Classic car insurance

Rocky Fluegge

PCS Member
I just change my insurance on my old cars. I have seen a article about 6 months prior that compared insurance with like 5 companys, Grundy- Hagerty-Jc taylor and a couple others. So it got me thinking. I was putting insurance for 7 of my cars with hagerty and it was around 1200.00 a year with 300/500 coverage, and declared value& one of my cars has storage insurance because im not driving it. Well in the article grundy was cheaper so i decided to check into it befor my renewal. I needed to up the value on some of the cars so i did that and i also had the coverage on the storage car just in case i get off of my rear and work on that car so i can take it out this year. If i had full coverage on it, add about another 120 a year to the final bill with hagerty. Grundy insurance ended up being about 700 for the insurance coverage. I was blown away at that, i thought i may say a 100 bucks of so not almost half. They say that the were one of the first to offer collector car insurance and are one of the bigger ones doing it. They had no problems with the ambulance, also had no problem if i took a couple of cars to a show at one time and if they all got damaged no promlem. All they said is as long as the driver was older then 25 and that they had my permission to drive the cars. Just wanted to make mention about this, it may save some money for some of you it sure did for me, and some of my family members switched also and it save for all of them too. The correct name for the company if you are looking into it is "Grundy World wide Insurance"
 
Rocky, If you want to hear some INS horror stories, you should to talk John Ehmer who had 7 cars damaged when the roof colapsed. The INS CO has no idea what the PRO cars are worth. Frank Marasco
 
I have Hagerty, and last year my windshield was struck by a rock and cracked. They covered 100% of the $1600.00 bill for the new windshield.
 
J.C. Taylor

I have had J.C. Taylor since first collecting pro-cars, police cars and fire trucks in the early 90's, always felt they were reasonable, but have never had a single claim either. Hewy & Ruth had a LARGE Claim with dozens of vehicles with JCT about 8 years ago when a CA Wildfire ran thru their entire collection and I understand that they (JCT) settled without issue right away. MM
 
still with state farm. I upped the value on the 72 after the other one sold. the 53 was added they run about 6 bucks a month for 6000,00 loss and 200 deductible. cant beat this for coverage. had 3 claims all taken care of. I can live with there restrictions
 
All insurance companies are good until you have a claim. Then you learn how good or bad they can be. I have Haggerty and have been satisfied with them, however, I have only had one claim, and it was handled OK, but not perfectly. Not so bad that I would switch carriers...
 
Bear in mind that if you DO ever have a claim the adjuster who shows up to survey the damage will likely have NO or at best very little experience with collector vehicles. Virtually all insurance co's out source their claims adjusting to local (to where the vehicle resides) adjusters. We have done a handful of insurance jobs over the years (latest was a '29 Pierce involved in a collision) and not once has an adjuster had even the slightest knowledge of what he was looking at. This actually works to your advantage! Insurance co's are anxious to settle these type claims as quickly as possible. We have never had a real problem reaching a mutually fair settlement. We tend to like Grundy if only because Jim Grundy's grandfather was a Pullman Auto dealer and Pullman was built locally in York, PA.
 
Rocky, thanks for posting this. I was just thinking about calling around tomorrow to see about changing the insurance on my 67 M-M, and my Ford F-100 to collector car insurance. They are the only 2 cars I have that get drove right now, and Geico is causting to much a month for 2 cars that don't get drove every day, or may not even get drove every week. Plus I'd like to have better coverage on them.

Josh
 
I am with State Farm and opted not to go with the antique car insurance. My car is insured as a recreational vehicle with a limit of 10,000 kilometres per year. The kilometre limit can be negotiated to more or less at the beginning of the year, and if I am going to put more kms on, I just need to call them and they will adjust accordingly.

For the value of the car, I had it appraised and they have the appraisal on file. Should something happen and the car be a total loss, they will use the appraisal to figure out the replacement cost of the vehicle.

The main reason why I did not go with the antique car insurance was because the insurance restricted the movement of the car to car shows and like activities. So technically, I would have been insured to go to Albany, but not for a Sunday drive. I am pretty sure that a lot of folks around here are insured with the antique car insurance and that they are driving their car for more than what it is officially intended for. If they get into a serious crash, it would be interesting to see what the insurance company decides to do with their coverage.
 
Every country and every state have there own particular quirks that allow somethings and not others. Insurance regulations are only part of the equation, since state laws can also effect your uses. I can drive my antique 24/7 in CT, since the state doesn't restrict the use. My insurance carrier allows me to use the car for exhibition purposes, and that includes driving it whenever I want. The only restriction is that I shouldn't use it for my daily transportation or drive it to work. An example of a state that has strict rules about antique plates is PA... The use of antique and classic plates is governed by Section 1340 of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code which states:
“It is unlawful for any person to operate a motorcycle or vehicle with antique and classic registration plates for general daily transportation. Permitted use shall be limited to participation in club activities, exhibits, tours, parades, occasional transportation and similar uses.Occasional transportation and similar uses is defined as one day a week."
They also have a restriction on night driving that requires antiques to have modern lighting if driven at night.
 
I was just talking to my State Farm agent about this the other day (who also happens to be my best friend from college for 20 years now, so I think I'm getting the straight scoop). I recently talked to a representative from Hagerty about classic vehicle insurance, so I decided to find out how my State Farm insurance stacked up.

Basically what it boils down to is this: For a classic vehicle you want to make sure you have an agreed upon value for your vehicle. As I understand it, this can be any value you want, but it is subject to the underwriters approval. So you determine how much you have invested in your vehicle, or how much it is worth to you, then they decide whether or not they want to insure it for that value. The catch is that they base your premium on a "per $1000" amount, so insuring your vehicle for $10000 is going to cost you ten times as much as insuring it for $1000. The good news is that if you total your vehicle they pay out the agreed upon amount, no questions asked. No going to the internet and looking up comparable vehicles, or going by what the blue or black book says. "Agreed upon" means that once you enter into a contract, you agree to pay a certain premium and they agree to pay out a fixed amount in the event of a total loss. You need to make sure you have something like this in place so the insurance company isn't comparing your ultra rare flower car to "just another Cadillac" when they are deciding how much to pay out to you.
 
I was just talking to my State Farm agent about this the other day (who also happens to be my best friend from college for 20 years now, so I think I'm getting the straight scoop). I recently talked to a representative from Hagerty about classic vehicle insurance, so I decided to find out how my State Farm insurance stacked up.

Basically what it boils down to is this: For a classic vehicle you want to make sure you have an agreed upon value for your vehicle. As I understand it, this can be any value you want, but it is subject to the underwriters approval. So you determine how much you have invested in your vehicle, or how much it is worth to you, then they decide whether or not they want to insure it for that value. The catch is that they base your premium on a "per $1000" amount, so insuring your vehicle for $10000 is going to cost you ten times as much as insuring it for $1000. The good news is that if you total your vehicle they pay out the agreed upon amount, no questions asked. No going to the internet and looking up comparable vehicles, or going by what the blue or black book says. "Agreed upon" means that once you enter into a contract, you agree to pay a certain premium and they agree to pay out a fixed amount in the event of a total loss. You need to make sure you have something like this in place so the insurance company isn't comparing your ultra rare flower car to "just another Cadillac" when they are deciding how much to pay out to you.

I think you got it right about declared value. Hagerty actually contacted me last year and said my 66 ford truck was underinsured and put me up a few thousand as they said the value had increased since I got it. I thought this was nice of them. Got the 79 AHA hearse at 10k and the 70MM at 10k and the truck is at 12k I believe.
 
Part of what also got me going on this subject. I just got done working on the nose of a original paint 1970 plymouth superbird this last year. The car had one little mis hap with the nose when it was brand new, all the rest of the car was factory paint.The guy who owned the car since 1979 had it insured all these years thru american family, had not had a claim now had it insured for 100.000 plus dollars on the insurance. had a mishap in his own garage ran it into his truck parked there. opps! The adjuster that came to look at it was a total hard nose on the hours to fix it right. "metal finish as much as i could, and was just not fair on the hours and would not budge. I even knew of a N.O.S. nose for it but would have none if it. It took all of 50 hours to work the nose and im pretty fast if i do say so. he would only pay 30. He also told him to take it to another shop in kenosha, which i told the owner to take it there and if they did not fix it right scream bloody murder. He went to the sugested shop and was not impressed with them. So he ended up paying me out of his pocket to finish it the way that it should be fixed, that was just not right hour were fair and not padded in any way. They would not budge a bit they looked at it like it was just another new mini van or something. Not the low production survivor that it is Sad so all i can say guys be aware from some one that had a body shop for more then 10 years. here is a pic of the car.
 

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The problem isn't the insurance company, but the adjusters that they assign to the car, are not familiar with collector vehicles, and as such, they have no idea of what it will take to fix it properly. The only thing that you can do is to go back to the insurance company and complain that the adjuster isn't qualified to be appraising damage on a historic vehicle. Repairing historic vehicles isn't the same as repairing your daily driver. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of damage appraisers that realize the difference. When it comes down to the number of hours to do the repair, all you can do is to submit a supplemental payment request, and hope that the insurance company will pay it. Today, this is very commonly done...
 
The problem isn't the insurance company, but the adjusters that they assign to the car, are not familiar with collector vehicles, and as such, they have no idea of what it will take to fix it properly. The only thing that you can do is to go back to the insurance company and complain that the adjuster isn't qualified to be appraising damage on a historic vehicle. Repairing historic vehicles isn't the same as repairing your daily driver. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of damage appraisers that realize the difference. When it comes down to the number of hours to do the repair, all you can do is to submit a supplemental payment request, and hope that the insurance company will pay it. Today, this is very commonly done...

That's why it's a good idea to consider collector car specialists like Hagerty, Grundy, etc., because they only concern themselves with specialty vehicles. They make their money by referrals after they take care of customers. Everybody has had a bad experience with an insurance company, and by paying with no questions asked they automatically get a referral to all the insureds car buddies. There's more of a payout on a collector car, but if that's all you insure as a company there are less of them getting totalled by percentage just because they get driven less and are generally more well cared for. In the end it works out for everybody. I'm still considering switching to Hagerty for my ambulance.
 
That's why it's a good idea to consider collector car specialists like Hagerty, Grundy, etc., because they only concern themselves with specialty vehicles. They make their money by referrals after they take care of customers. Everybody has had a bad experience with an insurance company, and by paying with no questions asked they automatically get a referral to all the insureds car buddies. There's more of a payout on a collector car, but if that's all you insure as a company there are less of them getting totaled by percentage just because they get driven less and are generally more well cared for. In the end it works out for everybody. I'm still considering switching to Hagerty for my ambulance.

I have had 2 collector car claims in 40 years... In 1963 my 1926 Buick was totaled, and it was insured with J.C. Taylor. They paid the claim, but they also negotiated on the value before paying. I don't remember exactly how the policy back then was written. I remember it was underwritten by Zürich American Insurance Company. Around 1980, I had a claim with Haggerty Insurance with my 1934 Dodge and the adjuster that they sent only understood metal work. He was unwilling to pay for any wood restoration that was necessary, and I fought with Haggerty to no avail. I am still insured with Haggerty, but that one instance proved to me that the company was only as good as the adjuster assigned to the claim. In this instance, he was terrible. I wound up selling the car since I couldn't get enough money to repair it properly. Now that I know exactly how they work, I make sure that each vehicle is insured enough that it will cover any and all damages. The one problem with most of these cars is that the damage repair cost can quickly exceed the amount of insurance that you have on the car, and then they just total out the car and take the salvage. Unfortunately, for the collector, this isn't a good deal, since many times we can't replace the cars for what we get from insurance. For this reason, I have kept the insurance values high. If they decide to total the vehicle, then I will get a large payout in the end. In many instances, what we can sell a car for is a lot less than its value to us as individuals, especially if it is the only one known to exist.
 
Paul, i talked to the adjuster, i even questioned his past history on classic car repair, that got him all worked up his statement to me was dont even go there! I layed out my cridentials and told about all the magazine cars that i did, and the national show winners and it just turned into a pissing match. So i told him i see where this was going and i would talk to the owner. Even in this case the insurance agent even tryed to talk to the people above the adjuster no supplements would be considered. I took pictured tru the repair for the owner, all the gave him was 4 more hours on the rework of some bad aftermarket headlight doors. And i have my drivers insured tru am fam, i always said the bigger players are great to work with on the new stuff and the home ect. But they will not have any of my old cars insured tru them!!
 
I have used Haggerty since I started collecting/restoring cars 8 years ago. Had one claim. Happened on Monday, met the adjuster on Tues., had check Saturday morning. Paid me full shop rates on all damage, regardless of whether I was doing the work or hiring it done. A very possitive experience, and a check equal to about 4 years premiums for relatively minor damage. Made a long-term customer of me. $650 a year for three agreed-on value of $54k, $0 deductible and flatbed road service.

Kelly Martin
 
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