My question was do they have a blue book for GEMS. How does company come up value of cart.
I talked to the claims lady from State Farm and to my pop who was a claims guy for Allstate years ago. For cars that are āoldā or āhome brewā or no longer in production, and fully covered, they would use something called ācompsāā¦ā¦comparable vehicles that were sold recently and that are similar to the vehicle in question. So they would look at eBay or Craigslist to see what 2002 Ford Think 4 passenger cars are trading for and then make an estimate of the total loss vehicle or the unrecovered stolen vehicle that way. If your car is worth more than that, you better have some excellent photos, videos, and receipts for work done on your car to support your claim that the car is worth more than they say it is.
For my car collection of old/rare cars 25 to 50+ years old, Barrett-Jackson/AIG and I agree on the value of each vehicle in the collection at the time that the cars are added to the policy. This is referred to as agreed value coverage. There are very specific rules that go along with this kind of coverage. Vehicles may not be driven to work, must be stored in an agreed locationā¦.indoors, locked, nobody else driving the cars (no wife & kids driving but Iām single) no annual mileage restriction, no renting of cars, alarm on garage, cars may not be raced/tracked, etc, can travel with cars to show and display nationwide. itās actually a great deal if you have a pile of classic cars and motorcycles. I pay about $2000 per year and the agreed value of the cars and bikes is more than $500k for a total of 7 cars and 7 motorcycles. They know that old guys with car collections tend to take very good care of their stuff and are very protective. Itās a good deal for them also.
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Since there is no bluebook to speak of, when you take out insurance on them, you specify the value and pay for that amount of insurance. My Thinks are insured for 8k for 4 seater and 6500 for 2 seater, based on recent sales.
Thatās not exactly true. If you call a traditional insurance agent and tell them you want āfull coverageā on your Ford Think or Gem Car, they will give you a quote for the liability limits and comprehensive (if fully covered) and you will pay a premium and be insured. Then if the vehicle is stolen or totaled, they will determine the āmarket valueā of the car and cut you a check but State Farm thinks my Ford Think 4 passenger is worth about $4k.
If you want to use an āagreed valueā dollar amount for your vehicle, say $9k, then you will need to provide the carrier with high resolution photos of the entire car, provide location and photos of your indoor storage facility, a description of the construction and security measures of the storage facility, you must specify exactly who will be driving the car (no exceptions), and they may wish to inspect the car and storage building in person before issuing the policy. Then they will give you a quote for an agreed value policy. You may also be required to prove that each member of your household has his/her own daily driver that daily is not one of the agreed value cars on your policy. This is how Hagerty rated my agreed value cars. I have since moved to Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Insurance through AIG. I was required to provide photographs, odometer readings, location/type of storage buildings, security system details, and declare only myself and my mechanic would operate the cars and bikes, but I got the agreed value insurance for my entire collection. The entire process took more than a month. We āarguedā about the current price of Air Cooled Porsche 911s and VW Westfalia Syncro Campers until I showed them the current value of these vehicles on BringaTrailer. Then they āagreedā that each car was worth more than they had previously agreed and issued the policy.
Honestly, it was a bit of a pain to get it but for me itās exactly what I needed.
I am calling my agent today to ask what is my cart worth.
It is true. Iām not referring to traditional car insurance like State Farm.
I have LSV insurance with full coverage on 2 Thinks for $156 a year.
Since you are insured through a traditional insurance company, you may be paying way more than what you would pay with specialized LSV insurance and have traditional coverage.
So @MrBig, who is your LSV carrier? Now that I know what a pain in the arse State Farm is, Iām open to checking out a new carrier for my LSV. 15 years, a dozen cars and never a claim with State Farm and I recover my own stolen vehicle and they donāt want to pay for any repairs to the car for damage that was caused by the thieves. Turns out I needed a new ignition key switch to repair the car after they stuffed a screwdriver in it and rotated it. Shoutout to @Bobtheclusterguy who knew exactly what was wrong.
I wonder how and LSV company would handle this??