I have a '65 C-10 that I love to drive. It is currently insured through a collector car insurance company as I am sure many of your (fellow Hambers) cars are. It seems that these collector car insurance companies like to put stipulations on how often you can use and what you can use your ride for. They say that "joy rides" are ok. They also say you are not allowed to haul anything. Now anytime I drive my truck it is for joy and anything I pick up with my truck is for joy so doesn't that make it ok? I have called the conventional insurance companies for insurance on my C-10 and my Bel-Air but I am told I have to use the collector car insurance. So my question to you is... How do you insure your shop trucks, your daily drivers (collector or antique of course) and how do you have the ability to use your vehicle as you see fit, legitimately? Also, I was told that all of my collector vehicles needed stored inside of a locked garage too. Do you guys store all of your insured vehicles? Lucky for me I have the storage so not an issue... YET! Oh, and as not to incriminate anyone lets say... What do you recommend?
I have insured my '35 Ford woodie with Grundy Worldwide for 10 years. Grundy has no mileage limits or days of use limits. A great company to work with. I recommend that you speak with them by phone to discuss any limitations on load carrying.
Agreed, Grundy all the way! As long as it's kept in a garage overnight and no driven to work you are free to do anything with it anytime. I don't know of ANY collector insurance that will allow you to drive your car to work.
I've used "Chrome" anpac for years and they too love to work with folks and thier service is great.1-800-car-buff.
You can drive your car to a repair facility. I would assume that if anything happened to my car when I was close to my work that my real destination would be a repair facility.
I have Grundy right now too. I agree that they are the best with "limitations" but isn't part of the joy of having a truck being able to score some cool parts, antiques or anything when I find them? I know there are shop guys with old trucks, how do you guys do it?
Grundy all the way. I do drive Big Olds to work every now and again and it is covered, big cheese at Grundy even said it was ok as long as you have a regualr daily driver for work it is ok to once in a while drive your car to work I'm covered. and trust me when I tell you I haul stuff in Big Olds. If I stop anywhere and purchase something it goes in Big Olds. I mean come on thats what a trunk and back seat are for. I would imagine that is what the bed of a truck is for as well right??
I am having the same issues. I built my truck to be a daily driver. I also do not own any cars newer than 50 years old! I think I am stuck with just plain old liability which sucks!
I insure all my old trucks through a conventional insurance company and they make out no stipulations on me, other than not to let someone not on the policy drive the car. I banged my C-10 up in a snow storm a couple of year ago. Called my agent, he came out snapped pics informed me of what it was going to do to my premiums if I made a claim and said to keep receipts if I wanted to make a claim. I made the repairs for less than the deductable and didn't make the claim but it was going to be no problem. He also took a look at my Stude while he was here to see progress and reminded me that I needed to call him before I started driving it. I think that insurance laws very from state to state but I have no problem insurance my classics here in MO. That could be because insurance is required to license a car.
cochran242- my conventional insurance did not offer me anything where I could just cover the car for liability. I know they used to but it seems like they dont want to insure my old cars, which leads me to porknbeaner's comments. I think you are right, it must be a state by state thing. Here in PA you MUST insure any vehicle to operate it so maybe I willl have to start calling some other insurers. I am thinking to go with some cut rate company. Maybe, for the best insurance rates online- (I will have to) go to the General and save some time. Or I will have to pick up the phone and the call is free (Safe Auto) lol.
That's good to hear, I'm going to have to talk to Grundy i was with Hagerty for a while, but they did have the "no driving to work" stipulation. i like to drive it to work once a week or so... sometimes more. i do have a regular daily driver (two, actually... plus motorcycles). my motorcycle is a collectors... i can ride it damn near anywhere i want, no limitations on miles or locations. agreed value, even a reasonable premium. wish collector car insurance was as easy...
American Collectors Insurance has some stipulations but they're super lax. I drive my old Nova occassionally when I work on Saturdays---no biggee, to them it's still "for pleasure." Someone else said they do this with Grundy. I don't think either company considers this to be out of bounds with their restrictions. Haggerty was the worst experience I ever had. I won't insure anything through them. Since I've been with Collectors they haven't asked for any documentation of mileage or anything. Not that I drive the cars that much---but it seems like Collectors vs Haggerty, Collectors wins hands down. As a note, Collectors insured my classics for me before I turned 25. Some of them won't. http://www.americancollectors.com/
Wow, yeah insured under 25 was a difficult thing for me too. I had to wait to go for full coverage on my old rides. I have quoted American Collectors too and believe it or not they were cheaper than Grundy by a little. I just didnt feel like going through the hassle of changing it over at the time.
Stay away from the general I had a bad experience with them. It ended up with the car in the impound lot.
That's another perk I forgot...they're very reasonable for the level of coverage you receive. Even with flatbed assistance just in case---it's cheaper than I ever paid for Haggerty.
No problems with Grundy. I have 1 finished and 3 project cars currently insured with them plus my business. As I finished my 3 window they let me increase the value and now I'm doing the other 3 deuce projects all I do is send them a list of what I add and the value and they increase the insurance and bill me. I've never had a claim and hope it stays that way. A claim will tell the story.
I went with state farm collector car insurance simply because I can have comprehesive only in the winter and not full coverage it cost me less than grundy or haggerty. Any car over 25K will need an appraisel but other than that pictures is all that is needed. I had both grundy and haggerty which are 12 month policies which are good for warm weather climates but when you live in the midwest driving season is 6 months usually.
........Been with State Farm for 5 years now.....great price, but most of all....I have a great agent that treats me with one on one service.....
As an appraiser for both Hagerty and Grundy, I will tell you they do not insure daily drivers. You have to have secure parking for every car on the policy. Yes they want you to enjoy the car. No, they don't want the cars being driven to work, Walmart the mall or any other place a car typically gets banged up. This smells of daily driver. Putting a newly purchased part/item in the car or the bed of the truck is not a problem. Towing is. They don't want to see trailers attached and they don't want to see hitches. Why all these restrictions? To keep the risk down. That's how they insure these vehicles cheaply. If the vehicle isn't in rush hour traffic on your way to work, it's exposed to less risk. The same if it's not taken to the mall or Wally World. If the vehicle is garaged, it isn't going to be exposed to hail or most other outside perils. Again, it lowers the risk. As their appraiser, guess what I get to put in my notes when I come out and you have 4 cars and only room for two? Or there is no visible daily driver? Guess what goes thru their mind when the police report says the accident happened at 8:15AM on Tuesday? Or you're claiming door dent damage from a parking lot? They won't deny the claim, but I doubt you'll get a renewal notice. If you want a daily driver, get one. Or insure this one as a daily driver. Most companies will gladly take your money and insure it with full coverage. If you find a SALESMAN that won't, go to another.
Swifster, let me start by saying thanks for the input. For the record, I do have a couple of daily drivers so my C-10 and Bel Air are not dailys. I do occassionaly like to drive them to work then take a cruise afterwards- too hard to go home and get a vehicle then take it for a spin- but that is about it. I do not drive them in the weather unless I get stuck and I do not tow anything, but sometimes I would like to pick things up with the truck- like the seat I just got for my Bel Air. I guess that is the main point for my post. How do you get insurance for an old vehicle you want to use as a parts truck when the insurance company you deal with tells you to go to Grundy or Haggerty?
Go with a company that has Stated Value policies like Allstate , State Farm, Nationwide, etc. Tell your saleman that there are certain restrictions that you don't want to meet with Hagerty or Grundy. Your salesman is lazy. Bringing seats home in the bed is no big deal. I doubt Hagerty or Grundy would say anything about it. They also wouldn't say anything about the 'occasional' drive to work before a cruise night. Again, the idea isn't to keep you from driving the car/truck, it's to minimize the risk.
I've heard AAA has a great plan for collector cars, anyone had experience with them? I used to use state farm but they got more than a little too pricey for my taste.
AAA, as an organization, does not sell insurance. The individual state Auto Clubs can sell what they want to the benefit of their members. Less than 10 state Auto Clubs (that I'm aware of) sell any type of insurance. California and Michigan are the two big ones. I worked with AAA Michigan and am familiar with their system. If AAA in WA state sells insurance, it's just for that state. Keep in mind, even if it's a collector car policy, unless it says Agreed Value, that policy is no different than a daily driver policy.
I have 2 cars insured with Hagerty, 30 coupe and my 49 coupe. Over the years I've had many thru them. Have no complaints and am very pleased with my premium (rate). As far as my daily drivers, they are thru State Farm. Of course my rates are cheap, I'am just an oldfart that slows the rest of you down
I'm with Grundy. No problems with restrictions. My only concern is they are nickel & dimeing me every year.
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