Hagerty vs Grundy

I'm going through this right now with a C6 Z06. It is on a normal policy right now but my usage is going down for the next couple years so I decided to switch to classic car insurance. For me Grundy was 1/2 the price of Hagerty, Hagerty was actually slightly more than my current policy with USAA. Grundy is more restrictive with use and I had to put in the daily driver of every licensed person in the house and Grundy won't let you drive it to work or on errands. Hagerty and American Modern are okay with limited use for those things.

Grundy has you estimate mileage but it doesn't seem to be a limit. I also got a quote from American Modern and the price was actually halfway between Hargerty and Grundy. American Modern does have a mileage limit and I know American Modern requires a picture of the garage where it is kept (I had them before), but Grundy hasn't asked me for that.

I wonder if one of Hagerty's issues is rate of growth and training issues; meaning that the "you can't drive it  to work every so often" might just be a flat-out mistake by a rep?

Wasn't there a big thread here a couple of years ago that mostly ended up being an under-or-mis-trained customer service rep who couldn't reconcile having normal coverage and track day coverage on the same car, effectively saying "oh, hey, if that car goes on track then we can't do general use insurance."

I believe that got straightened out in the commonsense fashion: Normal insurance for normal use, track day insurance because normal insurance doesn't cover track use, but there's no actual conflict in having both.

EDIT: Of course it could be a state-by-state issue; that just seems, as someone put it so well, draconian.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I doubt that the vast majority of the cars insured via Hagerty get anywhere near 5-6k miles of use.  More like 2-3000 max.  If you're not using the car as your daily commuter putting 5-6k miles on it is hard, especially if you live somewhere that gets winter.

I generally don't put more than 2000 miles on the 911 a year for instance, usually less...

Regarding coverage for garaged vs. non-garaged collector cars.

I once brought that up with a rep from one of the classic car insurers and got the feeling that it's a state-by-state thing. Some of these classic car insurers have underwriters for their policies, so that can call the shots. TL;DR: Contact the insurance company and ask. 

In reply to Jesse Ransom :

I am guessing that's what happened in my case, that either the Hagerty rep misunderstood what I was asking for or that they misunderstood Hagerty's own policies for occasional drives into work. Strangely the anecdote about Grundy preceding your post was the opposite of my experience, but again, I never went the full distance and signed a policy with either company so it's possible things would have been cleared up at that stage.

I was living in Wisconsin at the time and doubt state laws would have affected anything, but I live in California now and I see all kinds of fine print about what you can and can't insure here. Luckily I no longer have the need...

I have been with Grundy for something like 15 years now.  They do require some sort of covered parking spot, and they are OK with the occasional drive to work.  You must have a "primary" vehicle not insured through them.  When I originally went with them I'd called Hagerty and something about their policy spooked me or rubbed me the wrong way.  It's been so long ago I really don't recall.  I've lived in a couple of different states and did have to change the coverage based on the state, which wasn't really a huge deal.  You send them a couple of pictures of your car, you agree to a value, and you get a quote.  They do have a "minimum" value, IIRC it's something like $6000.  My cars are all towards the low end of the value range, but I do have 4 vehicles insured through them, with my wife and I as drivers, and I think our annual premium is around $400 total.  I've had a number of policy changes over the years, but the relative price per vehicle per dollar value has not increased much.  I have also, in 15 years, never had a claim with them.  *knock on wood*

Jesse Ransom said:

I wonder if one of Hagerty's issues is rate of growth and training issues; meaning that the "you can't drive it  to work every so often" might just be a flat-out mistake by a rep?

I do know they recently opened up a new office in my city and hired a bunch of people.

"Hagerty's local headcount has grown to about 50 people and it expects to hire another 25 by year's end. It will grow to its 200 expected employees by the end of 2021. The company is looking to hire sales, claims adjusters and technology jobs for much of this hiring."

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/08/20/hagerty-is-ramping-up-hiring-in-dublin-heres-who.html

Note paywall

Never had to file a claim, but the annual rate from Hagerty for an agreed value of $10K on my 1994 C4 Corvette is $270.  I can't complain about that.

One other thing to consider, classic insurance may not even be right for your car, if it's been extensively modified.  In the case of Plymford, I insured it through my regular car insurance company, and it costs about $200 extra per year for liability coverage.  No agreed upon value, but honestly if something happened to it, there's no way anyone but myself is going to lay hands on it to fix it.  And if it were totaled, I'd just part it out and start over again.  

Hagerty was a lot cheaper than StateFarm for full coverage on SWMBOs full size bronco, but once I read the restrictions I stayed with StateFarm.  I don't remember the specific things that were excluded (commuting, was one of them)...but it wasn't worth the savings.

Last year I switched 3 of my 4 cars to Drive-safe-and-save w/State farm and it saved me...$300 to $400 per vehicle per year on my E30, Jeep ,and Alltrack.  Now that I'm down to two cars, it still saves me $300 per year on the TJ, which doesn't see a ton of mileage.   It will log hard braking, speeding, hard acceleration so your results may vary.  You can turn off/on pretty easily if you want to go for a spirited drive or autocross.  I didn't put a sensor on my minivan because it only offered $30/year savings (weird).

I don't know if State Farm does stated-value policies...I've head conflicting information on that, so it may vary by state.  

docwyte said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I doubt that the vast majority of the cars insured via Hagerty get anywhere near 5-6k miles of use.  More like 2-3000 max.  If you're not using the car as your daily commuter putting 5-6k miles on it is hard, especially if you live somewhere that gets winter.

I generally don't put more than 2000 miles on the 911 a year for instance, usually less...

I figure regular weekend trips in the 300-600 mile range.  It only takes a few of those a summer to get 5-6000 miles.

If you don't stretch its legs, why have it?

I can understand if Hagerty is so cheap because they expect a few hundred miles per year.

This thread prompted me to get a quote with Grundy, after being with Hagerty for a few years. Wow, literally half - $350 vs $750 for 2 cars around $15k each. Right from their website, you are allowed to drive it to work occasionally:

https://www.grundy.com/classic-cars/

If you're with SF already, see what they can do for you! They offer agreed value collector car average. I have it on my dune buggy. 

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Guess I don't drive 600 miles every weekend.  That's awesome if you can, I just don't think that many people do.  That's a pretty good road trip, several times a month to put 5-6000 miles on a non DD.  Hagerty doesn't have a mileage restriction, they just don't want you to use it as a DD.

EDIT:  Just did the online quote thing with Grundy and they want the same amount of money as Hagerty for the 996 and Corrado.  So no reason to leave Hagerty.

In reply to docwyte :

I probably put 600 miles per year on my classics.  I love driving them, but with a family all the long road trips are done in one of the more modern rigs.  The fancy stuff is just for runs down to the ice cream parlor or to a friend's house.  

Saron81 said:

If you're with SF already, see what they can do for you! They offer agreed value collector car average. I have it on my dune buggy. 

Yeah, but they sometimes will only 'agree' to what they feel it is worth. They will not insure my 1993 Lightning for $10,000. They say it is only worth half that because of the miles (170,000). Doesn't matter that mine is an original paint, zero rust example. Hagerty/Grundy didn't give a crap about the odo when I last got a quote. In fact, I'm not sure they even asked.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

I just don't really road trip at all.  One of the disadvantages of living out West, everything is *really* far away.  There's no way I'm driving the family out to California vs taking a 2 hour flight for instance.  So most of my mileage is driving up to the mountains, which I do in a DD, not the 911 or corrado...

NOHOME said:

I am still pissed at Hagerty.

Had the MGB and the Molvo insured with them

Sold the MGB ad my coverage bill only went down $60

How does that work? Cause when I added the Molvo the cost went from 350 for the MGB only to $650 for both.

I agree, we are paying a lot for the free monthly magazine and a lot of self- promotion. We also just heard that their roadside asistance has taken a downturn in customer satisfaction.

But as Mrs NOHOME said, what the berkeley you gonna do? No other game in town.

It is simple you can not drive two cars at once. They are insuring you and the risk you bring to a vehicle. The risk to a vehicle parked especially if it is inside is minimal and as such the cost to add and deduct a car from a policy is minimal. The flip side to this is adding another driver. That will cost you.  But once you are adding vehicles in excess of the number of drivers on the policy the cost increase per car added is very small.  Make sence?  
 

I would escalate you situation to a manager. If you don't get any results call the state insurance board and explain your situation to them. However you may not get renewed. 

ddavidv said:

Saron81 said:

If you're with SF already, see what they can do for you! They offer agreed value collector car average. I have it on my dune buggy. 

Yeah, but they sometimes will only 'agree' to what they feel it is worth. They will not insure my 1993 Lightning for $10,000. They say it is only worth half that because of the miles (170,000). Doesn't matter that mine is an original paint, zero rust example. Hagerty/Grundy didn't give a crap about the odo when I last got a quote. In fact, I'm not sure they even asked.

The Hagerty rep didn't even ask for the odometer reading when I added the Elise. 

dean1484 said:

NOHOME said:

I am still pissed at Hagerty.

Had the MGB and the Molvo insured with them

Sold the MGB ad my coverage bill only went down $60

How does that work? Cause when I added the Molvo the cost went from 350 for the MGB only to $650 for both.

I agree, we are paying a lot for the free monthly magazine and a lot of self- promotion. We also just heard that their roadside asistance has taken a downturn in customer satisfaction.

But as Mrs NOHOME said, what the berkeley you gonna do? No other game in town.

It is simple you can not drive two cars at once. They are insuring you and the risk you bring to a vehicle. The risk to a vehicle parked especially if it is inside is minimal and as such the cost to add and deduct a car from a policy is minimal. The flip side to this is adding another driver. That will cost you.  But once you are adding vehicles in excess of the number of drivers on the policy the cost increase per car added is very small.  Make sence? 

We were going to take my mother off of one of the four cars we have on the policy when we transferred title for one from her to me and our insurance office said the same thing. It doesn't save much really to take off one person from one car with four cars spread among two people (we are not the same "household" though). Remember, you are allowed to let other people drive your car anyway.

About mileage jaunts.

Fwiw I often like to drive up into the mountains and stuff at least a couple times a month.

With my latest swap car my last little drive was just over 200miles.  

Now that may wind down during the winter but Ima still drive it when there is no salt.

malibuguy said:

About mileage jaunts.

Fwiw I often like to drive up into the mountains and stuff at least a couple times a month.

With my latest swap car my last little drive was just over 200miles.  

Now that may wind down during the winter but Ima still drive it when there is no salt.

I was doing 5-6000 miles a year in my Elise as a pleasure vehicle. And it was parked when salt was down, figure at least 3 if not 4 months a year. On the other hand , I only did 2000 miles a year in my Caterham. Drivability on quite different scales there.

ddavidv said:

I was leaning toward Hagerty but they just recently went public. Being that I have worked for multiple publicly owned insurers this does not thrill me. I'll probably go with Grundy, if they'll have me.

Just partially read the CM article about Hagerty going public.  That, and the expansion of what the are doing, conserns me a lot about coverage and cost.  It's one thing to be a private company where the people who have to make money have some leeway in the interest of the customers- it's a another when the people who have to make money require it at pretty  much all cost.  Working for share holders vs. the company means a lot different decisions, or at least priorities.

The article listed a bunch of new things that Hagerty is getting invested in- not just interested in, but actually investing in.  They are now going for the classic car lifestyle money.  Which seems fine and interesting and all.  Unless any of those lifestyle investments don't pay off, or cost more than they can make.  Who pays the bills then?  The insurance company.  And since they now will be working for shareholders, the desire to keep people happy for whatever reason (good, cheap classic car coverage with good repair, etc) becomes less a priority over making sure the shareholders make money.

For now, I will probably go with Hagerty (quotes have been quite good), but I would not be surprised that I'll change my tune in the future.

(edit- to our CM overlords I didn't finish the article- didn't seem like a great thing to brag about adding so many odd things to an insurance company- so it left me less enthused about them)

maschinenbau said:

This thread prompted me to get a quote with Grundy, after being with Hagerty for a few years. Wow, literally half - $350 vs $750 for 2 cars around $15k each. Right from their website, you are allowed to drive it to work occasionally:

https://www.grundy.com/classic-cars/

Huh, shows  about the same for my XR4Ti, about half of Hagerty. The only issue I have is that of Grundy does mandate covered parking, I'm screwed. My car sits in the driveway during the summer.

Finally was going to switch from State Farm to Grundy and Grundy essentially said my cars aint worth E36 M3.

So much for trying to protect my time and money with special insurance.  Going to look at other options.