jensenracing77

My cousin had a fire last weekend in his garage. He was asleep in the house when a neighbor came to tell him the garage is on fire. Due to some circumstances he did not have insurance on the Corvette. Homeowners is covering most everything other than the car. He almost had it out before the fire department got there but then a propane tank blue up near a 55 gallon drum of VP C12. He is VERY lucky! The explosion did not blow up the fuel but he got out after that.

Keep good insurance on your cars and if something happens let it burn till the fire department get there. Just get out!

oldcutlass

Wow... Sorry for this unfortunate accident. Your right, insurance is a necessary evil.

Octania

A good reminder, pretty sure my garage is underinsured because the $ amt was set many yrs ago.

76 Regency

Terrible but at least nobody was hurt. It sucks about the car of course but it can be replaced. Any idea what caused it?

Railguy

Smart idea to get out when he did no car worth that price .
What kind of car insurance do you guys have ? The only way to know if it is good is to use it. I never had to use mine. Does anyone know of a good insurance Co . For sure ?
Railguy

jensenracing77

It was electrical. Started inside the wall.

I use State Farm on an agreed value policy. I never had to make a claim but a friend did with this same policy and never had any problem. Also use State Farm on my homeowners policy but it don't cover anything with wheels other than a lawn mower.

CRUZN 66

I have included a personal property endorsement to my State Farm Homeowners to cover my Kubota Tractor and attachments (Valued at $20K)

As for the few vehicles not currently registered, at a minimum, I carry comprehensive coverage to protect against things such as fire & theft...

cherokeepeople

really thats weird.i have am fam and as long as it is not licenseable."lawn mowers,skid loader,tractor,backhoe"its covered.

rand5204

Sad loss but a great reminder to all. In fact, this post made me realize that the new detached garage I just completed may not be covered by my homeowners insurance at all. I checked with my agent and it turns out it was covered under "other structures". However, at no where near the value of the cost of the build so I just increased the policy limit yesterday. Pretty inexpensive and well worth doing. Thanks for the reminder.

rob1960

I found out how good my homeowners insurance was back in May of '13. The plastic nut on my upstairs toilet braided stainless steel supply line(found out later there was a recall on the hose) popped while I was at work,the water ran for something like 13hrs!!! The house flooded all the way to the basement. I have State Farm for all my insurance(I have agree'd value policy's on my 442 & Harley) I had optional exact cost replacement on my home-owners policy(If you don't have it,Get it!!!!) I can't say enough on how Awesome State Farm was through this mess!!! The total was over $56k & the adjuster Bedee Mobley was wonderful to deal with. She never once tried to beat me up over the cost of something! It was really a blessing in disguise! It "washed" away allot of memories from my crappy marriage!!! I got the whole main 2 story part of the house done over,plus all new furniture & electronics & I didn't have to do the work!!

CRUZN 66

I had this issue when I built my new garage as well... Policy reads out buildings are covered at 10% of home value... No where near the value of a 40x100 building... Increased the out building coverage to $75K, and the cost was reasonable, if not on the pocket, at least on the mind...

DewChugr

WOW, good thing his neighbor happened to see it or it may have been much worse.

Railguy

I was working in house a week ago where there was a drain pipe or something clogged while they where on vacation.
Railguy

442fanatic

I put a Hagerty policy on my car. I have talked to quite a few folks and they agreed if ya put alot of $ into a restoration Hagerty is whom to talk to. There is a feed on here of a guy whose 69/70 cutlass was rear ended and has no problems with Hagerty.
One thing is they mainly handle classics, know the issues that come when a repair is needed on our old girls.. My 2 cents

70-442-W30

I'm having some problems with the numbers on my car. When I set up my policy, I chose a specific value for the car, but an employee called me and let me know that the appropriate figure, according to their research, was 1.4x that.

I know that insurance is a business, and they want to try to make the biggest margin possible...but if anyone out there has an approximate valuation they would place on this car, please PM me. Because if I get consensus from the members here it is worth more, then I will call the insurance company back and increase the value.

jensenracing77

It needs be be high enough that you could replace it in the event of total loss. That figure needs to be high enough to cover time looking for the car and shipping the car to your location. You just have to see what others like yours and in similar condition sell for. If it were me, I would insure your car for $30K but I know others would try to insure it higher. Just be sure it is an "agreed value" policy and not a "stated value" policy.

70-442-W30

This is what I have, just as you mentioned: https://www.hagerty.com/articles-vid...value-coverage

The value they suggested it be insured at was over 2x your amount. The guy underwriting the policy must have liked the color.

oldcutlass

What is the cost of the value they put on it vs what you thinkl? With your car being what it is and the recent auctions, it may very well be worth that. You also have to weigh the chances of a loss just as they do. As stated above, what would it take to replace it and can it be replaced?

70-442-W30

The one thing I didn't like is with the coverage limits on liability, property, uninsured motorists, medical payments, etc they would only go as high as our current daily driver policy on limits. However, if we update our daily drivers to higher amounts, they can up the limits on those. May have to check into that as the expense might be minimal.

oldcutlass

That may be a state law issue. I will agree the above that the agreed policy, or what the company equivalent term is the way to go, as mentioned above.

70-442-W30

The problem with what I think is I'm a rookie at this. I would view the insurance company as the "expert" on valuation, as they are actually paying out claims on these vehicles every once in a while...however, I believe they are probably told to upsell the customer on the initial contact due to the fact that at a somewhat higher coverage level there is probably a higher profit...I can't see any other benefit to them. Unless they are just trying to be nice. Which I guess would be possible in business, just not the normal.

I guess in the end the right number is the number you can sleep well at night with. Peace of mind is really what it's all about.

70-442-W30

He said something about if the coverages were higher on the W-30, then that policy would be acting as an umbrella policy for our other daily driver vehicles...of which I didn't quite get...but you may be right, possibly a state law issue.

nonhog

My wife is an agent and she is always telling me how people have no idea what coverage they have or if the amount they are paying is fair. She gets a lot business because the good ol' boy hometown guy is underinsuring and overpricing the policy's.
My point is check around!

jensenracing77

I would agree with that. My policy for the W-30 with Hagerty was almost two times as high as an agreed policy at State Farm. Only issue I ran into with State Farm is that I had a hard time convincing them to an agreed amount that it would take to replace my restored car.

442fanatic

I have state farm for my daily driver a Dodge Ram, my homeowners, and the umbrella. But upon speaking to my agent for a classic policy, I wasn't comfortable with her explanation of the policy. I spoke to a Hagerty agent and felt a lot better.
I mentioned before Hagerty mainly handles classic cars, they are aware from the get go on how hard they would be to replace, finding parts, and the difference in repairing our old steel girls compared to like the plastic panel jalopies of today.
My hagerty policy was like jensenracing77's quote, twice the rate of a state farm. It didn't take long for me to run through the tallies of what I have invested into the restoration of my car to decide for me it was a no brainer.
If I had not restored my car... Be different. Had I bought a car that was already restored still I would go with the better policy.

442fanatic

I agree with the above. What would it take to replace it. Shipping, restoring if need be. Another factor I would look at is what do shops charge to do work on cars these days? Our old breed require a different set of skills to repair major panels either because of rot, or rear ending. Not quite the same skill set as body shops that only handle insurance jobs on cars on the road. I ran into this when I was looking for a shop to tackle my restoration...