Insurance

[Lhorn]

I use Hagerty Insurance for my Chevelle and amongst classic car owners, I think their reputation is good. Generally they only insure older cars, but they said they will also insure a Grand National. Do any of you use this insurance? I think one stipulation is that you are limited in the number of miles you drive per year, but I'm sure that won't be a problem for me. Their rate is about 180 dollars per year.

Thanks

[WakkoSS]

You also have to have it in a locked garage and have no other drivers accessible to it. I wanted to insure my 67 Cadillac with it but do not have a garage.

[Pat Adkins]

www.grundy.com They don't have the miles that you can drive stipulation.

[dsa87gn]

Isnt another stipulation of these types of insurance that the car has to be "orginal with no mods" ?

[turbofish38]

Thats a good rate. I have a policy with Grundy and when I was doing some shopping around all of the companies would do a newer car( newer than 25 years) but it needed to be parked in a secure garage and not driven more than 5000 miles per year and not to be used as transportation(i.e. you could not drive it to work not even for one day). You also had to have full coverage on another vehicle through another company. Make sure you read the fine print. IMO there are a lot of gray areas as far them paying a claim if you were to ever file one. For example they will pay in full if its stolen or the house burns down but its a little fuzzy if you get in a traffic accident on Wednsday night cruising around town and really fuzzy if you are driving it Monday morning to the body shop to have a door ding removed. Also the savings were not that great seeing as I had to get full coverage on my normal transportion that I used to have just liability on. But the major reason for switching is now if something does happen to it I can afford to replace it with my agreeded value as compared to the rip-off insurance companies book value. Eric Fisher

[Lhorn]

I'll check out Grundy first.
I've heard good things about Hagerty paying off claims, so that's why I went with them on the Chevelle. I've got a Honda so I'll never have to drive the GN to work. I'm sure the 5000 miles per year won't be a problem. I've got a nice space reserved for it in the garage as well. The car is bone stock too. Thanks for the replies. I just feel like I'd like to go with one of these specialty insurers because I'd feel ripped off if I paid full State Farm rates and only drive the car 100 miles per month.

Any other experience with insuring these things?

[squeeze87]

I tried Hagerty but they said to insure a GN it needed to appraise for at least $20,000. My car meets all the reqirements they have except that. I think they just werent interested in helping me. All insurance companys are concerned with is extracting as much cash as possible with out ever paying you a dime!!

[Fuelie600]

Funny this topic of Hagerty Ins came up. By coincidence, I called them this morning to insure my 13,000 mi '86 GN. Things were going smoothly untill she asked what mods were done and estimated HP. Of course I could see where this conversation was going, so I started down playing the mods and low balling the HP level. Suddenly, she said my car was too new, when she knew the year was '86 from the onset. I was told that they are flexible with the year requirement, but not that flexible. Go figure!! Anyhow, State farm insured me for $135 every 6 months for full coverage and a stated value of $22,000 under "classic".

[squeeze87]

Well, I have state farm and have been paying $300/6 months and would only receive "book value". If I cancel my buick insurance through state farm, i lose my multi-vehicle discount which negates the savings from collecter insurance companies. My state farm agent advised me to get the car appraised, bring in the appraisal and they would see what they can do. What really gets me is that I'm single and no one else drives my vehicles, so why do I need 2 seperate premiums?? I cant drive both cars at the same time! Fuelie600, how old did state farm tell you the car had to be to qualify for "classic" coverage? I thought it was 20 years old

[Kent Buckles]

I recently checked with my State Farm agent for a quote on my GN under "classic" car insurance. They will insure a 87 under "Classic" but I was told the miles were very limited and it was only for special use only. My estimate was $120/6 per months at a value of $16000 which is $30 cheaper per MONTH than insuring book value. I drive my car to 28-30 shows each year! I have AGAIN decided it is best to make State Farm accept pictures and value documents of my car to keep in my file if there is ever a claim and be ready to fight it out with them. I figure this is less risk than fighting over whether I had not meet limited driving requirements of having "classic" insurance if i was involved in an accident. This is my personal opinion and is based on the fact that I DRIVE my car to 30 car shows each year thus POSSIBLY exceeding limits.

[Lhorn]

Squeeze,
I briefly talked to a guy the other day at Hagerty and he made no mention of a minimum value of the car. He asked me how much it was worth, I told him a number a bit higher than the true value (but still WAY WAY lower than 20K) and he told me $186/yr. He said that in general, the cars have to be like 20-25 yrs old but that they make exceptions for GNs. Mine is bone stock though.

I'm gonna call Hagerty again in the am and clarify. Thanks for the input.

[Fuelie600]

Squeeze87, 20 years is the age requirement. They will make exceptions for low mile, limited use vehicles. I was paying $236 every 6 months, keeping full coverage from may 'till nov. and then just keeping comp. for the winter months for a total of $275 per year. With classic ins. you must keep full coverager all year, so I'm not saving any money, but I am getting $22,000 coverage instead of high book ( maybe $5,000 ) and I don't have to pull the plates and deal with Motor Vehicle in the fall and spring!

[Gbody5]

Don't know if any of you have an independant agent representing Cincinnati Insurance in your area, but I have all my cars insured by them, best rates I have found, and excellent service.

They have the 'exhibition' or 'show car' type policies that do limit your mileage and have other stipulations, but you can declare replacement value coverage. I have $20,000 for my GN, pay $170 a year.