Not All Insurance Is Alike - Collector Cars Need Special Love
Friday, June 20th, 2008Be careful about insuring your classic car. It's not like your grocery getting or daily commuter. To save the maximum amount of money on a classic car's insurance policy you need to do your research.
Some companies will write a policy for whatever amount the owner requests. But down in the small print is an important clause that says the insurance company won’t pay more than the actual cash value of the car, or whatever the company deems the car to be worth. If you want to insure a $40,000 car for $80,000, they will happily collect the premiums. But if you file a $80,000 claim, they may elect to pay only $30,000 and refund the difference in premiums. If you never file a claim for over $40,000, you’ll never know that you’re paying for coverage you don't really have.
As well as a well-written policy it's important to have other kinds of insurance: not driving cars that are in bad mechanical condition, separate your car collection into smaller groups that are divided by fire-proof doors and protected by sprinklers, keep paint and other flammable materials away from your cars.
Estimates put the total number of car collectors at 500,000 to a million. Yet the specialty insurers have only about 135,000 policies. Where are the rest?. With normal policies, fraudulent policies, or none at all? A lot of people still are not aware of these special policies for collectors, which can cost 80 percent less than a family car policy.