Collector car insurance

[bosco001]

Would like to get advice as to what insurance companies to consider for a collector car - to be used as a collector car and not as a daily driver. I'm familar with Hagerty and Grundy from their TV ads on Speed TV. Anyone have experience with either of these? Or, other companies you'd recommend? If so, why?

Looking forward to your input as to what coverage to look for and issues to consider. Thanks.

[1965Original]

I have a friend that insures his ’63 Nova with Grundy and he seems well pleased with them.

Their rates are disgustingly cheap, I think he pays something like $60 a year, but there are a lot of restrictions about when and where he can drive the car.

Personally, I didn’t like all the restrictions so went with my regular auto insurance company and set all three of my cars up as pleasure vehicles. I can’t use them as “daily drivers” but I can drive them to the store, for example, without being in violation of my insurance policy. The insurance is not as cheap as Grundy, but it is considerably less expensive than regular insurance, and I can enjoy the cars more.

Just to give you a couple of examples of restrictions that Tim has on his insurance… he cannot leave the car unattended outside of a garage. Also, he is only allowed to drive the car “for pleasure”, to and from places to have it repaired or shows, and in parades. To me this indicates that using the car for any kind of errand might cause a problem. If you were to have an accident with a gallon of milk in the car, were you driving for pleasure or were you running an errand?

So I decided to pay a little more, (ok, a lot more) to buy more freedom and coverage. I just didn’t need the stress of worring about if my car is covered when I am out and about.

T

Edit: I checked with Tim, and his insurance is with Grundy, not Hagarty as I orginally stated.

[Stuart M. Cohen]

I also use Hagerty and actually, for classics, their restrictions are much less. They don't car how many miles you drive, rather, they care more about the type of miles you drive. No classic car insurance company will cover you if you use it as a daily driver. That's not what they do; that's what regular car insurance companies are for.

When I was looking at insurance, they the other classic car companies all had restrictions on the amount of miles driven. Hagerty didn't. Also, (unfortunately) I have had experience with their claims process which is excellent. For my Lincoln, I pay less than 1% of the insured value for coverage. I'd also recommend (for what it's worth) that you increase the amount of medical payments on the car. My personal feeling is that if I get into an accident with my 5,200 pound car, someone's getting hurt and the standard coverage ($1,000 I think) isn't gonna be enough.

Just a thought.....

[Barry Wolk]

First lesson. Don't buy insurance through a local agent. They get to mark up the policy for their "personalized" service. It's typically a 10-15% mark-up. Not worth it. Deal directly with the company. The policies are typically "agreed-value" up to a certain point, at which they ask you for an appraisal.

Most of these "insurance companies" are not. They are brokers, plain and simple. They bundle your statistically low-risk automotive peer's toys premiums and sell the risk off to a Lloyd's of London, or some other huge concern. They simply pocket the difference. It's enormously profitable since, statistically, we don't wreck our toys, except me.

They all use estimator services who's job it is to get the repair done at the cheapest price. Nature of the beast. Since our cars aren't '57 Chevys, there are no new sheet metal sources for our beasts. That makes the labor go up and that's where they balk.

If you haven't read my tome on my experience with Hagerty, here it is in a nutshell. I was very fortunate to survive a violent accident while pulling my car hauler with the '55 Porsche in the back of it. They sent out a specialist to estimate the damages to the trailer and another to look at the Porsche. I had just insured the trailer for a tidy sum just two days before the accident. I received the papers that bound the policy and hadn't received a bill or paid a dime in premium. Two weeks later I had a check for over $40,000 for the damages on the trailer alone. All they asked for was proof that I had a clear title.

The Porsche was a bit more of a struggle. Since only one side of the car was damaged they only wanted to pay to paint half the car. Where do you stop painting on a round car with absolutely no normal paint breaks? They tried to tell me that it would be just fine to blend two stage with the existing single stage paint. I did my homework and found several experts that disagreed with their findings and they simply folded. They ended up paying out over $25,000 on the Porsche, so far. I have an open claim on the suspension damage.

You'll find that they're all that way because it's really not their money. They are simply the service department for processing your claim. Why not go with the one with the best service department?

Hagerty's restrictions are minimal. They want you to drive your cars in low-risk situations, but, you're not restricted to short local drives. I've driven to shows as much as 500 miles away. They encourage it. They want you to let them know when you go on a long trip or when you've shipped the car, but that's not restrictive. My cars have been offered some movie parts. They are not excluded from this type of activity. They charge $50 every time you do it, basically to cover the cost of the paperwork.

Hagerty also has another type of insurance you guys should know about. I have a 1988 BMW 750iL that I bought new. It's 21 years old and has 77,000 miles on it. I keep it for formal occasions and the occasional dusting of a stock Corvette. The roar of the V-12 is something that I've had trouble parting with.

I only buy three-month tags for it in the summer as license plates are still over $300 a year, for a 21 year old car. I used to insure it through my business insurance and it was an annual premium of $1,250. Hagerty insures it with full coverage and extra liability to comply with my umbrella, for $250 annually. It's some kind of seldom-used policy that applies to keepers that you'd like to use every once in a while to take a trip, or something.

The only requirement that I know of is that you have to insure a collector's car with them and you have to have one plated and insured car for every licensed driver in the house. Seems fair to me to realize that kind of savings. There is one other thing. The car has to be stored in a covered and locked building. Also seems reasonable.

It's all about money. Low risk, low premium. The agreed value on the BMW is $10,000 for a $250 premium. The '77 Town Car is insured for $15,000 and the premium is under $100. Seldom-used vs. hardly used.

A lot of the insurance brokers sponsor auto-related events. They will provide lanyards or mugs or some other givaway. Many will set up a tent and pass out literature. In addition to that, Hagerty sends people. They send field representatives to assist the show's organizers, whether it be dishing out ice cream at a small car show to aiding in coordinating the awards ceremony. I'm impressed with that.

I know this sounds like I'm shilling for Hagerty but it's all true. It's been a mutually beneficial relationship. BTW, Hagerty has lowered it's rates 5 times as it's only allowed to make so much money. What other insurance business has lowered rates?

[mbhoag]

http://www.americancollectors.com/

Nobody mentions american collectors insurance, they are who I use and I have been happy with price/restrictions vs Haggerty and the others. I would look into them as well.

[toddallen]

I just looked at my State Farm collector car policy, I have $37,000 worth of full coverage and I pay only $226 per year, $100 comprehensive and $250 collision deductible and free towing.

I believe you can drive up to 7500 miles per year.

[Barry Wolk]

That's pretty competitive. That's a little over $6 per thousand. I believe I'm paying about $5 per thousand, but I get a discount for insuring all my goodies with them.

I pay a little ofver $5 per thousand for the trailer, too.

There is no deductible with Hagerty.

[vindicator]

I have three cars with Haggerty and am very pleased.

[1973 Mark IV Fanatic]

I've always gone with American Collectors, and have always been very pleased with the cost, their restriction policy, etc. My premium last year was $152.00 with a mileage tier of 2,500 and an agreed upon value for the car of $18,500.00. The agreed upon value is probably a little strong for a '73 Mark IV, but then, my car is priceless to me. I imagine if I lowered the agreed upon value of the car to, say, $14,000.00 or $12,500.00, I could probably get my yearly premium down to around one hundred dollars...

[joeinbcs]

I've been very happy with Haggerty. A few months ago I was pulling one of my Jaguars into the garage and stepped on the brakes. Nothing. I didn't have time or the presence of mind to pull the emergency brake and smashed into the front of my garage. It wasn't a huge amount of damage, but Haggerty sent a tow truck to me in College Station and took the car to Classic Jaguar USA in Austin (about 100 miles away). They had an adjuster on the spot in a day or two, and gave what CJ owner, Dan Mooney, described as a generous estimate of repairs. I had a check in a week and have the car back now. They're great to deal with and very responsive. I can't imagine using anyone else. Plus, I like they way they support the classic car hobby on Velocity channel and other venues.

[2sasilverbullet]

USAA - no special policy.
$412.74 a year
comp - w/250 deductible
collision - none
no rental
towing
bodily injury 100K/300K person/accident
property damage 100K per accident
uninsured/underinsured bodily injury 30k/60k

I would rather pay a little more and have no restrictions. I don't have a garage to park my car in at my house anymore and I drive it about 2 days a week to work.

[joeinbcs]

USAA is also a great company. I've been using their insurance products (home, auto, life, investment) for almost 40 years. They do have an affiliate called American Modern Insurance, who insures collector cars. I had my drivers with USAA and my collector cars with American Modern for a few years. Sadly, American Modern was not in the same league with USAA as far as service is concerned. They were very difficult to reach, hard to deal with, and twice the price of Haggarty. In fact, when I switched last year, I made a point of talking to to a corporate VP about the affiliation with American Modern, hoping that they might change to a similar arrangement with Haggarty. So far, nothing's happened though.

[lightning1]

I just switched to Hagerty a few months ago after using J.C. Taylor for 20 years. Several months ago a friend thought I was paying an awful lot more than I should. Since my renewal was coming up I decided to check with "all" the other companies. WOW! I was schocked to learn I was "over paying" by as much as $800 a year with Taylor and insured for about 1/3rd (or more) LESS of the vehicle value. When I questioned that company, they stated they were not fully approved to sell insurance in California and had to sub-contract in my area. Brand me stupid for almost 20 years , lets say, an average of $600 a year - $12K (OR MORE).

Yes, before you question the premium, I do have a number of high value vehicles.

Taylor would not comment on any other question. I do remember asking questions like this a decade ago and they said they were pending approval in California. Thus, "I" assume, if you live in California, you should check with each and every company available each year. Yes, a lot depends on mileage and what your own preference is. Just Check each year! My outcome was a switch to Hagerty @ $600 a year less than my previous coverage "with" 50% more value on my collector cars and that included their Towing Service. I have not used my AAA towing in a decade. Just 4 weeks after switching to Hagerty, I needed a tow and waited 3 hours for AAA. I phoned Hagerty and a truck was here in 30 minutes and I requested the service I desired. No questions asked!. Thus, check and shop for everything for your car each and every year. One caution here guys. Google the various insurance companies out there and look at the Reviews. There is one company mentioned herein that had a red flag - for me! They were very nice but I did further research on the problems mentioned in the reviews and decided a red flag was a red flag for a reason. Good luck in obtaining a lower insurance rate!

[Castrosua]

I have USAA too...for now the best thing is the glass program...no deductible regardless of the cost of glass or how many times its happens. And they will make sure you get the right glass, down to the most ridiculous details.

But, i would like true classic car insurance, but i dont have a garage either...and its not looking good in that department, at least for the time being

[KGB Pilot125]

First time Hagerty customer checking in. 9k stated value and premium is $146 per year with roadside assistance.

Really happy with their service, I had to call them a few times just with stupid questions and they were always very helpful

Josh