Barney - I want to commend you on your excellant evaluation of the
situation. There can be quite a bit of mis-understanding between
"declared" value and "agreed" value. My only addition would be to make
sure the insurer you are talking to is using the same definition as you
are. I received a quote from a company who was saying "agreed value"
and when you read the policy it was more of a "declared value" policy.
Also, some carriers are extremely narrow in their definition of when the
car can be used/driven. Again - read the fine print.
Carl Musson
'58 TR3A - TS25264L - Daily Driver
'61 TR3A - TS81603LO - Concours Wannabe...
Tampa, Florida
http://www.arts.usf.edu/~musson/triumph/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Barney Gaylord [SMTP:barneymg@ntsource.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 1998 5:29 PM
> To: Eugene Balinski; mgs@autox.team.net
> Cc: british-cars@autox.team.net
> 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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