, the agreed value, appraisals not needed.

 

With agreed value you usually get a professional appraisal and photos from all four corners, engine, interior, trunk.
You submit all the info then he insurance carrier agrees (or not) that the car is worth that number and you do get what it's insured for in a loss with no debating.
With stated value you can have problems, you state the value of what you think it's worth and they'll use that number to determine your premium. If you have a claim their adjuster looks at the car and will tell you what he/she think it's value was and the games begin. You never want a stated value policy, it's your word against theirs, the adjusters can tell if you BS'd them too.
My wife has been in the car insurance business for over 30 years and she likes Condon and Skelly, they're an agent and not an insurance company so they're on your side, underwritten by Met-Life.

 

Wow - I am learning a lot of surprises here about agreed and stated value! Better now than during a claim!

 

That is *not* correct. You'll have to show me one where the "agreed value" got screwed because it was "agreed value". I believe you're confusing it with "stated value" which *can* result in payments less than the "stated value".
Its not a matter of being screwed, its a matter of knowing what types of insurance one has and how it works.
Most of the major insurers have gone to the "agreed value" because for he most part the market has demanded it. Because it *does* truly insure insure it for that value. An appraisal is not needed *unless* they don't agree.

There was another thread here that covered all of this. There is enough confusion out there about this without adding to it.

 

Okay, you're right, I think I mixmatched the two.
I meant Stated Value.

Here's the question tho......
Can they disagree with the value long after you took the policy out and then file a claim ??
Or do they have a specific window to get it all documented from the start date of the policy??

Anyone know of cheap classic carriers who are reliable and don't REQUIRE garage storage??
I have a single car garage and I'm just worried since I leave my cars outside often they
will disqualify my policy.

 

No, because the whole point of "agreed" value is that you and the company "agree" to the value at the time the policy is issued, and it is stated in writing. They can't come back later and deny a claim saying the value is too high. If they do, they're creeps, and you sue them.

I don't know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if they wanted, say, yearly updates on the condition of the car (current photos), just to be sure that it continues to be worth the agreed value. If it deteriorates at all, they would probably want to renegotiate to a lower value, and if you do things to the car to raise its value, such as repainting it or rebuilding the engine, YOU might want to renegotiate the agreed value to a higher one.

You document the value at the time the policy is issued. The insurance company will certainly require photos of the car. Perhaps receipts for work done as well.

I think you're playing with fire here. I don't know of any classic car insurance company that doesn't require that the car be kept in an enclosed, locked storage space. This is one of the prime-est of the prime requirements for these kinds of policies. That cuts way down on the potential for theft, and that's one of the reasons they can offer you a lower rate.

If you told the company that you are storing the car in a locked garage, then later file a claim and they find out that you were not, in fact, storing the car in a locked garage, they can deny the claim, and they would win.

Now I imagine this is only an issue if the car is stolen from your driveway or if a tree falls on it in your driveway. If you're out on the highway and have an accident, they would probably never find out where the car was stored as the issue wouldn't come up during the claim-filing process.

 

Thanks for the info breakdown.

Actually I have State Farm presently because I didn't want to play with fire.
I was just asking if there were any OTHER options.

 

Ah. I think that if you do not have an enclosed, lockable storage place, you will not be able to get reduced-rate, collector-car insurance. On the other hand, being insured with a "regular" policy means you can drive it all you want like any other daily driver. Always pluses and minuses in any way you go.

 

I got offered $427/year from American Collectors. Anyone use them?

 

The main classic car insurance in Canada is called "Silver Wheels Plan". I have mine insured for $5000 for $110CDN per year and that is with $2million liability.

 

I've had them for almost 25 years. No problems, but I've never had a claim.
From what I've observed, they are one of the best. Also my observation that all of the top companies are for the most part decent.

 

I am an insurance agent and have been for over 20 years. Collector car policies are inexpensive, a good product for a low price. Compare the price and coverage offered by a collector car insurance company on say a 70 Cultass 442 insured for $50,000 to that of a $35,000 2010 Chevy Camaro insured with the standard market. The collector car policy is far superior. Total each car 2 years from know, the Cultass you are paid $50,000, the Camaro you get the ACV say $23,000.

BUT the question is how do they do this so inexpensively? The rules that you must follow and the application you sign saying you will follow the rules. They expect you will not drive the car very much, keep it in a locked garage, take care of the car like it is your child, no allow your 18 year old child take it to the prom.

You want problem with a collector car policy, do not follow the rules. If the policy says it must be garage kept, it better be garage kept. If no one under 25 can drive the car, no one under 25 better get in an accident.

Make sure you understand and accept the rules of the company you decide to do business with and you will greatly reduce your problems come claim time.

 

Thanks for the info. Very helpful.


A couple more questions. You say the car should not be driven "very much." Do you define this more precisely at all? 1000 miles per year? 500? 5000?


Also, don't collector car insurance policies generally require that you also have in your name another car that is NOT a collector car so that the company can be reasonably confident that you won't use the collector car for daily transportation? This is the problem that the OP here (justagirlfromla) ran into. She drives a truck as daily transportation, but it's not her own truck, so the collector car insurance company wouldn't issue her a policy.

 

The mileage issue varies by carrier, 2500 miles it typical but I have seem them as high as 7500 miles if you paid an additional premium and some as low as 1000.. As I note, make sure you can live with the mileage the carrier allows. Except to pay less when you are allow less miles. The car is the most safe, sitting in your locked garage.

All the collector car insurance policies I have seen require that you have a primary use car in your own name.

They have these specific rules because over a large group they can accurately predict the premium. If an underwriter starts making exceptions, this can and most likely will lead to more losses and therefore higher rates. In this case maybe we are fine. But then she passes this info on the forum to other, go to X company, tell them you drive your sisters car daily and they will sell a policy. Let me tell you, they will get a lot no telling me the truth. If carrier X does this and carrier Y does not, carrier X premium will increase compared to Y. So the insured with a 2nd car call carrier Y and find the premium lower and move from X to Y. X losses it best customers therefore raises rates again. This may take a few years but once the snowball starts to grow it is very difficult to stop.

In this type of market with the very low premiums, the underwriters must hold to their guidelines as they do not have a lot of room in the premium to make an mistake.

 

Thanks. I appreciate your time in answering these questions.