American Collectors or Hagerty Insurance?

Just got my renewal from Hagerty, it went up from $703 to $953. Same car, same coverage. A quick call into Heacock and they quoted me my original rate of $703. If Hagerty won't match I am switching. I used to love Hagerty but they did away with their print magazine so now it is going to come down to price.

 

Remember, insurance premiums are greatly affected by whether you want the Ferrari insured for normal market value or for an AGREED value that exceeds the current market value. Big difference.

 

I don't have experience with either of those providers but will pass along what little I know. I considered collector car insurance for the 330 GT several times, but what always held me back were the "usage" constraints. I can live with a 5000 or even 3000 mile limit, but a lot of the specialty insurance providers say the car can only be used for show or events. I asked one of them what would happen if I was parked at a restaurant and somebody hit me and they said it wouldn't be covered if it wasn't show related. Probably about half my driving is shows/event related, but I like to take pleasure drives as well. Heacock, however, seemed to be the only one that doesn't have usage restrictions (at least when I looked more than a year ago). I haven't pulled the trigger because I don't know how good Heacock really is, but it was the only choice I would consider because of their freedom of usage policy.

 

AC's is the preferred collector car insurer for USAA and they give a discount. No mileage restrictions with them but car is to be used for shows etc. if you're going with their least expensive coverage, agreed value. They seem good but I've never had a claim. Hagerty seems to be just pricing themselves out of the market these days.

 

The usage restrictions take me out. Every car I own goes to work with me from time to time. I find the cost for full coverage is not that outrageous when you have multiple more daily driver cars

 

Heacock says "pleasure driving encouraged", but you'd have to ask them if that allows an occasional drive to work. When I talked to them on the phone, they were pretty liberal about driving, but I didn't ask about work commutes.

I am inclined to do collector insurance, not so much for the savings, but because I'm not sure how well my regular insurance would handle it if I had an accident. There are only a couple of places that could do the work right and it seems like it would be better to have an insurance company that deals with specialty cars all the time. I'm still on regular insurance, but in the back of my mind it bothers me that they might not be ideal if there is an issue.

 

I have my 1988 328 GTS and 1967 Pontiac GTO insured with Condon & Skelly.

I shopped hard before making my decision. Hagerty and American Classic both wanted over $1500 for the exact same coverage C&S offered for $700. Heacock was also $700. My regular insurance agent also is an agent for Condon & Skelly, so I went with them so I would only have one agent to del with. Otherwise I would have gone with Heacock. Haven't heard anything bad about any of them.

None of these specialty insurers are actually insurance companies. They are brokers - the actual insurance is underwritten by insurance companies you probably never heard of.

 

For my 360, Allstate was $18 more than Hagerty. Since I daily drive my 360 I felt Allstate was my only choice, its hard to say you put 10,000+ miles on your 360 per year driving only to shows and events, plus I work at a university so I was worried about kids hitting/keying the car and Hagerty saying I was not covered at work. I do think in a accident Hagerty would be best over Allstate because of their agreed value but I could not live with the limits.

 

After being reminded about it by this thread I reached out to Heacock again and moved my 330 GT to them. I feel better about having a provider that specializes in specialty cars (this was the primary reason for moving). With a 3000 mile "pleasure driving" policy, the new rate is slightly more than 50% of what it was with regular insurance. They were easy to deal with and the few reviews of them I found online seemed to be quite positive.

 

I have Leland for my 930 turbo and it was significantly cheaper than the rest. The only one that was close was Chubb. I checked around for my 458 that is due soon there was a $2000 difference between Hagerty and Leland. Chubb was a couple hundred more. That was for 6000 miles.

 

Hagerty was good to me when I had them.

 

I had a large claim with them and they took perfect care of me.
WHEN YOU HAVE A PROBLEM YOU WANT TO DEAL WITH FERRARI CRAFTSMEN NOT A BODY SHOP USED TO DOING THINGS FAST AND CHEAP. AGREED VALUE IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO ON A CLASSIC. Ask your friends who have had a claim.
Hagerty is the Best even if they have rules, try and live with them.

 

Most of the specialty insurance rules aren't livable, at least for me. They say that you aren't covered if you are driving the car for anything that isn't event related. If you do pleasure drives, and I hope most of us do, then you aren't covered. I suppose you can talk your way out of it or say you were on your way to a get together, but I don't feel comfortable with that. Insurance is supposed to make you feel at ease, but not being covered during pleasure drives has the opposite effect. I didn't check very thoroughly, but I think Heacock is the only specialty insurance that covers pleasure driving.

 

Dont have time for a long post.

After my 328 got wrecked ( by someone hitting me) I was a bit pissed with the mistakes that were made that were Hagerty's fault. But i got paid and the car went away.

I switched to Grundy for a year. Philadelphia insurance is the place the checks from Hagerty came from. When i cancelled my policies with Grundy recently due to selling off all the cars, i received a refund from them and the checks were from---- Philadelphia Insurance.

So one big glob of a company actually owns and runs many of these smaller name brand Insurance companies.

Its the agents and underwriters customer service that matters.

 

Hagerty refused to insure my Ferrari 3 years ago when I bought it because my daily driver was too old. My 9 year old Ford F150 was too old. That is what they told me when I called them to ask why they wouldn't insure me. Make sense to you? No. Glad I went elsewhere.

Nate

 

Hagerty, Heacock, et al are the agents. They sell for other insurers.

 

I lent my '58 300sl roadster to my good friend who is the shop manager (many service favors over the years) at one of the biggest MBZ dealers in NY to use in a display alongside the new AMG SL roadster last year. Beautiful side-by-side display, huge party, roped-off, special lighting, food, music..the works. The show was a huge sucess and my friend was thrilled (as was his boss)!! Cars remained on display thru the week and to be returned via flatbed (30miles) that saturday. Tow company snapped the tow hook off my 300sl, car slide down the flatbed, crashed against the curb was buggered-up more than meets the eye (belly pans/exhaust tip/bumper & mounting points/quarter panels...you get the idea. I brought my car to a shop of my choosing with the process being seemless and without aggravation. Agreed value is THE ONLY way to go along with shop of YOUR choosing. It is difficult to fork over those premiums, yet can be well worth it.
Good Luck and be careful.

 

+1 for Hagerty. Have my 65 corvette and 98 550 with them.

They fully covered a Jaguar E-type FHC that was stolen 3 or 4 years ago.
They were helpful and professional in dealing with the claim and paid the full agreed value once they received the police report.
Impressive service given the situation.

.

 

American Collectors was about 1/2 the price of Hagerty...so I switched. All else on the policy was the same. They are recommended by USAA.

 

I am with Grundy. The have great rates and have always given me great service. I had a friend who had a claim with them and had absolutely no problem with getting them to handle the claim. I like the no deductable feature of the policy.

Bobert

 

I used Hagerty a few years back and then switched to Leland West (underwritten by American Modern Home) which was a bit cheaper. The premium was $1950 on my 2008 F430 and I called Geico yesterday out of the blue and they insured it for $987.

GO GEICO!

 

Just called Geico and they do not insure 458s. It is on their do not insure list.

 

American Collectors is my choice.
My E30 M3 and 911TT are both insured through them with agreed value.