Stated Value Insurance

[ogrowup]

In the middle of a build which will pretty much double my overall cost of the car. Please don't tell my wife.
Anyway, if my FRS gets totaled or stolen under my current policy, they will pay book value and not the costs of upgrades. Not good.

I have 3 tickets in 3 years ( bad luck) and I hesitate to mention to insurance company that my little ricey coupe is being transformed into a gut crunching terror...

Anyone out there do a stated value policy?

[carma143]

Not sure if what I'm about to say will be any help.

My car insurance (AAA) pays full for nearly all occurrences, unless I somehow hit a very expensive car and it's my fault (I'm talking $200,000+ range). Being a teenager it's amazing my insurance is <$2000/year. I did not get the option to insure non-OEM parts, and I found the insurance not even worth it, even if I was going to spend thousands of $ on mods. From what I remember scrolling down all the options it was somewhere near $6000/year just to insure ~$10000 worth of mods, a crazy gesture.

Being how relatively cheap my car insurance is and how expensive it could have been to insure any mods on my car, I would assume the price every 6 months would by insane if you are under 25 yrs old (the apparent "magical" hump for insurance prices.)

Of course there could be statistics out there that shows teenagers who mod the f#%k out of their car get into accidents regularly, so all I can do is present you with the information I know.

[ogrowup]

I bring this up because I used to own a 1953 F100 custom. There were companies out there that provided "stated value" insurance, but there were limitations on mileage etc...You also had to have street rod plates etc.
I'm pretty sure there is no way to insure the cost of a build, especially for males under 25, who are responsible for the vast majority of car accidents.

[billwot]

There are several specialty insurers that specialize in classic/sport/performance cars. (Google!) But many, if not most, mainline insurance providers will offer "agreed valuation" policies for an increased premium.

I owned a pristine, low mileage MR2 turbo. When I researched stated value coverage, "book" value was ~$7k, but market was easily $12K. My insurerer (Nationwide) would give me $15K coverage for $120/year increase. All they wanted was some photos to verify condition.

[extrashaky]

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.