Collector Car Insurance: Grundy or American Collectors Insurance ?

Spiney

Spiney

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I'm going to switch to classic car insurance before I take our 96 SVT Cobra back out on the road. My main reason is agreed value. My current insurer State Farm won't do agreed value.
I've been in talks with both and would like to sign the papers on Monday. I don't want to take the car out until I switch because my luck if I do, it will get totaled and State Farm will give me $7k for it.

My first choice would probably be Haggerty, but they won't insure my car because my DD is an old pickup truck. We also have a 2012 Fusion. Grundy and ACI will both insure me. Price difference is within $60 a year. ACI has a 5000 mile a year limit, Grundy is unlimited as long as it's going to shows, on cruises etc. Good for if I'd ever do the Hot Rod power tour or the Mustang Round Up. We usually put less than 4000 a year on the car anyway because we are limited because of a Cat Less exhaust.

So I'd like to hear your feedback as to which insurer you'd go with of these 2.

Thanks, Dave
 
Sorry, I have absolutely nothing to add of value but I have to ask.

What is a 96 SVT cobra's "agreed value"?

This topic fascinates me; especially since this car is less than 20 years old.

If that's a tasteless question to ask please ignore me!
 
Spiney said:
I'm going to switch to classic car insurance

My first choice would probably be Haggerty, but they won't insure my car because my DD is an old pickup truck.
Click to expand...
That's interesting...but strange, from my experience.
We have Hagerty on one of the vehicles,
yet what vehicles we drive on a daily basis has never, ever come up...


Bob
 
In my experience neither offer much coverage. I had a 37 Ford coupe and checked both, not much difference in price but coverage was terrible. read the covered costs
 
FUNX725 said:
That's interesting...but strange, from my experience.
We have Hagerty on one of the vehicles,
yet what vehicles we drive on a daily basis has never, ever come up...


Bob
Click to expand...

I also have Hagerty and agree with you. I don't think a vehicle less than 20 yrs old is considered a classic or rare by Hagerty but I could be wrong. Hagerty does require that you have another insured daily driver so that your "classic" vehicle won't be driven on a daily basis and they don't care what type of DD it is unless its insured.
 
I know Leeland West is the official supporter for the Porsche club for agreed value insurance but I have no experience with them.

Curious as to what value you are wanting to insure your car at. 1996 SVT Cobra's are regularly selling around $10k and that includes convertable models with less than 50,000 miles.

If its worth more to you and you don't mind paying the extra for insurance then by means insure it with agreed value so you know you will get what you expect from it in the event it gets totaled.
 
I've been with ACI for years. Cost was less than regular insurance coverage on 1973 and 2004 Corvettes.
 
I have Hagerty on a 79 Z28. They only required that I had another car that was my daily driver.

The ultimate test is how any company handles a claim.

I have one with Hagerty right now and wow, they are great. Had an inspector out within 2 days and I had a check in a week.

The body shop has since found a few other items that they needed additional funds for.

Again, Hagerty responded quick and covered the additional expenses. They covered some things I never thought they would.

If you can get Hagerty to insure you, I would use them.
 
Agreed value of my extremely clean SVT Cobra is $15K. I talked to Hagerty 2X and both times it went well until I told them my DD is an old pickup. That killed it. They said why would I drive an old pickup when I had a 96 Cobra in the garage. For me Hagerty would be a no brainer if they'd insure me.
 
I've been with ACI for over ten years and they've been excellent. Several years ago one of my cars was damaged and they could not have been better. When their adjuster looked at the car and got the estimate (which was about half of the car's value), he simply said "Fix it."

I cannot recommend them more highly.
 
Spiney said:
Agreed value of my extremely clean SVT Cobra is $15K. I talked to Hagerty 2X and both times it went well until I told them my DD is an old pickup. That killed it. They said why would I drive an old pickup when I had a 96 Cobra in the garage. For me Hagerty would be a no brainer if they'd insure me.
Click to expand...

Looks like yours falls under the modern collector vehicle which is different than mine.

Sorry, that stinks. Hopefully the others won't have those restrictions.
 
Spiney said:
Agreed value of my extremely clean SVT Cobra is $15K. I talked to Hagerty 2X and both times it went well until I told them my DD is an old pickup. That killed it. They said why would I drive an old pickup when I had a 96 Cobra in the garage. For me Hagerty would be a no brainer if they'd insure me.
Click to expand...

Tell them Sam Walton drove an old pickup truck for his DD
 
I have Grundy on my Shelby for and agreed value of 57k. No complaints, issues or problems, but then again never had a claim either. I remember Hagerty asking me that same question when I called them for a quote, they asked if my DD was more or less than 5 yrs old.

As far as the comment "why would I drive an old pickup when I had a 96 Cobra in the garage":

They are insuring the Cobra not the pickup, let my other insurance worry about my pickup
Why would I drive my pristine Cobra, when I have a old pickup to beat on
I use it for work, can't use my Cobra for work because there is not enough room

Sounds like they are going to be a headache, even if you do get a policy. Might want to take a look at Barrett Jackson Auto Insurance too.
 
I have had American Collectors on my 2000 Firehawk for about 2 years. Agreed value is right around 14k and I pay a $275 a year premium wig 250 deductibles on comp/collision. The rest of the limits match my primary insurance for my dd. hey supposedly have a mileage limit but they have never asked me for an odometer reading since I signed up. I get my renewal letter in the mail every year, pay the premium, and they pretty much leave me alone. I've never had to file a claim so I'm not sure how they are on that end. I was paying almost double that premium when the Firehawk was insured on Geico with my DD and all the other collector car insurers were through the roof with premiums.


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I too am contemplating this move with my Formula but cant seem to decide. I also thought that the coverages werent as good with these collector car insurances.
 
At first I thought this was a discussion about Classic and Collector Vehicle insurance for older vehicles---in the 20, 25, 30+ years old arena---not the Modern Collector type.

No wonder insuring parties have questions about DDs and such: Deductibles, coverages, mileage, where to be driven, etc.

Negotiating Agreed Values for modern vehicles?
I may have to set aside some time for
the bargaining-table here shortly.


Bob
 
Yeah bob, they do it if the "modern collector" car is deemed to be of some distinct or unique lineage. Worst they can tell you is that they won't insure the car if they deem it to be too new.


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I had ACI for almost 10 years a while back on a modern collector car and they were great from quote to coverage. Never had a claim, so I can't speak to how well or not they handle them.

I have recently been inquiring with Grundy, ACI, and Hagerty for quotes on some other vehicles in my collection and I can say hands down that I probably won't ever request a quote from Hagerty again. It has been the absolute single most miserable experience I've ever had with an insurer. They claim to have a wide breadth of knowledge when it comes to modern collectors, but quite frankly, my wife is more well informed.

The best advice I can give you is to make absolutely sure you are aware and comfotrtable with ALL the limitations of use. I never had any issues with use when I was with ACI, but Grundy and Hagerty are far more strict. You don't want to drive you pride and joy somewhere and have something happen end then find out you aren't covered.
 
I've had ACI for 14 years on my two Oldsmobiles and everything has been fine. Granted, I have never submitted a claim. They did inquire about what I had as a DD, and initially, I was restricted to 2500 miles/year. That mileage restriction was bumped to 5000 miles/year two years ago.

Unfortunately, I have a hard enough time putting 500 miles on each car. I gotta fix that!
 
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