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Stated value policies and agreed value policies are not the same thing. You will want to do your research on those, but the basic difference is that an agreed value policy pays the value agreed upon in the contract, whereas the stated value policy pays the value in the contract OR the actual cash value of the vehicle, whichever is less. The stated value policy lets the insurance company pretend that they are insuring the entire value of your car and all your mods, then only pay you the market value for the car if you total it. For example, if you buy a $30K car and put $30K into mods, but it only increases the market value of the car itself by $5K, the insurance company would only pay you $35K if you totaled it.
If you want the car fully insured mods and all, you want an agreed value policy. With that, you and the insurance company agree upon the value that will be paid (car + mods), and they pay it. The reason people buy the stated value policies instead is that they are cheaper (since they cover less), but a slick agent can make it sound like it's the same coverage as the agreed value policy.
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