GEICO denied coverage(autocrossing BRZ)

[DarkSunrise]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

This is much how I feel for this particular case. I do not believe that Stang70 would abuse the insurance but have little to no doubt there are many out there that would.
"Honest somebody hit my car while it was parked. Must have been service truck because it left big streaks of orange plastic up my rocker panels"

Yeah not to take the insurance company's side, but when people try to take advantage of insurance companies, it leads to insurance companies protecting themselves like this. I've heard stories of people wrecking at the track and towing their cars to the highway just to file an insurance claim and pretend it happened on the street. Sucks that guys like Stang70 end up on the short end of the stick.

In a perfect world drivers wouldn't try to defraud insurance companies by filing claims on track crashes, and insurance companies wouldn't cut people off simply for tracking their cars. But that's not the world we live in.

[CatScan]

Some of you should petition Obama to take over the auto insurance business. If you like your auto insurance plan, you can keep your auto insurance plan.

[Casey10s]

I have also heard where the car companies look up the autocross results and match names and cars that could be used against warranty claims. I don't see where the insurance companies could not do the same thing. Taping license plates would not prevent that.

[bababooey]

always love TCoat's quick wit demonstrated through photos

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Casey10s

I have also heard where the car companies look up the autocross results and match names and cars that could be used against warranty claims. I don't see where the insurance companies could not do the same thing. Taping license plates would not prevent that.

I think a lot of that is urban legend more than anything. The cost of paying people to sift through all the race records (if they could even get them) and enter all the data to search against all the car owners would outweigh any possible savings.


Now, if somebody has a large claim (warranty or insurance) I would have little doubt that they would hit up social media for any dirt they could on that specific person. Many people have probably read some of my cautions when they members start posting specifics about dealers and warranty claims. They could very quickly find out who you are even on here if the money is worth it.


Even that may be more trouble than it is worth since the dealers get paid for the claim work anyway and really have no reason to start digging too far unless there is some very unusual situation going on.

[Fishbed77]

Maybe i missed this going through this thread, but how did Geico even know the OP was autocrossing his car?

[YamahaR86]

Originally Posted by Fishbed77

Maybe i missed this going through this thread, but how did Geico even know the OP was autocrossing his car?

Think the link got updated.

1. How did they suddenly find out?

To GEICO’s credit, it turns out this isn’t nearly as creepy as I and others thought, and it is in fact my doing. Back in January I called GEICO to ask about adding $2500 worth of additional coverage to the car to insure a new set of wheels. The representative I was speaking to at the time seemed pretty cool. He asked me what wheels they were, and I told him, and he said, “Oh, wow those are nice. I’ve got XXXX on my car.” He sounded like a car guy. We got to talking while he worked on his machine, and at some point autocross came up. Apparently he forwarded the details of that conversation to GEICO’s underwriting department, and that’s that. I had completely forgotten about this conversation until she told me about it.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Fishbed77

Maybe i missed this going through this thread, but how did Geico even know the OP was autocrossing his car?

You must have missed the page.


He inadvertently told them.


http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...5&postcount=25

[Hoahao]

Originally Posted by DarkSunrise

Yeah not to take the insurance company's side, but when people try to take advantage of insurance companies, it leads to insurance companies protecting themselves like this. I've heard stories of people wrecking at the track and towing their cars to the highway just to file an insurance claim and pretend it happened on the street. Sucks that guys like Stang70 end up on the short end of the stick.

In a perfect world drivers wouldn't try to defraud insurance companies by filing claims on track crashes, and insurance companies wouldn't cut people off simply for tracking their cars. But that's not the world we live in.

I was a corner man at Summit Point for a BMW event probably a good 25 years ago. Guy takes his Brand New Bimmer out and totals it. Due to how long ago, I forget the model, but it was one of the top models and loaded.

And I do mean totaled. Frame was banana shaped. The left rear was lower then the left front; the right front was lower then the right rear. Driver/owner walked away unscathed, though he needed a change of underwear and pants, lol.

So there we are, standing around this wreck on a flat bed truck. The advice to the owner by the bystanders was to carry it off to some steep embankment and roll it down and then call the insurance company. Nobody pointed out that that would be insurance fraud. I kept my mouth shut. I have no idea what the guy ended up doing.

Why people don't get track insurance I'll never understand.

[ZionsWrath]

Originally Posted by Braces

Track Day Insurance is the answer for those wanting to play.

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Exactly!

Not according to this story. They wont renew him because he "races". Having track day insurance wouldnt have stop them dropping him. And does anyone get insurance for autocross anyway?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by ZionsWrath

Not according to this story. They wont renew him because he "races". Having track day insurance wouldnt have stop them dropping him. And does anyone get insurance for autocross anyway?

But see that is sort of the catch 22 on this topic. If everybody was honest and got track insurance when they tracked then the insurance companies would not be so quick to cancel regular insurance. It is the very fact that some do not and then try to make claims that causes them to be leery.
As far as autocross being called "racing" it is not a matter of if we agree or not. That is what they define it as and therefore it should be covered as track days.

[Braces]

Originally Posted by Hoahao

I was as a corner man at Summit Point for a BMW event probably a good 25 years ago. Guy takes his Brand New Bimmer out and totals it. Due to how long ago, I forget the model, but it was one of the top models and loaded.

And I do mean totaled. Frame was banana shaped. The left rear was lower then the left front; the right front was lower then the right rear. Driver/owner walked away unscathed, though he needed a change of underwear and pants, lol.

So there we are, standing around this wreck on a flat bed truck. The advice to the owner by the bystanders was to carry it off to some steep embankment and roll it down and then call the insurance company. Nobody pointed out that that would be insurance fraud. I kept my mouth shut. I have no idea what the guy ended up doing.

Why people don't get track insurance I'll never understand.

I'll add that insurance companies are not stupid. They will research every crash to determine what exactly happened. You get caught for insurance fraud .... that will be a bad day.

[billwot]

Originally Posted by Hoahao

I was as a corner man at Summit Point for a BMW event probably a good 25 years ago. Guy takes his Brand New Bimmer out and totals it. Due to how long ago, I forget the model, but it was one of the top models and loaded.

And I do mean totaled. Frame was banana shaped. The left rear was lower then the left front; the right front was lower then the right rear. Driver/owner walked away unscathed, though he needed a change of underwear and pants, lol.

So there we are, standing around this wreck on a flat bed truck. The advice to the owner by the bystanders was to carry it off to some steep embankment and roll it down and then call the insurance company. Nobody pointed out that that would be insurance fraud. I kept my mouth shut. I have no idea what the guy ended up doing.

Why people don't get track insurance I'll never understand.

True story:

When I lived in that frozen wasteland called Ohio, I autocrossed with a local sports car club in a NE Ohio city. They held events on banked stock car track. And the layout usually included a (overly) fast straight down the back of the track. (I drove a 390 AMX at the time, and would get in 3rd gear down that stretch)

One Sunday, a young couple showed up in nearly-new Cortina. It was their daily driver, and their only car. Long story short, the young lady smeared the Cortina along the back wall of the track.

A local Dr that trailered in his prepared BMW loaded the the Cortina on his trailer and carried it downtown and "parked" it on the street and the young couple said it had been sideswiped while parked.

I have no idea what the outcome was, but really doubt if that story passed the insurance co's smell test.

[canadaRS1.0]

maybe it's different in 'merica. but i did some research on track day insurance in canada (more specifically in alberta). and it's kind of a huge rip off/waste of time.

- 250 bucks a day for a $30k vehicle
- deductible is 25% of the value of the car (you can go as low as 10% for a deductible if you pay more per day)
- doesnt cover any timed event. so not even valid for autocross
- doesnt cover fire (unless your car catches on fire during an impact)
- doesnt cover "Mechanical, electrical, or computer breakdown, howsoever caused." .. which leads me to believe if i go off track and bend/break suspension parts they would easily deny coverage for that too.
- doesnt cover "Damage to the interior of the car as a direct result of airbag deployment." so if i hit the wall and my airbags go off.. new air bags and interior damage is all on me.

so basically unless you completely total your car. it's not really worth it. I'm thinking you'd be better off dropping that 250 bucks on some driver training so you're less likely to crash in the first place.