My original question has produced a lot of interesting comments. Some are
what I consider - right on.
Many have suggested having "collector car" insurance. This is great for
an infrequently driven car and I have it on my 48 TR1800, 65 Morgan, and
71 Sonett.
However, this still leaves room for problems. Say for instance my Morgan
is insured with a "collector ins. co." for $20,000 and is appraised for that.
Now some one hits me. He doesn't have collector ins. And the problem becomes
mine. Even though I may be able to prove (via the appraisal) that the car
IS worth $20,000, the other ins. co. only wants to give me $6,000 for the car.
Now a worse example. In the case of the 77 Gremlin. It is NOT covered by
collectors ins. The owner paid $1,500 for the car. Maybe done some work on
it, etc. and has at least $2,000 in it. Then it gets hit. The normal
responce
from the ins. co. is a settlement of totaling the car and giving you $200.
Many respondents talked about the "average - or market value" of a car.
This is really where things get sticky. Many people have rightfully indicated
that the car may NOT be worth what the owner thinkgs it's worth. (If the
owner thinks the car is worth $15,000.)
However, it is indeed worth at least the $1,500 if not more. Say $4,000.
Almost any used car today if it is reliable transportation is worth that much.
(I know - then how did Pete get that Spit for $500 - Bob was given a 71 olds
for nothing.... Most of these cars are IN need of repairs, maybe minor,
maybe major - that they are NOT reliable transportation.)
So, the owner of the Gremlin is facing the ins. co. that is saying that at
a 23 yr. old car must be junk and isn't even worth the salvage scrap metal.
If the car was maintained from new, garaged, never hit, not a rust bucket,
then the ins. co. is wrong as this is NOT the average 23 yr old car. In
fact, almost any 23 yr old car that is on the road today is NOT an average
car. Look around. How many pre 80 cars do you see on the road? Not
many. Why? Because most of them are in the scrap yard. Those are the
cars that were treated as just transportation.
Currently, my daily driver is an 84 Accord 4dr. I purchased it new and have
maintained it. Yes the paint isn't the best but the car is reliable. If
some one buckles a fender, the ins. co. will try and total it. This car isn't
a "average" car. Again, how many 84 Accords do you see driving around.
In fact, that might just be the only argument an owner of an older car has -
It isn't average as it wasn't already in the scrap yard. I don't know how
many 77 Gremlins or 84 Accords were produced - but I'll almost bet you that
less than 1% of the Gremlins are still alive and less than 10% of the Accords
are still around. So these are NOT average cars. In fact they aren't in
most of the books like Kelly - Edmunds etc. Why because most are in the
junk yard.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1109)
71 Saab Sonett III (71500840) 75 Bricklin SV1 (0887) 77 Spitfire
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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