Collectible Car Insurance

With spring right around the corner, many of us are getting anxious to start cruising in our collectible cars once again.

Of course before you take that car out on the road, you’ll have to give it the once over in order to see how it fared through the winter and make any necessary repairs to insure care free driving. Speaking of insuring, lets talk about insuring your collectible car.

Some collectible car owners think the easiest way to insure their classic car is to add it to their family auto insurance policy…this could be a very costly mistake. Your average auto insurance agent doesn't have a clue about what your classic car is really worth and will attempt to offer you the lowest possible value if the vehicle is totaled. An insurance agent needs to know enough about the classic car market to help you secure a reasonable limit of insurance, guaranteeing what you'll be paid in the event of a total loss.

Before you go out and look for the best collectible car insurance quote, there are several factors that you have to determine. Will you be driving the car year-round, or is it a vehicle that only is out on warm summer weekends ? Another important consideration is the amount of miles you intend to drive. Some insurance companies will limit your driving miles in order to get special insurance rates. Others will restrict you from driving your collectible car as basic transportation. So decide ahead of time what your planned usage will be. Once you’ve made these determinations, your next step is to have your car appraised by a professional appraiser to determine its true value. You can find a reputable appraiser through the International Automotive Appraisers Association. (http://www.auto-appraisers.com/ )

There are three types of automobile insurance coverage offered for the total loss of your vehicle. Actual Cash Value, Stated Value, and Agreed Value. Actual Cash Value coverage is what insures most everyday cars and pays out a depreciated “book value” in the event of a claim. The older a car is with an Actual Cash Value policy, the less value it has. Some insurance companies offer Stated Value policies for collectibles. These policies are better than Actual Cash Value because they allow you to state a value for your vehicle that is greater than its depreciated "book value." However, Stated Value can still depreciate vehicles because the policies generally require the insurance company only to pay up to the stated amount. Only Agreed Value insurance policies guarantee you will get all of your money back in the event of a total loss. This is the coverage you should choose for your collectible car. Get the Agreed Value in writing, and keep pictures of the car as evidence in case you ever need to file a claim.

You can find reputable insurers for your collectible car through such magazines as:

Hemmings (http://www.hemmings.com/)

Old Cars Weekly (http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/GeneralMenu/)

If you drive more than occasionally, ask for a policy with no mileage limit. If you drive less frequently, ask for a lower-priced policy with a sufficient limit. Find out what restrictions your insurance company places on your policy and be sure to follow them. You'll lessen your risk of rejected claims and keep your classic car covered.

You may also qualify for discounts if you belong to car or travel clubs. Check with your agent to see if your membership in one or more of these organizations entitles you to an additional rate reduction

Mom's First Car

Early spring of 1951 found my mother in her second year of teaching grammar school at Calvin Coolidge Elementary School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. It was a job she would keep until she married in April of 1955.
Not having a car of her own at this time, she would get a ride to and from work with a co-worker who lived up the street. This went on for several years until she decided that spring of ’51, that she had saved up enough money and that it was time for her to finally get her own car.

Worcester’s big Ford dealer back then (and still today) Harr Ford, had a car that caught her eye…a 1951 Ford Custom convertible. The car was not the lot and would have to be ordered. So after haggling on a price, she signed the required paperwork. Mom remembers that the purchase price was around $3000.00. She also remembers that she had to make two colors choices when she ordered. Her first choice of color, was turquoise exterior with a black interior. Her second choice was just the opposite…a black exterior with a turquoise interior. The salesman told her it would be several weeks before a new shipment of cars arrived and he would call her. The call from Harr Ford came two weeks later, her car had arrived. Unfortunately it was her second color choice, but that didn't matter, she was anxious to get her new car. The next day after being "dealer prepped" Mom drove off the Harr Ford lot in her shiny new Ford.

The passage of time has dimmed some of my mom’s memories of that car, but she did remember that it was V-8 with manual transmission (three on the tree). It also had a radio, heater and white wall tires, all of which were options back then.

Mom also remembers that the first weekend she had the car she drove to Cape Cod, where her parents had a cottage. She said the most lasting memory she has of that car is of driving with the top down and the wind blowing through her hair. She recently stated, “it really was a beautiful car, I loved driving it”
My Mom kept that car until just before she married. My (future) Dad suggested they sell it as his car was newer and bigger...he had a 1954 Ford.
I would like to think that Mom's car is still around, but the law of averages goes against that. She sold it to the police chief of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts who just happened to be her friend's father.

Through the years she told me she had taken pictures of that car, but didn’t know what became of them. Then several years ago while going thru some long forgotten color slides there it was…the very car…her ’51 Ford in glorious Kodachrome color. Those slides probably hadn’t seen the light of day since Eisenhower was president, but now I had before my eyes, pictures of my Mom and her brand new 1951 Ford taken on an early spring day in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Two of those pictures can be seen at the top of this posting.

She is right...it was a beautiful car.