Insurance question

When should you use Classic Car insurance? I mean if I get an AE86 or Porsche 944 should I get classic car insurance. Or should I just use regular old insurance? Will regular insurance give me fair value for a car like that?

Not that I have a vested interest or anything, but I know for a fact that I can get Hagerty insurance on an '86 944 with an agreed upon value of $5K for $163 per year.

If it is not a daily driven car, most classic car insurers have quite low annual mileage limits, it is much cheaper to have classic "agreed value" insurance.

The main issue with classic car insurance are the usage restrictions that a lot of companies impose - for example, a lot of policies will not allow you to commute to work in the classic car and will require that you have a second everyday car, too.

Nevertheless for a weekend car it's a pretty good deal.

You really need to talk to your agent, but most companies will do agreed-value policies for even a daily driver. It might not be cheap, tho...

I don't know of any classic carrier that doesn't require you to have a daily driver. They usually require that it is newer than the car you're insuring, too. They want it kept in a garage as well.

+1 What everyone else has said. Plus some require you to be at least 25 years old. They also scrutinize your driving record. Your recent accident will not look good to them.

I have a policy through Grundy on one of my RX-7's. Less than $200 per year for $15k agreed. Just has to live in the garage and I need a primary use vehicle.

Otto_Maddox wrote: Not that I have a vested interest or anything, but I know for a fact that I can get Hagerty insurance on an '86 944 with an agreed upon value of $5K for $163 per year.

Yeah, I just insured the Fiat for $3500 for $72.50/year with really nice limits equal to my DD...

I work in this business...everyone else above is right. If it's going to be a daily driver, don't bother. Classic coverage is for "weekend" cars only. And they are very strict on that, so you wouldn't want to fudge it.

Another variable is the number of cars you own. If you have two licensed drivers in the house, you have to have two cars plus the Classic. You may be tempted to use the Classic as a DD.

My experience, YMMV.

Dan

So this is a question more out interest then anything I am planning on doing but say you had some car from the '60s and you wanted to DD the car. Is there a good way to insure it since it seems Classic Car insurance won't work and from everything I have heard regular insurance kinda screws you over if you have a wreck in a classic?

Some insurers/states let you do agreed value on a daily. I was going to do that with my GTI when I lived in MD but once I moved into PA I couldn't anymore with my current insurer.

I've heard of Progressive doing this (agreed value on a dd), but supposedly they are hard to deal with getting claim money. But I've only heard of this on the ever reliable interw3bs.

If I were in your shoes, I'd get the phone out and start calling every insurance company. It will take all of a day or weekend or two, but it will probably be worth it.

Also, although you probably know this, you are going to have a very hard time getting anything for a good price. You are (presumably) under 25 and have a very recent accident on your record that was (presumably) your fault, at least to the insurance company. If i were in your shoes--and I'm in a very similar situation minus the accident--I'd be looking for some cheap (sub $1000) Saturn/Civic/whatever that you can insure very cheaply and use as a daily driver, and get whatever LBC/fun car and insure it with some sort of collector/classic insurance. This will actually probably make the rates lower in the long run. A friend got an S2000 and couldn't afford the insurance (I think he was about 22 at the time). What did he do? Bought a $800 civic and kept the S2000. His insurance was actually cut in half because the DD was no longer an S2k.

If all else fails, you might be looking at a Miata (or something similar) for a few years until you can realistically make the classic idea work.

Good luck, I hope it all works out for you the way you want.

One other thing: Make sure you get AGREED value, not STATED value. I'm in an insurance-centered major here at college and have had to take a few classes related to it. I've not gotten much out of the classes, but I did get this from it:
A Stated value policy is premiums based on what YOU think its worth. When you get in an accident, the insurance company pays based on what THEY think it is worth. I'll lay odds 1000000000 to 1 that you won't agree. An Agreed value is something you both have agreed on. In an accident, you get the agreed value if its totaled.

Yes, some insurance companies will do agreed value on a daily driver vehicle. You'll have to call around to see who's willing to do it. You may be able to get it on a 944, I suspect it may be harder on an AE86. Those decisions are usually made by underwriters. They aren't often "car guys" or gals. So while they recognize a Corvette or Porsche, they may not see an old Toyota as something worth putting an agreed value on.

If you do find a company willing to do it, document, document, document everything. Send them pictures of the car, proof of it's value, receipts for work done to it, etc... It may help them decide whether to accept your application.

I just read mtn's post above. He's correct, make sure you have agreed value, not stated. Stated isn't a bad thing, but it doesn't gaurantee you'll get what you stated the value was. Agreed does.

NSFW NSFW

One last thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtEp5yc-g3A

NSFW NSFW