Insurance Question for the Group:

I've been with State Farm for the past 25 years, insuring my 1992 Viper. Since I've stopped driving daily, I've sold my daily driver, leaving just the Viper. I consulted with an appraiser who suggested a $600 appraisal (USPAP and BOOCA certified) and recommended switching to an "Agreed Value" policy. State Farm mentioned they could reclassify it as an Antique/Classic, with a coverage value of $75K, and lower my premium to around $500 per year.

Does this sound right to you? Any input or advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

I have a 2006 and also classified it as a classic with Geico. Much lower premium than Haggerty who was almost double the price. I think that's the way to go. You can also lower the coverage value if a total loss wouldn't be 75K. I declared about the same value of what I paid for the car but if in 10 years its worth less(Or more) ill adjust it

Rda316 said:

I have a 2006 and also classified it as a classic with Geico. Much lower premium than Haggerty who was almost double the price.

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Is it Agreed Value ? I am with Hagerty with Agreed Value and I am around $500 as well. I have found with Hagerty the older the car with agreed value its less money than a newer car for some reason.

I have Grundy with a pretty high agreed value and $500 deductibles and am paying $599/year.
There are no mileage limits, but they have a few stipulations (can't be a daily driver, has to be garage kept, no drivers under 25).

If I'm not mistaken any car insured with a stated or agreed value cannot be used as a daily driver, if you use it as a Dailey driver and need to make a claim and they find out they will deny the claim.

Grundy, with agreed upon value. Pricing may vary from state to state.

I had progressive and was paying double that which I am paying now with Haggerty. With Haggerty, I have an agreed value. More important, in case of a total loss, I get to keep the car. As for a daily driver, that's a tough one. It's true that if the insurance finds out, they will deny your claim.

The premiums being quoted are for a year and not a 6 month period? Most auto insurance periods are now 6 months and these quotes sound very low.

State Farm is an [*******] of an insurer, i wouldnt trust them to insure
my pressure washer... that being said you need to find out what the
arrangements of the collector policy is before you sign anything. Like
others have already said, most collector policies have stipulations
regarding miles and usage. Some are insane. My policy with PHLY has no
miles, and allows non-timed track days, but i must have a daily insured
with another provider AND the car must be kept in a locked garage. My
buddy had a policy with someone (might have been State?..) on his
Trackhawk. He drove it to work one day and got bumped into while
parked. They dropped his collector, his daily, AND his home owners over it,
cost him almost $10k to buy high risk on his fleet/home.

Reguy said:

The premiums being quoted are for a year and not a 6 month period? Most auto insurance periods are now 6 months and these quotes sound very low.

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^^^Agree with Reguy. I have an '02 RT/10 with Haggerty with a $60,000 agreed value and between 100,000 and 300,000 coverage depending on issues. I'm at $1400 annually for payments. Location matters (lots of accidents here in Greenville, SC) but I'm still way high compared with the $500 annual I'm seeing that some pay

There are several interesting points in this thread. As mentioned, the premiums stated sound way too low and may be for a 6 month period, not a year. An appraiser is recommending a $600 appraisal, how surprising. Agreed value costs more than a normal policy, which pays (in the event of a total loss) Actual Cash Value. The premiums on an agreed value policy cannot be lower than the premiums on a traditional policy unless the insurer is attaching strict conditions to the policy that reduce their risk. Does one really need to pay for agreed value for these cars or is it a risk one can reasonably self insure? Will it have a major negative impact on your finances if you are paid actual cash value rather than an agreed value? Self insuring is like going from a $500 deductible to $1,000 deductible or the highest your insurer offers, unless you have an auto loan and the lender requires $500. Otherwise, when going with a $500 deductible rather than $1,000, you are effectively paying your insurance company extra in premiums to protect you against the risk that you won’t have $500 if there’s an accident and damage not caused by an insured third party.

@Reguy *** are you talking about? Sounds like someone doing an AI post. No lender cares what deductible you pick, all they care about is that the vehicle is covered for lost so that they can get paid.

Self insuring is not anywhere close to like going from a $500 deductible to $1,000 deductible.

Agreed value policies are backed up by market facts/appraisal not what the person thinks their vehicle is worth. You can't just state my Viper is worth $200k.

Wrong. It’s common practice for auto lenders to specify a maximum permitted insurance deductible in their loan documents. Why would they not do so? The car is their collateral. Of course, the agreed upon value cannot be any number and is typically supported by an appraisal. I didn’t say otherwise. The point is it doesn’t always make financial sense to insure everything to the fullest extent and often we can save money by assuming some level of risk ourselves, which is called “self insuring”, such as a higher deductible and not paying more for agreed value coverage. With no disrespect to the Viper intended, if my cars included something like a Ford GT or a split window Corvette, I might have a different view.

Reguy said:

Wrong. It’s common practice for auto lenders to specify a maximum permitted insurance deductible in their loan documents. Why would they not do so? The car is their collateral. Of course, the agreed upon value cannot be any number and is typically supported by an appraisal. I didn’t say otherwise. The point is it doesn’t always make financial sense to insure everything to the fullest extent and often we can save money by assuming some level of risk ourselves, which is called “self insuring”, such as a higher deductible and not paying more for agreed value coverage.

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Pretty sure that's not self insured, that's just changing your coverage to a lower coverage/higher deductible. Sure you can do that, it's nothing special. Self insurance, is not having any coverage. If you want to risk saving a few hundred a year vs not having to worry...go for it. It's not for everyone. I keep at least $1000 deductible on both my collector cars to keep rates somewhat lower.

Agreed Value policies don't typically need an appraisal for most cars that are in a reasonable range. Unless you're looking for something crazy, they don't really care what value you put on your car since you're paying for it (again within reason).

TEALLIFE said:

Pretty sure that's not self insured, that's just changing your coverage to a lower coverage/higher deductible. Sure you can do that, it's nothing special. Self insurance, is not having any coverage. If you want to risk saving a few hundred a year vs not having to worry...go for it. It's not for everyone. I keep at least $1000 deductible on both my collector cars to keep rates somewhat lower.

Agreed Value policies don't typically need an appraisal for most cars that are in a reasonable range. Unless you're looking for something crazy, they don't really care what value you put on your car since you're paying for it (again within reason).

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Going without insurance completely is of course self insuring. Deciding not to insure a portion of a risk is also a form of self insurance. Different people have different risk tolerances. Self insuring risks that can be quantified can be an effective way to save money but yes, it’s not for everyone. The risk that I may not collect every last dollar if I damage my car is one I can live with. I’ll go with an actual cash value policy, which is what a traditional auto insurance policy pays in the event of a total loss. An insured can offer evidence to the insurer as to what the car is worth and can dispute the value initially determined by the insurer. Nothing is “guaranteed” and you may or may not win that argument but again that’s a risk I can live with so I’ll not spend extra premium dollars to protect against it.

Reguy said:

Going without insurance completely is of course self insuring. Deciding not to insure a portion of a risk is also a form of self insurance. Different people have different risk tolerances. Self insuring risks that can be quantified can be an effective way to save money but yes, it’s not for everyone. The risk that I may not collect every last dollar if I damage my car is one I can live with. I’ll go with an actual cash value policy, which is what a traditional auto insurance policy pays in the event of a total loss. An insured can offer evidence to the insurer as to what the car is worth and can dispute the value initially determined by the insurer. Nothing is “guaranteed” and you may or may not win that argument but again that’s a risk I can live with so I’ll not spend extra premium dollars to protect against it.

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agreed...I called Geico recently on the insurance on my 88 M3, and they said KBB is $4500 lol So getting them up to 70k in a payout, would be a hell of an argument I'll have to make

You would need to provide evidence to support your requested agreed value and you will then pay more in premiums if your insurance company agrees with your requested amount. Going from $4.5k to $70k will be more than a “few hundred” dollars a year, lol. Also, there aren’t many insurers that offer agreed value. Less competition means higher markups. We’re talking about insurance companies in business to make a profit, not charities. If the loss of your car would cause financial problems, then go for it and dump even more money into insurance companies’ coffers.

Reguy said:

You would need to provide evidence to support your requested agreed value and you will then pay more in premiums if your insurance company agrees with your requested amount. Going from $4.5k to $70k will be more than a “few hundred” dollars a year, lol. Also, there aren’t many insurers that offer agreed value. Less competition means higher markups. We’re talking about insurance companies in business to make a profit, not charities. If the loss of your car would cause financial problems, then go for it and dump even more money into insurance companies’ coffers.

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i understand how it works.

Neither company had a problem with my requested agreed value of 70k for the M3 or the Viper. No appraisals needed. Yearly cost ranged from 1000-1500

Reguy said:

The premiums being quoted are for a year and not a 6 month period? Most auto insurance periods are now 6 months and these quotes sound very low.

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The $599 is a full one year policy for me.