Insurance issues.

celticwarlock

celticwarlock

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Greetings, all.

My 1969 NY just got dropped from American Collectors insurance. They claim that the car has to be worth at least $5K (they valued it at $4K), and added that it has actually depreciated recently, so they won't insure me. I don't see how that's possible, because it would be difficult to buy my car at that price (no visible rust, no dents, everything works, it runs beautifully, etc.).

This is ***-backwards, it seems, because the larger the loss, the greater the risk they assume, but anyway....

Do you guys have any recommendations for classic car insurance? My policy expires in a month, so I'd like to find a solution very soon.
 
I have my 69 Monaco 4dr HT insured with Haggerty with a stated value of $10,000. And it's no creampuff!
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I've been using JC Taylor for years with good results. I had a broken windshield, and they paid me the
full amount with no hassles.
 
celticwarlock said:
Greetings, all.

My 1969 NY just got dropped from American Collectors insurance. They claim that the car has to be worth at least $5K (they valued it at $4K), and added that it has actually depreciated recently, so they won't insure me. I don't see how that's possible, because it would be difficult to buy my car at that price (no visible rust, no dents, everything works, it runs beautifully, etc.).

This is ***-backwards, it seems, because the larger the loss, the greater the risk they assume, but anyway....

Do you guys have any recommendations for classic car insurance? My policy expires in a month, so I'd like to find a solution very soon.
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I've been with Hagerty for years now. They let you set the value, although I'm sure they might balk if the car was way overpriced. In this case, $5k for a decent '69 Chrysler seems pretty reasonable, in fact, I'd say it's on the low side.

I've had no experience with claims myself, but others have said there was never a problem. Everything else has been pretty good, although they do like to send the bill a little early, which seems to annoy Mrs. Big John a bit.
 
Big_John said:
I've been with Hagerty for years now. They let you set the value, although I'm sure they might balk if the car was way overpriced. In this case, $5k for a decent '69 Chrysler seems pretty reasonable, in fact, I'd say it's on the low side.

I've had no experience with claims myself, but others have said there was never a problem. Everything else has been pretty good, although they do like to send the bill a little early, which seems to annoy Mrs. Big John a bit.
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My agent steered me to Berkeley One. When I asked him about Haggerty, he said that he’s had a lot of denials and claim issues with Haggerty.

I haven’t had a claim with Berkeley One, so I’m not going to say don’t go either way. Your agent is the one to talk to.
 
So what are you guys paying for insurance premiums for your cars?

Do you have them as infrequently driven, not used for work, under a certain milage per year?
 
MoPar~Man said:
So what are you guys paying for insurance premiums for your cars?

Do you have them as infrequently driven, not used for work, under a certain milage per year?
Click to expand...
I will have to dig up my bill, but I want to say that for 4 cars (65 Ranchero, 65 Mustang, 68 Fury II 4 door sedan and the 69 Fury III very, it was less than 1k for all of them. Considerably less than other ‘normal’ insurance companies.
 
MoPar~Man said:
So what are you guys paying for insurance premiums for your cars?

Do you have them as infrequently driven, not used for work, under a certain milage per year?
Click to expand...
$505 per year for my 79 300 valued at $15000 and 69 Monaco valued at $10000. With Haggerty.
 
I'm wondering if there are sane insurance options in Canada / Ontario for infrequently driven classic cars, especially in households with only 1 or 2 licensed drivers, where you already insure 1 or 2 modern daily driver cars.

(I pay about $600-$700 CDN a year each for 2 cars - daily drivers - which I have no collision or comprehensive insurance for. It's just for liability, and only $500k not 1 or 2 million. This is for a 2-person household, no kids (so no high-risk drivers) and I've made no claims for more than 30 years, no accidents.)

I believe that insurance is a crock, having it doesn't magically undo damage like it didn't happen. A house a block from me was hit by lightning last year in July. Even though fire crews were called within minutes, and came back again a few hours later, the house burned to the ground about 12 hours after the lightning strike. That house is now almost rebuilt and ready to move in. Maybe another month or two. For 10 months nothing happened on the site. This is what you get for having insurance.

I've been rebuilding my car this year, I don't insure it just for sitting there, it hasn't been driven for 25 years. I intend to drive it and finally enjoy it next spring / summer. I will only insure it for the minimum liability that the gov't legally requires, I won't put collision or comprehensive on it, like I don't for my other 2 daily drivers. Why not? Because insurance is a crock.

And all that hurricane damage in Florida and North Carolina - we're all going to be paying for it, everyone that buys any sort of insurance in Canada and the US. All that fire damage in Kalifornia and Hawaii. We all end up paying for it through higher premiums.
 
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I pay $277 for my 68 300 convertible through Hagerty. Stated value at $15K. garage kept.
 
MoPar~Man said:
I'm wondering if there are sane insurance options in Canada / Ontario for infrequently driven classic cars, especially in households with only 1 or 2 licensed drivers, where you already insure 1 or 2 modern daily driver cars.

(I pay about $600-$700 CDN a year each for 2 cars - daily drivers - which I have no collision or comprehensive insurance for. It's just for liability, and only $500k not 1 or 2 million. This is for a 2-person household, no kids (so no high-risk drivers) and I've made no claims for more than 30 years, no accidents.)

I believe that insurance is a crock, having it doesn't magically undo damage like it didn't happen. A house a block from me was hit by lightning last year in July. Even though fire crews were called within minutes, and came back again a few hours later, the house burned to the ground about 12 hours after the lightning strike. That house is now almost rebuilt and ready to move in. Maybe another month or two. For 10 months nothing happened on the site. This is what you get for having insurance.

I've been rebuilding my car this year, I don't insure it just for sitting there, it hasn't been driven for 25 years. I intend to drive it and finally enjoy it next spring / summer. I will only insure it for the minimum liability that the gov't legally requires, I won't put collision or comprehensive on it, like I don't for my other 2 daily drivers. Why not? Because insurance is a crock.

And all that hurricane damage in Florida and North Carolina - we're all going to be paying for it, everyone that buys any sort of insurance in Canada and the US. All that fire damage in Kalifornia and Hawaii. We all end up paying for it through higher premiums.
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Go with Hagerty Canada.
It used to be Lant Insurance " Silver Wheels".
Elite Insurance is the underwriter.
You need proof of a registered and insured daily driver.
Your Monaco is worth more than you think.
Even if you are not driving it yet storing in your garage, get it insured NOW!
What if the garage burns down? Your Monaco will not be covered if not insured.
I got an email last week from Hagerty and the value of my Monaco went up by 4k!
I pay 600 CDN a year fr both cars ( 67 Monaco, 68 Newport)
Hope this helps.

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I'm looking into Berkley One now. The preliminary quote was around $430 for 2 cars (the Chrysler and a Saturn 3-door). I'm shopping around, but this doesn't seem unreasonable. Hagerty is a bit more steep.
 
I pay Hagerty ~$900 yearly for 3 collector cars. I have high liability limits on everything. I could walk away from a total loss on any of the cars and while it might sting, I'd still have a roof over my head and food on the table.

A liability claim that goes over the policy limits can wipe out retirement savings and home equity with the bang of a judges gavel, so I want to protect myself as much as I can. The added policy costs are surprisingly inexpensive.

I've increased the agreed value a couple times over the years and I review that every year. The cost to increase agreed value isn't much either.

One other little piece of security... I run a dash cam in everything. That paid off big time for us a couple years ago with an accident that Mrs. Big John was involved in.
 
I'm going with Berkley One for now.

Thank you guys for all the input. $345 yearly for the 2 cars with reasonable, realistic coverage limits.
 
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