Barry Wolk
01-05-2010, 10:10 AM
A lot of people insure their cars under their daily driver policy. However, the way most of us use our cars, that's expensive and not necessary.
Classic car insurance is very inexpensive because we are statistically low-risk drivers. By pooling all of our policies the insurance companies (a misnomer for sure) bundle our low risk policies and sell them off to large insurance concerns like Lloyds of London, take a cut off the top, and get paid to service the policy and handle claims. In effect, the classic car insurers are glorified brokers and service agencies, not insurance companies, per se.
Classic car insurance is typically an "agreed value" policy. For example, I think my 1977 Lincoln Town Car with 20,000 miles is worth $15,000. I may be dreaming, but that's OK because it falls within what they consider to be a reasonable range. Since the rates are "per thousand" I pay about $100 a year for full coverage and no appraisal was required. When I bought the '55 Porsche Continental no appraisal was required as there are published price guides. However, they did require an appraisal for my Mark II as there are no comps for a convertible.
The only requirements for classic car coverage is that your vehicle be stored in a locked facility and that there be one registered and insured vehicle for every licensed driver in the household. This is so that you don't use the car as a daily driver.
I'm insured with Hagerty, but this is not an endorsement. I've spoken to plenty of others that are insured with different carriers and are just as pleased. I use Hagerty because they are Michigan-based and for their efforts to get states to relax old-car use policies. Hagerty spends a great deal on supporting legislation allover the country that will allow us to use our cars with fewer restrictions. They see no increase risk as classic cars are involved in so few payouts. Hagerty encourages their insured to use their cars in anything but commercial ventures, like movies. However, with notice and a small one-time premium you can use your car commercially for weddings and movie scenes.
Classic car insurance is very inexpensive because we are statistically low-risk drivers. By pooling all of our policies the insurance companies (a misnomer for sure) bundle our low risk policies and sell them off to large insurance concerns like Lloyds of London, take a cut off the top, and get paid to service the policy and handle claims. In effect, the classic car insurers are glorified brokers and service agencies, not insurance companies, per se.
Classic car insurance is typically an "agreed value" policy. For example, I think my 1977 Lincoln Town Car with 20,000 miles is worth $15,000. I may be dreaming, but that's OK because it falls within what they consider to be a reasonable range. Since the rates are "per thousand" I pay about $100 a year for full coverage and no appraisal was required. When I bought the '55 Porsche Continental no appraisal was required as there are published price guides. However, they did require an appraisal for my Mark II as there are no comps for a convertible.
The only requirements for classic car coverage is that your vehicle be stored in a locked facility and that there be one registered and insured vehicle for every licensed driver in the household. This is so that you don't use the car as a daily driver.
I'm insured with Hagerty, but this is not an endorsement. I've spoken to plenty of others that are insured with different carriers and are just as pleased. I use Hagerty because they are Michigan-based and for their efforts to get states to relax old-car use policies. Hagerty spends a great deal on supporting legislation allover the country that will allow us to use our cars with fewer restrictions. They see no increase risk as classic cars are involved in so few payouts. Hagerty encourages their insured to use their cars in anything but commercial ventures, like movies. However, with notice and a small one-time premium you can use your car commercially for weddings and movie scenes.