The Humor of Hagerty

carl

carl

True Classic
Got tags for brownX yesterday and called Hagerty to insure it. My agent sent me a confirmation of info email saying I wanted the agreed value of around $13,000. I had a mighty chuckle at that. I didn't think any X was worth that much but my own mental valuation tool is about 15 years out of date. I replied that the exterior is a bit rough at the moment so lets set it at $6,500.

Is it no surprise that it's a light rain day today so driving it for real (not just up and down the street) is on hold. The rubber part of my wiper blades are non existent but Rock Auto says that will be corrected on Friday.
 
Typically with agreed value policies like that you can insure for any amount you want. They don't care because the premiums are based on the agreed value, not the car's actual value. So they get the money from the premiums and invest it, which is where they make their real money - like all insurance companies, not on the policies. Plus the rate of payout occurrences is much lower on these vs regular vehicle policies. So their overhead is low.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Typically with agreed value policies like that you can insure for any amount you want. They don't care because the premiums are based on the agreed value, not the car's actual value. So they get the money from the premiums and invest it, which is where they make their real money - like all insurance companies, not on the policies. Plus the rate of payout occurrences is much lower on these vs regular vehicle policies. So their overhead is low.
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as one that works for an insurance company. you are 100% correct. actuarial and underwriters are gods in our world, balancing costs vs probability. I get alot of crap when people bark about "why does my used red mustang driven by an 18 year old boy cost more in insurance than my new beige camary driven by a 36 year old female even though it is worth more?" probability.. we pay out more claims for the 18 year old boy driving the used mustang than we do for the camary . so even though the total loss for the toyota is greater, we dont have that happen often, where as we pay out way more often for the 'stang. I know it ticks some people off, but, we make money. We have to. why? well remember the big storm in florida? even though my company isnt in Florida, we do reinsurance. so we just paid out a ton to other insurance companies to help thier insureds during that catastrophic event. People think because some insurance companies have holdings in the millions or billions of dollars, they are sitting in the lap of luxury. not so. That money is there in case the insureds need it. (hurricane ian is at 2.3 billion in claims and still rising) ok off my soap box.
but yes most, not all, insurance companies can do custom policies. Hagerty is one that specializes in it. They realize that specialty cars, and owners, baby their cars and therefore have far less claims than a "normal" street car. so they hardly have to pay out.


Odie
 
I use Hagerty and am very happy with them. They will insure your car for something "reasonably close" to the actual value. But, you pay more for higher values. I've never done the analysis, but I'm not sure paying more is worth it, unless you know you're going to have a total loss. I think it's best to just be realistic and go with that.
As for rates I pay the "mainstream" insurance company for my dailys - I am not happy that as the value of my car decreases, the premium doesn't. Doesn't seem fair.
 
I insured my 86 for 10k. Not necessarily that I thought it was worth that( I paid 4k for it in 89 with 17k miles) but it would cost to buy a nice replacement. Cost was reasonable.
 
I do insure my cars for what it would cost me to replace it. Great to see how quickly you have the "brownX" on the road, been watching over the last few months, really happy to see it driven!
 
You trailered it over in June so about four months, which is about normal for me. When I trust it for trips maybe I'll swing by and show you how empty the engine bay looks when you rip out the FI and stick a two barrel on. Then we can laugh at the agony of you working on a Scorpion.

My post wasn't meant to be a commentary on car insurance, just pointing out how much they thought brownX was worth.
 
My projects when I was young took 10 years to finish, primarily due to time, money and raising my kids. Now they are finished much more quickly but 4 months is still impressive. Guess I'll just have to retire soon from my day job :)

Please do bring the X by sometime when you trust it is ready to go on a longer journey, would love to see it!

Not surprised by the Hagerty valuation at all, they list your X at a top value of 29K (Concours) down to 5K for a fair example. Of course they charge more for a higher valuation, but it is how they make their money since the number of claims is very low on collector cars. But these cars are getting much harder to find in running/driving condition so the prices will continue to go up.
 
I was using my usual insurer, Nationwide for all my Fiats so going to Hagerty was much cheaper and could set my own value. Let's face it, Nationwide probably would have said a forty year old Italian car would be worth maybe $50.
 
Drivers in the DC area are pretty bad so the fact that you may wax your car every 24 hours and you check your oil on an hourly basis won't help you much with everyone giving more attention to social media than what they are doing in their car.

My mom's 69 Camaro had horn buttons on the end of the steering wheel spokes, right where your thumb would be, probably the best design feature of that car (other than the body shape). It gets tiring driving around with one hand hovering over the center horn button on our cars.
 
carl said:
Drivers in the DC area are pretty bad so the fact that you may wax your car every 24 hours and you check your oil on an hourly basis won't help you much with everyone giving more attention to social media than what they are doing in their car.

My mom's 69 Camaro had horn buttons on the end of the steering wheel spokes, right where your thumb would be, probably the best design feature of that car (other than the body shape). It gets tiring driving around with one hand hovering over the center horn button on our cars.
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Agreed. I rather have just a thumb horn button than all of the assorted controls jammed onto most modern steering wheels.

Apparently around here the horn isn't considered so much a safety device as it is a displeasure notice. Kind of the driving equivalent to giving 'the bird' to other drivers. Everyone leans on their horn endlessly as they encounter another vehicle and don't like their driving. Which is responded to with a similar long honk. Leading to yet another blast. Something of a back and forth dialog of "FU's".
 
True, honking the horn tends to be an "after event" notice rather than precautionary. I'm mainly concerned with folks who pull out from a side street right in front of you or the more fatal left turn in front of you from the oncoming traffic and a horn won't help you in either of those.
 
Dudes I got an idea- The horn-a-matic....huge train horns hooked up to modern proximity sensors- hahaha
I've been compounding my newish paint for the last 2 days and finally really waxing it...Dang the amount of new beauty marks- I guess I need another handicap placard, lol. I had one temporarily. Anyways that's where I get my damage,parked, but not so much worried about getting hit except by the GIANT trucks here, that I know can't see me sitting next to them. I do drive a tad aggressive, and defensively, staying away from the "pack"

OMG, I just googled automatic horns using proximity sensors- someone's already on it- lol
 
I was driving up a local road and some moron very close to me just laid onto their horn. Looked around and couldn't figure out who was honking so long or why. Then I realized I was the moron, a horn button wire had grounded through the wire insulation and was merrily blasting the horn. Had to pull over and rip the wire off the horns. I think the point I'm trying to make is you will scare the crap out of yourself with your horn beeping without your direct consent. Anyway, no one pays attention to horns....but it's an interesting concept.
 
Back to the original topic...

I am doing a "Title by Affidavit" in my home state for a lost pink-slip. An appraisal by a certified dealer is required in my case. The JD power estimates are insane. As if we all bought and sold our cars on BAT at the height of auction season. The low is over $5K, Mid is $13+K and high is over $23K. Solid numbers for BAT, but not in the real world. Or at least I thought.

All the appraisers use these same numbers. That's what's causing insurers to talk these values.

Then again, (he thinks out loud) if you had to farm out all the work it takes to restore an X properly... $20K is pretty reasonable.

For the parts and efforts I have in my restomod, I'd be kinda pissed if I only got $20K. Especially after seeing that yellow turd wagon on BAT a couple weeks ago sell for $10K.

Now I have confused myself.
 
Kevin Cozzo said:
OMG, I just googled automatic horns using proximity sensors- someone's already on it- lol
https://acadpubl.eu/hub/2018-118-21/articles/21b/77.pdf
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That reminded me of a old episode of "Top Gear" (UK) where they were in India and two of the guys wired the third guy's brake switch to his horn so it would honk every time he applied the brakes. The result was assmusing, especially in the heavy stop and go traffic in India.
 
carl said:
Got tags for brownX yesterday and called Hagerty to insure it. My agent sent me a confirmation of info email saying I wanted the agreed value of around $13,000. I had a mighty chuckle at that. I didn't think any X was worth that much but my own mental valuation tool is about 15 years out of date. I replied that the exterior is a bit rough at the moment so lets set it at $6,500.

Is it no surprise that it's a light rain day today so driving it for real (not just up and down the street) is on hold. The rubber part of my wiper blades are non existent but Rock Auto says that will be corrected on Friday.
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Some insurers have minimum values for agreed value policies. I used to insure through Grundy and I think their minimum was $10k. But that was a while ago. I insure through Hagerty for all of the "classic" vehicles. I would bet you that the premium difference between $6,500 and $13,000 is less than $100/yr. Given the fluctuations in the market and the cost to replace your vehicle with one of like kind and quality (if it can even be found), I would go with the higher amount.
 
I have a bad habit of insuring my Fiats for what it cost me to get on the road rather than what it might actually be worth. My buddies have their Fiats insured three to four times what I insure mine for. I must admit I never talked to my agent about how much extra a year higher amounts might be and he wasn't pushing to up my agreed value.
 
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