Currently I have USAA auto insurance and pay about 120 a month for my FD and the wifes Bimmer. I live in FL and dont turn 25 till August. My question is, which insurance company covers the modified parts that I have put on my car, were I to get in a accident (knock on wood). USAA will cover the normal blue book value of my vehicle, but will any insurance company cover the thousands of dollars of mods done to my car. All I can think about is a front end collision, there goes my FMIC, Fluidyne Radiatior, oil coolers, IC piping and god knows what else. Hope this had not been covered and if so, this will be a update for 2008....

 

My farmers agent told me this:

Their base policy covers everything except crazy audio components. You need to buy extra coverage for that. Any other customizing done is covered under the base policy. Specifically, I asked about GPS and wheels. Now, you still have to argue about that with the adjuster who gets assigned to your case, but there is at least a chance.

If they think you have "suped up" the car, they will just cancel your policy. Almost all the insurance providers I know will just cancel your policy if they have found out you have done anything to make the car a "racer". I doubt there is a firm, committed line that any of the providers take on how much is too much. It's probably best to stay under the radar.

I even heard that progressive once downloaded a list of local autox participants and canceled all their policies. Even if they weren't driving a car that they had insured with progressive. They probably assume that anyone who would participate in such an activity is a higher risk and that it would be better for them to not do business with you.

I'm kind of wandering here, but what I'm getting at is, don't make your insurance think that you have been racing your car or building your car to race. Chances are you will be looking for a new company. I don't think any "standard" insurance policies are going to cover race parts.

There might be some specialty companies that do cover racing, but I don't know anything about that.

 

Stay under the radar buddy. Thats the only advise I can give you.

 

Jon, look into American Collector Car Insurance, they're a division of USAA that I recently switched to. You can only drive the car 5k miles per year, but their rates and coverage are outstanding.

--CPT Farrell

 

Thanks for the info. Maybe instead of saying I modify it for racing, i'll just say it is a show car. I'll check out American Collector Car Insurance, but the only problem is that mine is a daily drive.

 

Yeah, most insurance policies SPECIFICALLY say there is no coverage if the vehicle is used in "any type of speed competition, either in timed events or competing against other cars" or some such wording. I know my policies say this.

I need to talk to my good friend Russell, who has been in SCCA racing for years with his 914-6 Porsche. See how he covers the car....if at all.

 

Here are some other options as well...

http://classiccars.about.com/od/dele...ancereview.htm

http://www.buyclassiccars.com/insure.asp

 

I would look into specialty insurers, I know JJ Best Banc has an insurance provider, the good thing is you decide how much the car is worth. In the case of an accident, that is what they pay you, great for collector cars that are hard to replace.

 

You cannot use a specialty car insurer for a daily driver
Most policies have limits on mileage.
Get your self a beater and daily drive that
I got my SC300 for $2K and use that for a daily. My insurance on that is $35 a month.
I also have a E Cinco-Cinco and believe it or not its cheap to insure at $60 a month full coverage.

I only pay $21 a month with Haggerty on the FD and its insured for a lump sum payout of $25K

 

Last time I checked with USAA, which is a great company, you can get a "declared value" policy, or a rider for additions. This would be a prearranged deal, and you'd likely have to provide an itemized list, with receipts to prove value. It's basically a rolling homeowners or renters policy.

I don't think they'll cancel your insurance if they find out you do HPDE, they just won't cover anything that happens to it at the track. More than likely, if anything happened to mine, I'd take the bluebook and then buy the wrack back from them and part it out.

 

I have USAA and they most certainly did not give me the blue book value. Ended up getting 4k for the total loss, picked up a new shell and traded the wrecked shell to have everything swapped over (didn't have time or work space at the time to do it myself).

 

wawanesa covered all of my mods under an additional coverage. I made a list and tallied up all the $$ I put in and submitted to them. Everything was covered from the paint job to my single turbo, gauges, ECU, audio...

Then I got a 150MPH racing ticked and I got dropped like a bad habit damn I really fucked up.

Now I'm with allstate and they have a clause of no racing components… They freaking suck. They cost twice as much for half the time covered. As allstate does 6 month policies while wawanesa did it yearly. No its not because of my ticket because I checked them out before.

And before anyone asks wawanesa is legit. I was with them for years and under them they gave me a fair market price without a hassle on my 93 FD that died in a fire. Not only that, they also took care of several fender benders (not my fault). The only thing with them is that if you get 2 points or more on your license or cause accidents you are out.

 

What they'll actually give you isn't "bluebook" (I used the term loosely), but an average of sale prices of vehicles (actual replacement value) they deem similar to yours in your area. Not sure where they got $4k, but either you didn't have full coverage, or you should have argued. When I totalled my first FD in 1998, at first they offered 16k, and I showed them costs and got 19k.

 

+1 for Haggerty. Moosejaw, how did you get $25K? I got the Haggerty minimum of $30K. Pay ~$50/mo.

 

I looked in to American Collectors. If you do this, you will need a newish daily driver (it doesn't matter if you commute publicly). Since I bought another FD as a daily (I take public transportation everyday), it is a point of contention between me an AC. Their logic is that if you have a beater, you would rather take the collector car out rather than drive the beater. This seems totally illogical from my perspective but they are at least being nice enough to hear me out. I'll report back with the results. I'll also be trying hagerty out.

http://www.hagerty.com/

 

I checked out one of the classic car ins. which I liked. the guy ask me what I wanted to insure for? I said my car is worth $30K and he said it would be $575 a year. I don't think there was a mileage limit. I think it was Hagerty

 

Get Farmers Insurance. Get a stated value policy. I know a guy who got 50K when Supra was totaled because he had a 3rd party evaluated his vehicle's value and insured it for 50K. When it was determined to be a totaled, they paid out.

 

Where have you been man! I wish you posted this earlier. I'll check it out tomorrow.

 

i have insurance with grundy. i pay $50 a month with an agreed stated value of 40k. i have 0 detectable and full coverage. i cannot drive more than 5k miles a year and no one under the age of 25 can drive the car.

 

make sure that whenever you get car insurance you have the company agree to a stated value. this saves a lot of headache if something were to happen to the car.

 

my insurance is up for renewal this month. i'm switching over to Haggerty myself.

 

I might go to Hagerty too I just did a quote (20 yr old here) and I am paying $2800 a year and I got a quote and its like $1k.

 

I am also switching to Haggerty. I have heard nothing but good about their policies and claims.

 

I gotta admit, hagerty was easier to deal with in terms of quoting. I'm pushing hard for american collector but I might go hagerty due to the feed back and easier enrollment.

 

Hagerty also requires a more recent daily driver. I was told 2000s but if it is 2 years off it is acceptable.