Clinton Township, Michigan Insurance Agent Discusses Insuring Classic Cars
Hi, my name’s Bryant Goodreau, I’m from Michigan Insurance Source. We’re an independent insurance agency here in Clinton Township, Michigan. And we work for you. Today we’re going to be talking about, insuring your classic auto. Let’s face it, you finally got that dream car, the car that you drove as a teenager and you had to give it up. And now you’re a little older, you’re making a little bit more money and you found that car and well, its cost you a little bit more. And you took the time to restore it and now it’s that baby of yours, that little car that you sit there and you go, God I love it. I take it out and my wife drives it up and down the road and we only take it out on weekends or special occasions. And if it rains, I’m not taking it out because I don’t want it dirty.
Well, here’s a question. How do you have it insured, and is it insured for the proper amount? If you just have it on your normal auto insurance, yeah, they’ll give you a discount because it’s in storage half the year and you only drive it limited mileage, but what are they paying you if, god forbid, your baby gets into an accident? Are they going to pay replacement costs, or are they going to pay you Blue Book value?
Blue Book value is a heck of a lot less than replacement cost. So there are things that you got to know when you’re insuring your classic car. You know? One and it’s the biggest thing, are you insuring it for the price of the car? Some classic cars can sell now into the hundreds of thousands, but if you have a standard insurance covering it, the Blue Book value might only be a couple thousand dollars, you know? So, you got to look at it that way. Now, it’s your baby. You want to make sure that if it got into an accident, that you could take it to your repair person. The person that gets a little bit more, because they’re specializing in repairing classic cars. Well, standard insurance companies will not necessarily pay that higher price, because you’re only insuring it as a standard car. So you need to find an insurance that will insure it. Make sure that an artist, really, repairs your car. You need to know if it’s going to be brought up to restoration standards or basic standards. You need to know how it’s going to be covered while it’s in storage.
You’re going to need to know that, since it’s a classic car and you love it, and you like showing it off, you’ll take it to a classic car show, and you’ll put it on display. Well, here’s a question. Are you covered for liability while it’s on display? Those are things you need to know. We carry certain carriers that cover exactly that; Classic cars, Classic automobiles or one of kind cars. You might’ve just bought a brand new Corvette or a Viper or Lamborghini, and that’s a specialty car. We carry companies that cover those specialty cars, covering them for what they’re worth, not on depreciation and what a Blue Book thinks they’re worth. Some cars go up in value, even though they’re sitting in storage. So there are a lot of things you need to know when you’re covering your classic car. Take the time. Talk to an agent. Like us at Michigan Insurance Source that will work with you to make sure you have the right coverage and, oddly enough sometimes your classic car insurance can be cheaper than your regular car insurance. Why? Because they understand you’re driving it very little or it’s sitting in a garage, under storage. And it’s got things that a regular car doesn’t, has more risk than your classic car does because you take extra special care for that car.
Some of the other things that they’ll cover is the classic motorcycle, a classic tractor. If it’s a classic, and it’s valued at more than what a standard thing should be valued at, you should have an insurance policy that covers it for what it’s valued at, and make sure the company that you’re dealing with understands the type of vehicles that you might be driving or showing off as a display piece because at the end of the day, it’s your baby.
Clinton Township, Michigan Insurance Agent Discusses Insuring Classic Cars
So give us a call here at Michigan Insurance Source. 586-846-3133. Or if you’d like to know more about insuring classic cars, please go to our website at www.michiganinsurancesource.com. Thank you again.