[Zmagnette] Magnette values and stated value for insurance

[Steve Hanegan]

My insurer, Hagerty, suggested that I combine the price I paid for the car with the documented expenditures of the renovation to come to a "Stated Value". In my case, I bought the car in January of 2004 for $6500 (an eyebrow raising price at the time) and pumped approximately $25K into it for the work done - not including any money for my labor . The Hagerty rep and I came up with an insured value of $40K for the car. The coverage is $229 per year for comp and collision with this guaranteed value. The folks at Hagerty were actually very nice about the whole thing, encouraging me to consider what it would cost to rebuild if it were damaged as the value rather than what I could sell it for.

I have heard that there are three basic value levels for any car: What it would cost to replace, What it would cost to get you to turn loose of it (sentimental value) and what you could sell it for. My guess is that the first two being the highest will always remain the case for Magnettes.

The only thing I would say about hoping that values are high and will rise for finished cars is that It will give incentive for more cars to be saved. Only the truly devoted would put the kind of work and cash it takes to properly restore a Maggie knowing that it will never get more than pennies on the dollar cost of restoration. I suppose that is OK if we don't mind that eventually there will be a dwindling number of Magnettes left that are done, solid and ready to drive and everything else will have been scrapped, hacked about or otherwise ruined. I would love to see a good balance between high enough to encourage cars to be saved and recognize/mitigate the expense to do so and affordable enough that future enthusiasts will recognize the value of these cars and adopt them.

Have any of you had a chance to experience a magazine called "Sports Car Market"? It is a monthly magazine with discussion and analysis of what is going on in the Auction Market (Think Goodings, Barret-Jackson, Amelia Island etc.). It gives a wonderful insight into what a wide variety of cars are bring in when sold and trends that affect either the upward or downward changes in values. For the past 7 - 9 years growth in the value of most "ordinary" cars has increased fairly steadily, even in most cases enough to keep ahead of inflation. There will always be the Ferraris and other exoti-cars that sell for millions, but the more run of the mill cars are seeing decent growth too. The contemporary middle class, mid range Chevies, Fords, Dodges, Ramblers etc that were sold alongside our Magnettes are now trading (for the most part) in the high teens to low 30s, so it would stand to reason that $20K - to $25K would not be out of line for a Magnette in "ready to drive" condition, more depending on history/provenance/originality. John Drake (Silver over blue Varitone in the President's class at GT35) had his for sale recently for $26K, I don't know the outcome of that sale, but it certainly seemed a reasonable price for a very nice, though not totally original car.

Steve H.

On Oct 25, 2013, at 5:09 PM, Steven Trovato <strovato at optonline.net> wrote:

> I have a ZA and an MGA.  I wonder how many people have a Magnette and an MGA.  I've definitely heard of others.  As for insurance, have you had a classic car insurance company refuse to insure for your stated value?  I have found them to be pretty flexible, but I haven't tried to request anything too crazy.  I think the only reason for them to hesitate is that they don't want you to be able to put a match to it to make a profit.  I bet there are people on this list who have their Magnettes insured for 25K.  I am just guessing, though.  I suppose we will get some data points shortly.  Has anyone had an insurance company refuse to give you as high a stated value as you wanted?
> 
> -Steve T.
> 
> 
> 
> At 07:20 PM 10/25/2013, Mike wrote:
>> SteveT, I'm with you except for one thing - value for repair or replacement after an accident or other incident.
>> 
>> If nice Magnettes were trading at around $10K, while they cost upwards of $20K to get to that condition, you can be in a bind even with a stated value policy. Is your underwriter going to go for you asking for $25K of coverage for a car that trades for $10K? Perhaps not.
>> 
>> But if the cars are trading in the $20K range, or to put it another way, trading at a price that approximates what it would cost to duplicate the car, getting them properly insured becomes easier.
>> 
>> I'm not even going to consider the super-deluxe cars out there, the ones with A/C, breathed-upon motors, and so on.
>> 
>> I don't think the sedans will ever be as popular or pricey as the sports cars, for all the same reasons that the sedans were widely outsold by the sports cars when they were new. I've never really understood that, but that's how it is. I have both a ZB and an MGA, and the ZB is the much nicer (& rarer!) car. Go figure.
>> 
>> Mike
> 
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