Anyone looked into Classic Car Insurance?

[darren1284]

Just read a post today about a 540i that was totaled and the insurance valued it at $1200. Maybe it was $1500, which still isn't a fair value assessment if the car is in great condition. At any rate, with most of our cars at 25 years and older, (mine turns 25 in December though) the value of the car could vary quite a bit depending on the condition and traditional insurance wouldn't account for that.

It seems like Classic Car Insurance would be a good option for getting coverage that is more fair for the value of your car in the case of an accident. Has anyone got it or had any experience with it?

https://www.hagerty.com/insurance/classic-car-insurance

[dannyzabolotny]

It’s definitely the way to go as far as getting the most payout if something should happen to our E34’s. However, the major downside of classic car insurance is the fact that you can’t use the car as a daily driver, along with some pretty strict mileage limits.

I drive my 525i everywhere, since it’s my only car. So I just keep it on regular liability insurance, since in most cases I can just fix whatever happens to it for less than the deductible on most policies. I’m real good at swapping panels!

[darren1284]

Hagerty supposedly can be we worked without mile limits according to the website, but I guess it couldn't be a daily driver.

[E30335i]

You can’t get classic car insurance unless it’s garaged and low annual mileage. Pretty much can’t be your daily. You would have to get insurance with agreed market value? Using the wrong terminology here but it’s along those lines.


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[Red Shirt KRT]

That isn’t true, Hagerty should have higher mileage plans. Their rates are very low too.

I wouldn’t drive one without agreed value if it’s more than 5-6k.

[masbury]

I just added my 2000 E39 528i to my Hagerty policy. They actually insure all my cars but 2. The 2 daily drivers, the Dart and the truck. They don't ask you the mileage when you insure, nor how many miles you drive a year, just that it's not considered a daily driver. If you daily it and crash into something, make sure you say you were picking it up from the shop, or test driving after doing some work on it. Get creative!

If you want to know how many cars they insure for me, just look at my signature.

[ross1]

I just added my 2000 E39 528i to my Hagerty policy. They actually insure all my cars but 2. The 2 daily drivers, the Dart and the truck. They don't ask you the mileage when you insure, nor how many miles you drive a year, just that it's not considered a daily driver. If you daily it and crash into something, make sure you say you were picking it up from the shop, or test driving after doing some work on it. Get creative!

If you want to know how many cars they insure for me, just look at my signature.

With that fleet the miles must be get spread pretty thin among them.

[Trent54]

Is there any way to get classic car insurance with a carport, but not an enclosed garage? I literally put 2-5k miles a year on my 95, it's in very good condition. I have progressive, not minimum, but not great coverages (feel like I'm paying too much at $120/month). My driving record is perfect with last speeding ticket 15 years ago. No DUIS.

I did put a claim in on the e34 2-3 years ago. I left it in a grocery store/bar parking lot the night before Thanksgiving, and someone hit it, ripping off the rear bumper cover. I was nearly livid when Progressive tried to offer me $1,750 or total it. I got them up to $2,500 which covered the damage at a good body shop.

[masbury]

Ross;
Specially since social distancing and flat not going anywhere. More like cob-webs and dust. Probably haven't put 200 miles total on the whole herd.

Trent;
Gotta a friend with a garage? Take a picture. Just sayin' in case you need to send a pic of the garage. If you ever need to make a claim, you won't be in the friggin' garage anyway.

[moroza]

I'm about to sign up for a Grundy's policy. No mileage limits, must be garaged, must be used "in a manner consistent with a collector car" and not as primary transportation, must have a separately-insured daily driver. $15k agreed value, $245 a year, live in a safe area (apart from fires) and spotless driving record. Hagerty's is best-known but has gotten expensive over the years. Service/quality reputed to be comparable between the two. Safeco will insure a daily driver, but still require a separate daily :confused and cost about triple of Grundy's. Heacock, American Collector, and others quoted me somewhere in between, on the order of ~500 a year.

UPDATE: They declined to cover the vehicle altogether on the grounds that it's a wagon and not a collectible model. I'll be following up to educate them on E34 values.

[circuit.heart]

UPDATE: They declined to cover the vehicle altogether on the grounds that it's a wagon and not a collectible model. I'll be following up to educate them on E34 values.
That's a good reason to go with Hagerty then, they don't really care if it's collectible or not as long as you can prove it's somehow got some effort in it. I haven't put my track car on any special insurance policy yet but it's probably time to start thinking about it.

[moroza]

If it's effort and an attitude of value and care they want to see, maybe I should point them to some of my threads?

[BleedsBlue]

I'd really recommend a policy like this for most of these cars, at this point.



They don't validate the "daily-ness" of the 2nd car; they are just ensuring that your E34 is not your primary daily driver, so it's easy enough to furnish an alternative vehicle
There are typically garaged and mileage cap conditions. The former is easy to "fake" (although I recommend a garage in almost any climate, if possible), the latter does present an issue if you are doing constant road trips
The unique value proposition is that you can set an agreed-on value that's guaranteed to be higher than a regular insurance policy's valuation of your car, while paying sometimes half the cost of a regular policy (in my case, it was actually 50% less than I was paying for regular insurance with comparable coverage)


I haven't had to deal with insurance in a crash in a few years, but I have shopped E34s a lot in the past few years. The values (and almost more importantly, availability) of everything from clean, low mile early 530i sedans to M5 Tourings are all up enough to warrant an agreed-on value policy. Especially if you actually want replacement value for the car. If the car is mechanically solid but cosmetically trashy (see, my '91 M5, RIP), it's a bit of a different story. But the increasingly rare birds that are either low mileage/clean, or very well kept in all areas regardless of mileage, are so far and few in between that they need to be protected, IMO.

For reference, I went with American Collectors since they are the USAA affiliate and we are USAA folks. I don't know if the agreed value I set was just accurate, or if they accept whatever you put, but they accepted my number.

[dannyzabolotny]

I’m one of those people for whom a classic/collector policy would never work, but maybe I should call them to see their reaction— my E34 is my daily driver and only car, I put about 30k miles a year on it, and it’s already got 290k miles.