There has been questions lately about insuring Sunbeams. This was just
posted to the British Cars list which is right on point:
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 21:29:02
From: Barney Gaylord <barneymg@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Insurance Questions
At 10:54 PM 9/15/98 -0400, Eugene Balinski wrote:
>.... I spoke briefly to my insurance agent who mentioned a type of
insurance that I am not familiar with. I believe that it is called
"declared value" or something similar. I also thought that I remember
hearing horror stories about this type of insurance. Any comments ?
Declared value insurance has the ability to make you a loser on both ends
of the value range. Basically you declare the value and pay a premium
based on that value. If the car is worth more than the declared value when
it gets totaled out, the insurance will not pay any more than the declared
value, so you lose. If the car is worth less than the declared value when
it gets totaled out, the insurance will only pay for the actual amount of
the loss, being the actual value of the car, so you lose again by having
paid too much for the premiums. Additionally, you may have to prove the
prior value of the car after it has been wrecked, generally not an easy
thing to do.
The only advantage I can see is that you can get the insurance without
having to have the car appraised. That little convenience can be important
for any car more than about 10 years old and "off the books" for insurance
value. It is also important for any car that has a value substantially
different than "book value", whether the value is greater or smaller.
In essence, in order to always pay the appropriate premium for the correct
value of the car, you need to have it appraised. Then you can buy an
"Agreed Value" insurance policy based on the appraised value, and the
insurance will pay out that amount if the car is totaled.
If the car is worth a lot of money, getting it appraised for insurance
purposes could be very important. If the car is not worth too much, and
you're getting classic car insurance at a reduced rate anyway, the
difference in premiums may not be worth the effort and/or cost of having it
appraised regularly.
>Also, does anyone have any experience with any of the Vintage car
insurance policies ?
If you only drive the car for shows, exhibitions, club activities, and
maintenance purposes, and maybe a little as occasional personal use, and
you can show that you have another car available for a daily driver, you
should be able to get reduced rates on the insurance, and maybe also the
license fees. If you store the car in a locked garage the rates will be
lower. If you drive fewer miles the rates can be lower depending on the
insurance company. If you're under age 25 many of the classic car
insurance providers won't write the policy for you anyway. Sorry.
I have Taylor insurance for my MGA, procured through my local independent
insurance agent. The rates are quite cheap, based on everything in the
prior paragraph, and with the understanding that the car is to be driven
less than 2500 miles per year. Just don't ask me exactly how many miles it
actually gets driven, as I may suddenly incur a nasty spell of amnesia.
There can be exceptions to the mileage clause under special circumstances.
You may be allowed to take one or two trips per year of extended distance
to attend a club event if you can document that the extended mileage was
due to that trip.
As an extreme example of the mileage exception, last year I attained the
blessing of Taylor to drive from Illinois to Texas and through Canada to
Alaska and around the state of Alaska for a few weeks and return through
Canada to Texas and back to Illinois. They gave me the required Canadian
insurance card, and did not ask for any additional premium. My car went
19,000 miles in 8 weeks on "Brit Run To The Sun - Alaska '97" under the
reason that the trip was an officially sponsored activity of the Texas MG
Register as part of the NAMGAR GT-22 national meet. At least we did get it
publicized in their newsletter well in advance of the trip, however loosely
it may have been associated with that show.
If you're driving with classic vehicle license plates that have restricted
driving privileges, always have a good reason for being where you are in
case of being stopped by the police. In many cases with these plates the
police do have a right to stop you just to ask you where you're going, and
it will likely happen occasionally. And the more unique the car is, the
more likely it is to happen. Sometimes a cop just wants a close up look at
the car and a nice chat. That cop will most likely be a State Police
officer within your own state (not always), as these licensing things are
primarily a state affair in the USA. And the local cops or out of state
cops are not much interested as it is generally not their domain (not much
take for writing the ticket).
Also for your insurance company, if you are involved in an accident you
should be able to explain why you were on the road at that particular time,
and exactly what club event or vehicle maintenance was involved. Please do
not ever say "It was such a nice day that I was just out for a pleasure
cruise, 75 miles from home". With all this understood, and if your primary
use for the car is for collector activities and club events, then collector
car insurance can be a very good deal.
OBTW. I did file one claim with Taylor some years ago when some uninsured
driver dented a fender. They eventually (more than a month, unfortunately)
sent out an independent contractor type of claims adjuster to set the
damage estimate. That estimate was substantially on the low side for a
good and proper repair to a show car, but a follow up letter to Taylor with
other good estimates and an explanation of why the more expensive repair
was in order resulted in a claim check for the proper amount. I think that
the two month total that it took to get this claim settled was the
exception to the rule, and I still carry Taylor insurance.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
PS
Brit Run To The Sun - Alaska '97 and other neat MG stuff with an attitude
can be reviewed at this address: http:://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
BG
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