Which insurance Co. do you use? My Collector car insurance doesn't offer a "storage" time discount. Is it an "agreed value" policy?

 

Liability only with USAA. It has to be stored for at least 21 days. I guess they offer this option for soldiers that are deployed. Although I am not in the military, I have a lot of stuff that I don't drive, so this feature works well for me.

 

OK, that's the difference. You have a liability policy. Our car is stored anywhere from 5-6 months out of the year, but the "agreed value" policy does not offer a discount while in storage.

 

For anyone interested I wrote a primer on V8 Miata insurance after some months of research on the matter. It's here if you want to see it.

I'd love to hear your feed back and what other guys are doing.

 

State Farm. Just a normal full coverage policy. They are good about value of aftermarket parts and conversions if documented which works for me. SF also allows cancelling and restarting policies w/o a problem. I've done this while rebuilding bikes and while my Jeep was on stands. It does mean a new card/policy number but they email me temp cards when needed.

 

Gator do they put a limit on the aftermarket parts? Yours would be easy to document since it's a factory build but it's hard to imagine a company covering 10 times the book value of the car without charging you for it.

 

I provided my value and was told they shouldn't be an issue. It is a typical auto coverage with depreciation accounted for also. I had to use it when I had a bike stolen. It was set up for Texas Mile type runs. I ended with 50% above its book value in my pocket. I asked for the best way to go about coverage and this is what was suggested by my agent. She hasn't steered me wrong yet.

But one thing to note is insurance is regulated at the state level. What is true of State Farm (or any other company) in Texas may not be in another state.

 

Let's hope you never have to test that out! ^^

I have pondered this a lot and a couple of things really bug me about big buck fancy insurance.

Only 1 in 5 Americans are involved in an auto accident in their life time and of those accidents only a small percentage of vehicles are totaled. (In 2012, the average collision claim was $3,073 and the average vehicle value was $30,252)

If I wrecked it hard enough to ruin the V8 sub frame or do any structural damage no normal body shop on the planet would touch it due to the liability and safety concerns. Not that I would let a shop work on it anyway...

So what would happen in a crash, fire or weather event is I'd either pick up a clean Miata shell to rebuild it or part it out and build something else. Either way for probably less than $5000 in parts I'd have something back on the road again.

Now theft is a much bigger problem but when I look at the above why would I pay $922 a year for agreed value insurance to cover a $5000 loss that the odds are overwhelmingly against happening and even if it did I would fix it myself anyway?

 

[QUOTE=charchri4;11002

If I wrecked it hard enough to ruin the V8 sub frame or do any structural damage no normal body shop on the planet would touch it due to the liability and safety concerns. [/QUOTE]


I'll humbly disagree with that statement, as a quality body shop knows how to adapt even to custom builds (V8 Miatas, Cobra replicas, custom pro street cars, etc). As long as the body is not damaged to the edge of write off, and parts were available (IE: replacement custom sub frame, rear end and transmission hangers), a competent bodyman and a quality bodyshop can and have fixed them (2 V8 Miatas through my old MAACO shop alone, none of which I owned)......


Bill S.

 

Hey you would know a lot more about it than I would. Good to know!

 

I hope so too. I've totaled more than my share of vehicles. I'm older now though. I won't claim to be any wiser, but the hurt lasts longer so I do more to prevent it than cause it. Especial since i spend the first 20 minutes of each day just trying to talk my body into getting past the aches from the previous injuries.

Theft is my main concern also. Although it would be rare for me to be out of site of the car, but it does happen at the occasional lunch spot. If it's wrecked to the point of being totaled, I'll work out a buy back and reclaim the drive train for the next project and part the rest.

 

I can't really add anything new to the discussion, other than I'm in TX, with SF, and just have it insured for liability coverage as a regular Miata. My long-term agent didn't care about the modifications, and has offered to do a stated value policy whenever I get around to bringing in a pile of receipts.

Like previously mentioned, other than it burning to the ground in a garage fire (I keep plenty of fire extinguishers in the car, garage, and house--I'm in the fire restoration industry so see garage/house fires frequently), or being stolen, I would just get another shell and transfer everything over. Mine is a sleeper, so odds of theft are hopefully low.

It's $15-18k all-in at this point; I've had at least $10k of fun with it in the last 4 years and 10k miles, so mentally it's just an exercise in self-insurance. I'll take the risk.

TM

 

Are you sure that is stated value topdownfun? I checked with several companies and did not need to prove anything to write a stated value policy. Perhaps you are thinking about agreed value? Will SF write an agreed value policy with no driving restrictions? That I would be very interested in!

Stated value I tell the company what I want to insure the car for and they write the policy for that amount. In the event of a claim I have to prove that it’s worth the amount of the claim and they have the option to agree with me or not.

Agreed value I prove to the company now what the car is worth and they agree to that number. In the event of a claim they have already agreed to the value of the car and pay accordingly.

Agreed value is far less risky to the car owner but most normal companies like SF only write stated value policies. Most agreed value policies are done by specialty companies like Hagerty or Leland and our cars are not old enough to qualify for them.

One of the things I want to do when we are at Atlanta is get one of the Hagerty guys to come look at our cars and address how we could better insure them.

 

Lol, well, I thought she said stated value but I have been known to be wrong. She said to pick a value, bring in a pile of receipts to justify it, and they'd write up the policy for that amount.

Part of the reason I haven't done it is that I really don't want to know what that pile of receipts adds up to!

TM

 

LOL roger that! It's usually better not to know! For progressive they price it in $5000 chunks so $15,000 to $19,999 was the same price and I didn't worry much about an accurate number. But let me just give you a heads up on stated value insurance.

Stated value insurance of $15,000 to $20,000 on my Progressive multi car policy costs $622 for 6 months and has no driving restrictions on it. Besides the staggering cost there are a few other drawbacks to this. Notice the asterisk comment on the bill.


The problem is they decide what the "Actual Cash Value" of the car is biased what they feel the market for the car is and my pile of receipts. Since I have no receipt for the donor Camaro parts it would be a battle to get them to agree to my numbers. Even if they do agree to something close to my $18,000 number they will depreciate value of the receipts I do have from when it was built at what ever rate they want to. Though it is unlikely they wound not sell it back to me, there is nothing in the policy that says they have to and that would force my hand not to file the claim. And of course the more they pay on the claim, the higher the cost to buy it back and the less $$ I have to fix it.

In a nutshell it’s a huge, expensive gamble and they hold all the cards.

 

That looks expensive to me.
I have a $60,000 policy on my Cobra that is at least 1/3 the cost of that through State Farm.

 

Oh yeah nutzo expensive! I found a few options that were cheaper but they had driving restrictions on them. What kind of policy is on your Cobra tbone?

 

It has mile restrictions on it, but since the car has 5750 miles on it since I built it in 1997, I don't think I will be exceeding them.

 

Oh yeah and there in lies the difference. Leland would insure mine for about 300 bucks but I can't ever drive it to work, 6000 miles in one summer is off the carts and no timed events. I would guess no 1000 mile cross country trip to Atlanta either. LOL when pigs fly!

 

^^^That is why you get a second gauge cluster that you only drive 1000 miles a year with.

 

LOL and not get in a wreck 1000 miles from home. BTW 5750 miles in 17 years? Man I don't know how you do it. I wouldn't be able to stand more than a few days without taking that baby out. As many needless trips as I make in my old bomb I can't imagine what a Cobra would go through in my charge!
So I'm trying to wrap my head around walking out in the garage and seeing a BB Cobra and a supercharged V8 Miata side by side. Humm lets see I could drive the really amazing car today or the really really amazing car... Let me guess you take your truck!

 

...or the Crown Victoria. LOL!!

 

Damn it better be a police package car then!

 

It actually looks more like a Marauder since it has a free set of Marauder wheels & spoiler.

 

And it does have the Police Interceptor emblem & blacked out rear panel. LOL!! It is kind of amazing what kind of things that a person can obtain while working at a dealership.