Hagerty Refuses to insure 2006 Lotus Exige.

I have had lots of cars. Clean record. I have had 11 Ferrari's and have a Ferrari 328 right now with Hagerty.

I (was) very interested in a Lotus Talk forum members silver 2006 Exige that is on Ebay and the LT for sale section.

I always insure a car as soon as i wire the funds. Since I had intended to make an cash offer this morning on the car, I called Hagerty yesterday to get an insurance quote.


Hagerty refused to insure the Exige based on the fact I drive a paid for 2006 Ford f150 with full coverage as a daily driver.

Let me explain that further: Hagerty says that the daily driver "normal" vehicle must be LESS THAN 5 years old. Even though they will not be the ones insuring the daily driver.

This makes NO SENSE to me and they said its a firm policy of One Beacon, the company that owns Hagerty, Grundy and a few others.


I will look around for insurance posts / threads when I have time, but I wanted to share this as I am confused why an insurance company would care what you drive as a daily with another insurance company.

I would appreciate any insurance recommendations. Hagerty overall has been a great company.

I had a $40,000 claim with them a few years ago when my black 1987 Ferrari 328 was totaled by an idiot in a Dodge Ram backing up on top of the car while at a red light. There was an issue with Hagerty and Co-Part not going through the GA DMV and getting a salvage title on the car. They sold the car with my name on it clean and clear, after a Total Loss / frame damage claim had been paid on the car. Lawyers, the State of GA Insurance Commissioners office and Attorney General got involved. Co-Part seemed to be more at fault for screwing up the paper work. But I never did hear back on the case.

 

I guess the assumption is if your daily driver is over 5 years old, you'll be more inclined to use your "classics" on a regular basis. (ie daily driver is in the shop, or is itself a classic car, etc). I don't think the issue is who carries insurance on your truck.

I would also think that problem would be solved with a mileage stipulation in the contract (which I think is already in place with their policies).

Also, maybe particular to the Elise/Exige, it's not hard for those cars to be totalled, cars aren't worth a lot and repair bills for small accidents can easily be $10k+. so maybe that's their way of saying they don't want to write a policy on the Exige?

 

Good points, They may not want to insure it.

Hagerty stated that for them to insure ANY vehicle model year 2000 and newer requires the owners daily driver be less than 5 years old. This does not apply to pre 2000 model year cars.

I already have a 3000 mile a year usage cap in place. I put less than 7000 miles a year on my daily driver truck, so keeping the miles low on my fun cars is not an issue.

Thank you for the reply.

 

I have an Exige S insured through State Farm. When comparing new to new, it was priced the same as my 430. With only a couple of years separating both vehicles, that is saying something, as the 430 was triple the price of the Exige. I think the main problem is there is no cheap accident--the front and rear "clams" are not repairable (actually, I suspect they are, but not every town has the fiberglass artisans needed) and I think are now pushing 20 grand. So a 10 mph parking lot event could be a 25 grand repair bill.

 

Their whole rationale is that with a newer (<5 yrs old) car it is unlikely that your DD will be breaking down and creating a need to drive the "special" car that they are insuring. Their rates aren't the best either. Look into Congdon- Skelly, Grundy, etc.

 

Thank you for the replies.

 

Thats interesting, when I had my cars insured with Hagerty may daily drivers were all over five years old. Maybe this is a new policy,,,

I always drive old used cars ..

 

I do remember this rule coming up from when I was a broker 10 years ago. No recent experience however since I'm not in that business any more.

As suggested above, they may have that rule in place as a way to decline coverage at their discretion... the loss history on the Exige may very well be the underlying reason why, or your personal loss history, or a combination... I am speculating like the rest of you but that is all plausible.

 

This is the main reason the classic car insurance companies have such strict language in their policies that intimidates you from insuring a classic car as such, if it might occasionally be used as a daily driver.

My observation over the years has been that grocery store parking lots are where a very large percentage of accidents involving classic cars being declared a total loss.

IMO one of the big reasons classic car insurance is so inexpensive is that most classic car owners are very attentive to their cars and, generally speaking, will try to avoid precarious situations with them, so the risk is fairly low. But when you go get a gallon of milk, there is a higher risk than parking at a show&shine or enjoying an empty country road.

 

This may be a newer policy as dictated by One Beacon. The claim Hagerty settled with me was not my fault and has not affected my insurance in general nor my ability to insure cars with Hagerty. I have had 3 Ferrari's and a few Porsche's since the black 328 was squashed. But I have never tried to insure a vehicle this new that is a exotic / collector car. Most of my stuff has been pre -89. GA has changed their tax law so i am looking at $2800 just to register an Elise or an Exige. 3x8's pre 86 cost me $200.00. maybe I should look harder for a euro QV an stop lusting after Lotus's. But this means a 2008 Maserati Gran Turismo is going to be fun to insure also.

 

geico specialty division - american collectors insurance. insured my xke at ridiculously low rate for 2 yrs and paid total loss due to flood. now has my elise at much higher rate than jag was but still about 1/2 conventional ins would charge for it

 

PM sent.

 

I did not know that Haggerty, Grundy, and others were owned by a consortium.

That is sure not how they advertise themselves in the trade publications or on TV on the car shows.

 

They're not.

Where do you get your information?

 

The original poster said so in the original post - see above. Company name One Beacon.

 

I missed that. Thanks, James.

But the OP's statement is wrong.

OneBeacon was previously the exclusive underwriter for Hagerty, a situation that ended a year or so ago.

See OneBeacon Selling Essentia Insurance Unit to Markel

In particular the fifth paragraph: "Hagerty has not been sold and continues to be a privately-owned family business."

Hagerty essentially serves as a broker and, while catering to collector car insurance, gets its underwriting from other larger insurance companies. It's a family business, but it does have to follow the rules of whoever does the underwriting.

I don't doubt that someone from Hagerty said that they were owned by OneBeacon, but it has never been true.

Matt

 

Well, that makes sense.

It would be practically impossible (in todays litigation society) for a private insurance company to do business without an underwriter.

But that is not the same thing as "ownership".

 

'xactly.

 

Sadly...I ran into the same thing about 1yr ago when I had the 2011 GT3RS. They asked what the other cars were, and basically if you have two drivers (hubby and wifey), the other cars must not be older than 5yrs.... even though they are not the ones covering the car. Don't understand the logic.

 

One of the reasons is because people get nice cars, like a GT3RS, for daily driving, but pretend that their daily driver is a piece of junk 88 Grand Am--so their insurance is low on their actual daily driver, the GT3RS.

The insurance company is trying to prevent fraud like that.

The other reasons outlined above also account for this policy.

 

One Beacon was the name on my $40,000 check for my black 328 when it was totaled. Insured by Hagerty.

One beacon was the company for which the attorneys and actuaries worked when I was in conflict with Hagerty and Co-part selling my totaled car with the clean title with my name on it to some idiot in PA.

One Beacon was on ALL the refund checks I received from swapping cars on and off of several Grundy policies.

One Beacon is / was the umbrella corporation for Hagerty, Grundy and 2 others whose names I cannot recall.

PS: I was told on the phone last week when I called Hagerty that is was a "One Beacon" rule or policy. If this is not true, I really dont care. I just want to own something besides 308's and 911's for awhile.
Never expected insurance issues, and my drivers record is clean. So if One beacon has nothing to do with Hagerty, perhaps someone should tell the folds who answer the phones for Hagerty.

 

Interesting. I am single and at one time I had 11 cars with valid tags and insurance on them. Back when i was really into muscle cars, and they were "cheap". State Farm was great to work with back then, but the local agents here REFUSE to insure exotics without going through the Dublin GA underwriters office and red tape for some reason. So i dropped State Farm after being with them since I was 15.

I can see them needing to protect themselves, but i put less than 7000 miles a year on my daily driver F150 for the last 2 years straight. Fun cars see less than 3000k miles with no problems as far as not using them enough.

Ill talk to a few agents and then look for a car again. I need to go to Atlanta or Florida and sit in a Elise or Exige before I buy one.

Thank you all for the replies.

 

If you are a dwarf the Elise is ok. If you are tall, forget it. Nowhere for right knee to go when shifter is in left side gears. S2000 is much worse. Right knee firmly wedged between right side of steering wheel & console/shifter area. Impossible to make right turn since nowhere for right hand to go & not enough space to turn wheel. None of these car companies stop to consider that average American male height is not 5'5". No legroom.

 

I'm 5'11" and I fit in the Exige just fine. Plenty of leg room to heel and toe, and my head fits with a helmet. Now, do you have to wear narrow shoes so you don't activate two pedal at once--yep? If you have big lats, the seats are gonna give you a firm squeeze.

This is a very pure driver's car. If you have time to relax you right leg, you aren't driving. Having said that, I've done 3-4 hour drives in the Exige and been fine. Wouldn't want to go all day though (although I have done a 2.5 hour drive to a track, done a track day, and driven home on the same day--makes one ready to sign on the dotted line for a trailer and a tow vehicle).

 

OneBeacon is not the "umbrella corporation" for Hagarty. It was the insurance underwriter. Hagarty is a privately held, family owned business. It acts almost like an insurance agent for other underwriters. OneBeacon was the exclusive underwriter, but is no more.

Matt