Exotics Lost in Malibu/Calabasas?

I know by this date residents are still not allowed unto the Woolsey fire area but I know there's a lot of expensive cars in that area. I heard Jim Hull lost a barn, Ranchero and tractor but saved his family & house. (He even selected that house because it has survived a fire before he moved there) Andy Cohen had a near miss==the fire burned to his property but stopped. Latest count of homes destroyed is near 200. The fire even burned homes around Malibu Lake, can'r see why lakeside residents can't pump water from lake (or do generators fail or explode when exposed to severe heat?) Anyway I think car enthusiasts in these areas will have to rethink where they keep collector cars, may be even underground garages?

 

Watching news, the situation there is a nightmare.

 

I just read the Norman Timbs special was lost, and the 30+ car Cerveny collection with it.

People are more important, though.

sjd

 

https://autoweek.com/article/classic-cars/norman-timbs-special-and-30-plus-classics-lost-malibu-fires

 

The Woosley fire stared about 400 yards north of my property line. My back yard is Rocketdyne. I spotted the first plume of smoke at 2pm on Thursday and started the evac procedures. My TR is at the community center in Bell Canyon and according to reports by police its ok. Going back in the am to do smoke abatement and empty the fridge etc. This is a shot of the road into my neighborhood. The white isnt snow, its ash. If you are local, PM me as I have plenty of driveway space and can house a couple of cars for as long as it takes in a secured, guarded community if you need it.

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Looks like you are in Bell Canyon. My mother in law used to live on Sabblebow and had gone through the 2005 fire. Stay safe.

 

A few of my friends houses burned down. From what I know, 488 spider, 2x 458, db11, a few 911 turbos and a phantom got it.

 

Time to start building moats around my cars.

 

My understanding is, embers were carried by wind as far as half a mile and were still able to light structures on fire. It had better be a big moat.

 

Or just an underground garage with concrete doors.

Pretty terrible fires throughout and must be a nightmare for all in that area. Hopefully no more lives are lost.

 

Yup, top of Saddlebow. House is safe, property is charred but all are OK. worst of it was a fridge filled with spoiled food and the smoke smell. Power should be back later in the afternoon. We had an Olive tree ignite last night and burn down. Crazy as it burned from the inside out.. the bark was holding it together. We might have bought her old house hahaha.

 

Yea those winds are what is really fueling these fires.

Who knew the doomsday preppers were on to something lol. I am curious if the lives that were lost were people who refused to leave or they had no ample warning to evacuate. I can't remember if there was ever a forest fire that has killed this many people. Pretty sad what is going on right now. I hope everyone gets to safety.

 

My In-Laws used to live at 84 Saddlebow. Had my wedding on their property.

 

I know that house! Its done to the max at the moment. Not a blade of grass is out of place. Beautiful property.

 

My parents are in Mt View off Mureau Rd. The house backs up to Hidden Hills and Bell Canyon. Needless to say the fire burnt the back yard, caught part of the garage on fire and took out a few houses down the street. We almost lost a 71 280sl and a 2017 S63 Conv has smoke damage- still fighting those a-holes at Mercury insurance.

 

Sorry to hear of your problems. I hate to say it but there is a reason that their premiums are so cheap, they plan to pay the absolutely smallest amount on all claims. I have seldom heard of a client who was pleased with their first party claims adjustment experience or the settlement. I was an insurance broker for over 40 years and they are the only company we ever sent our agent/broker agreement back to, we just did not want to represent them after we found out what they are all about. We usually recommend to our clients if Mercury is on the claim that they get a public adjuster or an attorney to deal with them – life is just too short. I believe Mercury expects most folks to get an adjustment expert to deal with them.

Thank goodness you didn’t lose your home and have a homeowner’s loss to adjust with them.

 

Funny you should mention that. The 3rd party adjuster just left and yeah.... nobody has anything good to say about mercury. Next call is to the attorney on Monday!


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Just an FYI to anyone who was been dealing with damage from this fire as I have.

I’m not one to plug insurance companies but my experience with Nationwide Private Client has been exceptional in every way so far. From placing my family in a beautiful temporary home to assuring everything will be fixed or replaced, they’ve been amazing. Highly recommended

 

Still battling with mercury for the house and the car. Got a 3rd party adjuster for the house. These companies make me sick. They’re in it for the bottom line and I get that. I just can’t wait until it happens to them. Regardless, lawyer up and fight for what you deserve. I’m glad to hear that someone has had a positive experience with their insurance company


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Jay, Most insurance companies really try to step up in a catastrophic situation and perform pretty well, of coarse some better than others. Mercury is the real outlier in this venue, they are always a pain to deal with period! Likely the very best company to have in a claim situation is Chubb but their premiums are far from the cheapest and actually may be above the general market. However when a claim occurs they fully expect to make the damaged party as close to possible to the condition before the loss. I would have my insurance with them but they don't like where I live on an orchard in the country.

 

Randy, your information is very helpful to all of us. How do you feel about State Farm? I have them for everything and I live in an area where the Laguna Beach fire went through years ago. So I would be interested in knowing how they would do in the “big one”. No point in paying for “cheap” insurance and getting a “cheap” result. My only claims experience with State Farm is I recently totaled my 05 CL55 and they gave me $21K for it—which I thought was very reasonable, but that is not a good test case for when you lose your house.

 

Ron, I was an independent agent/broker representing a couple hundred insurance companies mainly for commercial accounts but I did handle the personal insurance for most of my commercial clients, some of which were very affluent with lots of toys and multiple homes all over. However State Farm is what is known as a direct writing insurance company so I never had any real direct dealings with them. Occasionally with them on a third party basis advising my client who had been damaged by one of their clients. On that basis they seemed pretty much like all insurance companies faced with a legal liability issue – they all want to pay the least to a third party claimant. Your claim on the 2005 CL55 seems to be a pretty reasonable settlement on an “actual cash value” basis. But many people with Fcars or collectible vehicles (myself included) prefer to insure those cars on an “agreed value” basis.

IMO State Farm is not really a market for a client who is very affluent with lots of collectible cars or several homes. My impression is they don’t really want exotics or sports cars however will write them if the client has been with them for a while and has some level of experience driving those type of vehicles. Many years ago in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake State Farm did not perform very well and the Insurance Commissioner of CA became involved with them as well as several other companies. But I would certainly hope they have learned many lesson since then.

Interest enough with a name like “State Farm” I would think they might be a market for my “ranchett” but not so because of rural issues (not unlike many insurance companies). Also I do not believe they will provide “agreed value” coverage for cars or at least they didn’t a few years ago. I believe that both Chubb and AIG Private Client Group are general companies that make that coverage available in the event that is important to you. Neither of these companies make any real attempt to compete on a price basis but rather provide a market for a certain group of people. Also AIG has a service for private firefighting contractors (not sure if Chubb offers this service) which some Malibu clients made use of in the most recent fires. That service likely saved several Malibu homes by the fact they saved a large home which was the first domino which didn’t fall.

If you have concerns you can get a presentation form a medium sized agent/broker who represents many personal lines markets for either just your “special” cars or all your personal cars, home(s), boats, motorcycles, scheduled jewelry and personal umbrella excess liability insurances. But please keep in mind insurance who sell themselves as the cheapest or lowest price are exactly that when a claim occurs, in my experience. My general impression is State Farm is mainly for the vanilla family with one house and a couple of regular cars and most of my clients were not in that model. So I didn't really compete much with State Farm. The more you get away from that vanilla model the less you fit the State Farm model. Just my opinion I could be wrong.

 

Thanks very much Randy. I think that is very useful information for everyone.

In my case, with respect to State Farm, they have been my insurance company since just after my college days when my sole worldly possessions were a 72 Volvo, a waterbed and a beanbag chair. I guess you’re point would be that you should re-examine your insurance more than once a century.

 

When my mom hit 85 years of age, at that time she was still driving and very well able and capable, but due to her age, Mercury Insurance straight out lied to my mom and said they are going out of business as in shutting down for good and no longer could insure my mom and told her to go find another insurance company, so litte that my mom knows, she did find another insurance company, that was ten years ago. I know because of her age, they lied to her because of higher risk which I understand but why do they have to lie to her and not just tell her the truth?

 

They are just a real class act all around, what can I say.