insurance

[Mike/Nebraska]

I saw the post from eagle about his insurance and it got me to thinking about my insurance. I have Haggarty insurance on my 29 roadster. It's up and driving but the car needs the seat reupholstered to match the rumble seat and I haven't put the belt line wood on it so the top is still off and the bumpers need replated and put on. Also the hood still needs to be painted and put on. I valued it at $12,000 and thought I'd increase it to $15,000 when it was done. Am I out of the ball park here on value? I have rebuilt the entire drive train and added some improvements like counter balanced crank, lightened flywheel and a hi-compression Snyders head as well as a Volvo overdrive.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Well, look at it this way, the estimate that was written for his Leatherback repairs is barely within the stated value of what you are insuring your vehicle for. By you stating the coverage to be $15k, then you are saying you are willing to accept that amount of payment in return for possession of your Roadster. If you are OK with that, then roll on but I am thinking you are probably $10k too light in coverage.

 

[Ron in Quincy]

I agree with Brent. We usually never have an ocassion to file a claim as most of us do not drive our A's very many miles each year and we keep them in a coverage storage and keep the brakes in good condition. How ever we cannot control other drivers when on an outing. There are not many A's that are not worth at least $20.000.00. Insurance on our collector cars is very cheap in comparsion to what you pay on your modern cars and trucks, so do not under insure your A.
Just my opinion,

Ron

 

[Purdy Swoft]

I think that it is probably under insured. Not to dispute anything that has been said but here is the way that I see it. With agreed value insurance, If the car is totaled you would be paid the amount that it is insured for but the insurance company would claim the car for salvage, You may get first choice to buy it back, if you have salvage license but you would have to meet the highest salvage offer. Open cars bring the highest prices. I remember a story about a 28 roadster that was only insured for ten thousand dollars. The roadster was totaled because of hurricane water damage. The car had great sentimental value to the owner because he and his dad that was deceased had restored it. When the salvage bid went over ten thousand dollars, the guy had a choice to accept the ten thousand dollars and lose the car or keep the car and get nothing.

 

[mrtexas]

I have my 29 Roadster insured for $20k. I'm just finishing a new paint job. I don't think you could restore one for that but you sure can buy one for that.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I have my 29 Roadster insured for $20k. I'm just finishing a new paint job. I don't think you could restore one for that but you sure can buy one for that.

Just so we are comparing apples-to-apples, I suggest folks to make sure they also factor in their time & all the expenses necessary to "find" a replacement car, and the transportation, registration, and all the things necessary of replacing their car.

One other thing, most folks know exactly what all is wrong with their own Model A ...but when you purchase a replacement car, generally speaking, most find out later they didn't get the same quality of a car that they thought they were!!

 

[bogdonj]

Just going through that right now in Canada.. insurance company wants me to get an appraisal done so they can get a value on it. I"m guessing it will be $20,000-$25,000 forsure!

 

[azmodela]

I valued it at $12,000 and thought I'd increase it to $15,000 when it was done.

Would you sell it today for $12k?

 

[rustyemerson]

I think you should definitely up your insurance coverage; 12K doesn’t begin to cover what that thing is worth. Prepare for an increase in auto insurance rates if you do it; personally I think a little extra is totally worth it though.

 

[RonC]

If someone at fault hits you then they are responsible for total replacement of your property loss, no matter what you have for insurance. That is where a good appraisal prior to an accident comes in handy and current pictures maintained after. What value you decide to pay coverage for is really a personal decision. You might base it on the fact that you only have the one car and could not sustain a total loss at all. Or maybe you have several collector cars and full value insurance on all the vehicles may be a little pricey considering the amount of time you use the vehicles. If you were to lose several vehicles at once in a fire maybe the total insured value of all vehicles is enough to buy you one good replacement vehicle? The decision is yours as to what is worth paying for.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

If someone at fault hits you then they are responsible for total replacement of your property loss, no matter what you have for insurance. That is where a good appraisal prior to an accident comes in handy and current pictures maintained after. What value you decide to pay coverage for is really a personal decision. You might base it on the fact that you only have the one car and could not sustain a total loss at all. Or maybe you have several collector cars and full value insurance on all the vehicles may be a little pricey considering the amount of time you use the vehicles. If you were to lose several vehicles at once in a fire maybe the total insured value of all vehicles is enough to buy you one good replacement vehicle? The decision is yours as to what is worth paying for.

Ummm, not so fast. I happen to see some of this from a different perspective where in this world of substandard members of society who either do not have auto insurance, --or have the minimum amounts of coverage, it really is a moot point if they have responsibility total replacement of your property simply because if they only have a $10k value of property damage on their policy (which is the minimum amounts many states require), ...then all you will be able to collect is $10k. If your repair costs are $25k, then things get tense.

The next side of your statement is that you having an appraisal is only an "opinion" of what the value of your property is. It can also be legally argued that it is a biased opinion since you were the one who initiated the appraisal. In the event of an accident, the other driver's insurance company is able to see your coverages of your policy. I have seen it where someone had an appraisal of $20k yet had a policy where the agreed amount was less (I'm thinking it was like $12k or $13k) and the arguement made was the collector vehicle owner voluntarily agreed to accept $12k/$13k as payment for their vehicle and therefore that was the limits the other insurance company was required to pay.

Just so folks will know what to expect, I personally have 4 collector vehicles on a policy with Hagarty that the four vehicles total about $90k in replacement coverage and a $0 deductible. In addition to this, I also have listed my two under-21 aged kids on that policy, and my annual premiums are in the low $400 range. Some of this may be due to my locale but I know some of my customers have insured their Model A's in the $75k -$100k range in the $200.00 range annually. My point is people need to at least shop around and get a price so they at least know how much their premium would be for adequate coverage.

.

 

[Smitty]

I run regular plates and drive my A daily averaging 10-12k a year.
What happens if the car gets crashed?...who knows but life is short, I would rather drive it than look at it. Not worth the money for an occasional driver.

Steve

 

[Hoop]

"If someone at fault hits you then they are responsible for total replacement of your property loss, no matter what you have for insurance."

What you have for insurance absolutely does matter.

If you have $25,000 coverage under Hagerty or a similar antique car insurer, you have $25,000 coverage regardless of the other guy's coverage or lack of it. One reason you have insurance on your car is to protect you from uninsured or under-insured drivers. Hagerty will usually pay the loss then take the responsibility themselves to settle with the other guy's company.

So, it matters a bunch.

If you want to spend a lot of money on lawyers to present your appraisal and pictures in court to prove who's responsible and for how much, have at it.

Personally I think the few extra dollars it takes to buy adequate coverage is a lot cheaper.

 

[Kevin in NJ]

Consider this.

In the wonderful state of NJ, they have 2 really nice options for people who can not afford real insurance so you can drive. The dollar a day insurance which amounts to insurance that will only pay some of your hospital bills. Then they have a more expensive policy that gives you a bit of liability. In either case it comes down to the car owner promising to pay for any property damages. The policies are only available to people who have no assets and no real income. So go ahead and sue, last time I checked people with no income and no job do not pay well.

A coworker got hit by one of these drivers and got stuck with the deductible.
Then there are a certain number of people who do not bother with legal driving and have no insurance.

So adequate coverage becomes important cause there are lots of ways of someone doing damage to you and they have no responsibility to pay for their fault.

 

[bogdonj]

bogdonj----if you are insuring the Roadster in your avatar I sure wouldn't let the appraiser go less than $25K. American. I don't know how that translates to Canadian dollars.

Ya you were right! Came in around $33,000.. that's what we will insure it with to be safe!

 

[Jerry Parr WI]

I have several cars and arrive at the values in different ways. My Cabriolet which is the favorite car and driven a lot I insure at what I feel I could buy a comparable replacement for. The other cars are driven much less, if at all, and if I suffered a total loss I would not expect to replace them. I insure them at some compromise between my investment and their value. I could insure some as in storage but when driven it's usually spur of the moment.