Insurance

[Caleb Stovall]

So the question is how can I get the most of my insurance?
On a built up car full coverage isn’t worth shit without after market parts coverage.

The downside is you need receipts proving what is on you car.

I don’t have receipts for a lot of my parts, like my ITR transaxle, block etc.

How does one go about getting this stuff notarized in such a way that insurance would have to acknowledge it.
I’d need to higher an automotive estimator too?

I’m hopping someone around here has experience insurance modified vehicles, because my Acura is worth more than 2 grand to me….

Topic

[Jake F]

This has been a touchy subject for me and working with provider I finally got my deductible down to $0 in case of theft. As for comprehensive and aftermarket parts. Most established insurance companies have a division or contract for these needs and sometimes proof of product (s/n) is all that’s needed. However, when I made a claim, they wanted the receipts which I was able to dig up from the graveyard. Best thing you can do without a receipt is take photos of your parts installed (before collision or theft obv) and the s/n or product code. Take note of a roundabout time when you purchased these parts, then basically show your insurance provider these details in case of mishap. Insurance companies can be deceiving and certainly tricky with their terms, but if you’ve developed a relationship with them over time, usually an agent can work with what you have. Appraising your upgrades/replacements will also be proof of purchase and a more secure proof for reimbursement. You ask a tough question to be honest.

[Caleb Stovall]

Yeah I figured it’d be a tough question.
My deductible is still 500 atm but it comes out the insurance payout, I don’t have to pay it in order to get the payout. I was happy to learn about that.

I guess my question would be, how would I best notarize new parts, and such.

Like the ITR transaxle I actually got lucky on and had a friend in Texas that had imported one and totaled it out so I was able to drive down there and get it for pennies on the dollar.

Now if I had bought it from say eBay….they’re quite a bit more expensive.

Making a list of the parts is the easy part, but I’m worried without a receipt it wouldn’t matter to them.
How would I find an appraiser for such a thing? Would I need someone special? S/n would be easy on some bigger items but smaller items makes this harder.

I don’t want to be paying a ton of money for full coverage when all I’m covered for is a 20 year old car that they get the worth for off of Kelly blue book.

My agent has tried to help me with this, but he has no experience as no one in my area has done this apparently…
He said he’d talk to some people but yeah…

[Alexander B]

I’ve had this same problem, I had a very built car, replaced every single component from the bare (rust free) shell up with performance stuff.. then got rear-ended (very hard) by an SUV, the thing is bent beyond repair, and the insuranse goes “well, its a 20 year old car, here is $600”, to which I replied “hold on, I just put a few thousand $$ worth of parts on there, not even counting install cost”, and they were like “why would you even do that, its not a classic car”, and they paid me $600.

Now I’m going to do it a little differently, I bought a replacement shell (and by now, spent months (and hundreds of $) off-and-on repairing rust on it. 🙁 ), but I’m only going to drive it anywhere after the engine swap has been certified by our relevant gov’t agency* (so they can’t deny its existence and pay me for a base model engine), and I’ve had an automotive estimator appraise its value, and insure it as an oldtimer car with said appraisal as replacement value.

(*Europe, they’re much stricter about registering stuff about cars, if you swap an engine, the gov’t want to know, at the same time, this gives you a stick to defend yourself if the official registration shows your car is the only car with twice the HP over the stock model that they’re trying to pay you blue book value for.)

[Caleb Stovall]

Very interesting
I have a long while before mine will see the road again so it’ll be a while before I find out; but when you start going through this process I’d like to hear more about your experience.

[Alexander B]

I’ll try, if I remember, to write something about it and post it on this forum too. 🙂

[Rob]

what you will have to do is sit down with an insurence agant and talk to them about how you can do it… because evry company is diffrent and has diffrent reqerments but dont just say ya ya to them and not read the posicy yourself word by word because what ever the contract says is the law even if they verbal tell you otherwise read it yourself… if they say oh I can tell you everything and there is no need for yourself to read it and they like refuse to get it for you to read it… walk out the door and find a diffrent company to go with.. because your talking to a sales man and they will tell you what you want to hear even if its incorect… I have see so many of them tell me stuff that is wrong just to satify me… then I read it myself and they lied there eye’s out… and oh man did I go after the sales man for lieing to me…. thats my experince … I have worked in sales and have see so many sales ppl not telling the truth its sad to say just becuase the manger wants his qouta

[James P Grosso]

I think what you want is a “stated value” policy, where you and the insurer agree on the value of the vehicle (no depreciation.) This is how most of the classic car insurance works. I have Hagerty insurance on a few cars, and it seems to cost close to 1% the agreed coverage value per year, so if you had $30,000 in coverage it might cost about $300/year? but this is classic car insurance with some limitations.

[Caleb Stovall]

Nah I understand that I need to sit down and talk to an agent.
I meant more as things that people have learned the hard way.
I have a while before I’m going to sit down with anyone so I figured it’s enough time to learn about it.

[Alexander B]

[quote=”451Mopar” post=176322]it seems to cost close to 1% the agreed coverage value per year[/quote]
I wish it were that low. car insurance here (also) includes 3nd party coverage which usually adds a hundred to over a couple thousand a year depending on various things. (drivers’ age, crash history, car, cars original retail value (?! how would that affect 3nd party?!), miles per year, (you’d say more would be cheaper because more experienced driver, but its the other way around), where you live (agian 3nd party, not theft insurance), and more stuff like that.)

(3nd party coverage is mandatory to even drive your car on the street, and easily checked/ticketed with automated license plate scanners and even automatically ticketed if you have a registered vehicle without insurance.. I hate living in ‘1984’, on the other hand, it keeps others from crashing and then not paying up. Or so I thought. :dry: I paid more for the insurance than they ever paid me, and to be honest, only to keep the gov’t off my ass.)

[Author]

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