Should you have Comprehensive and/or Collision on your AVY's Insurance - YES or NO?

[ygmn]

I keep reading posts about members looking for parts that it seems like are needed after minor accidents.
Door Panel, Cladding, headlight, hood etc...

Collision insurance to fix your truck should it get wrecked up to an amount they deem as about 50% value then they total the poor thing.

Comprehensive insurance to fix your truck for things that happen to it not accident related - rock to windshield, Someone breaks side window with rock for fun while parked in your driveway, lots of weird things here s I had comp cover 2 blowout tires I had after hitting one VERY large POINTY and NASTY pot hole.

OUr truck values are not that high anymore
Anybody have a list of what each year is worth?
I figure my truck on best day would fetch $5k

SO why have C&C INS if not much to value to cover?

Get in wreck and heck there are no parts to fix truck anyways so they end up totaling truck for very minor FIXABLE accidents. an all you get is a tiny check tht barely covers taking family out to steak dinner today.

Got examples of Insurance C&C situations? post up.
Lets learn from one another.

Lets hear your insurance story if you care to tell...

FYI I do not have C&C on my avy since it is a 2002 built in 2001 and well Mrs Kelly and her neighbor Mr BLue Book do not like my truck so much
I see it vary from $4-$6k - My golf cart is worth about that plus I do not drive her much - under 1000 miles per year - Home Depot and a few work drives.

Keep it first gen due to age and CLADDING and other first gen issues

 

[bacs22]

Insurance required by the State. Needed to renew registration and inspection. If you cancel, the insurance co notifies the State…don’t provide new ins info to them in the required time…6 month license & registration suspension.

 

[EXT4ME]

I'll share what my experience has been as it pertains to automobile insurance.

Our state requires insurance coverage to be able to register and license a motor vehicle.

However, that does not mean you have to have full coverage and liability coverage is all that is required.

I discovered this when my 1993 Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer became our family's mostly unused spare vehicle.

When my daughter graduated college and got her own vehicle, I was left with a fairly nice, but well used and quite old and long paid for vehicle.

Since the Explorer, in my opinion, was still serviceable and required little, if nothing to keep around, it was moved to the back yard to be used only as needed for the rare snow duty and to provide a spare when one of our daily drivers was in the shop.

A discussion with my insurance agent enlightened me to the fact that since the Explorer would be driven very little, I could classify it as a "recreational vehicle" and as long as the annual mileage remained less than 700 miles or so, I could get a significant reduction in the premium.

The Explorer, being worth very little, also did not have comprehensive or collision coverage.

Those coverages were not obtained because any deductible at all would not only nullify any settlement for a claim and that claim would most likely total the truck.

Depending on the damage, I would rather keep the truck than have a couple of hundred dollars in my pocket.

And if the damage was too bad, I would just let the truck go to the nearest salvage yard and call it a day.

So, I had the required liability coverage that would protect me in the event I crashed into someone, but any coverage for backing into a light pole at the grocery store and crunching a bumper, running into some debris out on the freeway or a deer running into me, would not be covered.

Also, if the truck managed to get stolen, I would just be left standing there saying "Oh well. We had a nice run".

Now, I did manage to get hit by someone else while driving the Explorer and my experience was that the relatively minor damage done was enough for the other person's insurance to total the truck.

When the guy hit me, he hit right in front of the driver's side front fender.

That fender was crunched in front of the front tire and the front bumper was bent and the headlight bucket on that side got messed up.

There was no mechanical damage done to the rest of the truck.

When their adjuster came to my house and did his walk around, he noted every little detail on the Explorer, from the fact the radio did not work to the worn headliner to the depth of the tread on the tires and the drips of oil from the back of the engine.

He used all of those details to reduce the value of the truck and the amount of the settlement.

All of that time he spent nit-picking the things that was wrong with the Explorer probably cost more than the amount of money they did not pay me.

At the conclusion of the adjustment, they determined my Explorer was worth $1900 and the damage cost was $1700.

Since the cost to repair was more than 70% of the value of the vehicle, they totaled the truck.

I chose to buy the truck back since there was no mechanical damage.

I ended up buying the truck back for $95.

Once I had their check in hand, I proceeded to search online for the parts I needed and I quickly found the fender and bumper and had them shipped in from a salvage yard in south Texas.

Since getting those parts cost very little, I took the remainder of the settlement money and did some long needed repairs.

I replaced all four window regulators, door hinges, all four shocks and brake pads, calipers and rotors all around.

After the body parts were installed, I had a buddy of mine that owns a body shop repaint the entire front cap and some other worn areas that needed attention.

When it was all said and done, my old Ford Explorer that sat out in the back yard was in the best shape it had been in for many years.

I'd say that little wreak worked out in my favor.

When it comes to my other vehicles, I learned a valuable lesson when dealing with the Explorer.

I found that there was improvement that could be done in relation to how much I was paying for coverage on those vehicles.

I found that, especially in regards to the C&C coverage, I could reduce my premium by actually paying for C&C coverage that better reflected the actual value of those vehicles.

In other words, by sitting down with my agent and determining the actual value for each vehicle and the AMOUNT OF ANNUAL MILEAGE each vehicle was expected to be driven, I could significantly reduce my premium while still maintaining liability coverage.

DO NOT expect your insurance company to reduce your premium in any meaningful way on their own.

You may get a little drop as your vehicle ages, but not as much as when your actual mileage and age is taken into account.

The only way to get a more accurate premium is to occasionally sit down with your agent and review your policies and make the appropriate adjustments.

The insurance companies are going to pay out according to the actual values at the time of the claim, regardless of the amount of premium they have been charging you this entire time.

If you pay too much all along, that's just too bad on you.

I choose to put in a little effort and not pay more for something I will never receive any benefit from.

The insurance companies count on you doing exactly that and they are not going to make any effort to make sure you are not paying too much for the actual coverage you will get.

My agent was always happy to help, but this is not something the insurance company is going to do on it's own.

I have also learned that you do not have to accept a settlement from an insurance company if the settlement is not to your liking.

In other words, if they value your old vehicle too low and the estimated cost of repair is over the 70% mark and they are wanting to total the vehicle, if you do not want the vehicle totaled and you think you can foot the cost of the repairs yourself, just walk away.

No one ever said you could not just cover the repairs yourself.

I figure if the damage is not overwhelming and you can cover the cost of those repairs, you may be better off not having to lose the vehicle and find something else.

In the case of my Explorer, I could have just took the check and let the truck go, but it ended up I could have afforded the repairs that they covered quite easily out of pocket and not lost my fully functional truck.

It all worked out in my case and the truck being totaled did not matter since it was never reported as being totaled.

I kept that Explorer for several years afterwards.

 

[redheadedrod]

My experience says, pay for C&C because as the value drops in the vehicles so does the insurance cost. Here in Michigan we have high compared to most insurance. Think I pay like $100 for $1000 deductable insurance per 6 months on my truck. If its my fault it will cost me $1000 to have something fixed. If its not my fault I don't pay the deduct. Might be like $75 for the comp with 250 deduct. I pay about $100 a month on my truck for insurance. I figure even if I totaled it, had to buy it back I still make out OK. Would suck and I would need to buy another truck and swap over my goodies but doable. And I would much rather start out with $4k in my pocket than $0.

 

[joendoodle]

I agree with the points EXT4ME made, The Green Booger, I have the required Liability insurance AND the MICHIGAN $2- $300 per vehicle per year penalty / surcharge (Actually punishment) for actually having insurance to go in a fund "mismanaged by the state" to allegedly cover the folks that don't buy any insurance but still get in an accident that causes them high medical bills. Since it costs me over $1k/ year to make the math work I figure more than 1/2 the folks don't have any insurance (that's right Michigan is close behind California in Communism).
ANYWAY, when I insured the ('04) AV ( to register it) My agent says you don't want collision, my book says it is worth $8K.. I replied I'm not buying collision insurance for more per year than I paid for the truck, he said we need pictures so we can cover it .. OK, sure.. (The drivers side front fender has a small "creased" dent, about the size of a fist).. He called me back and said the underwriter won't write for collision until that dent is fixed..
1) I laughed, he doesn't care about the rust?
2) You know, I didn't think collision was necessary on this truck, right?
3) Just so you know ,there are things on this truck I will take care of, but that little dent doesn't even make my long list.
4) He replied, I know, but I thought if we got you a good deal you would cover it..
Note I have dealt with this agency for years, the owner is slowing stepping aside, my "new" agent is his son, likely takin over the business, and trying to get a little bigger sale.

 

[MS03 2500]

My AV is still registered in Michigan I've been through the same issue. What I did is to make it a recreational vehicle so ithe insurance is not that bad. Only problem is it can't be driven over 3,000 miles a year which is not a problem since I have not put 1,000 miles on it during the last 2 years

 

[EXT4ME]

My AV is still registered in Michigan I've been through the same issue. What I did is to make it a recreational vehicle so ithe insurance is not that bad. Only problem is it can't be driven over 3,000 miles a year which is not a problem since I have not put 1,000 miles on it during the last 2 years

When we went to our insurance agent last year for my mother, we were made aware that she could get a lower overall rate due to the fact she averaged less than 700 miles a year.

She drives even less now.

If her Tahoe gets 100 miles a year any more, I would be surprised and those miles are put on by family members because my mother wants to have her truck driven a little from time to time.

The insurance company has not followed up asking for her current mileage since the change, but they told us that if it was determined that the mileage had increased significantly, her policy would simply need to be updated to reflect that increase in annual mileage.

They said they would not be back charging but only increase the charge going forward.

I expected the insurance company to request proof of the annual mileage since my experience with my Explorer.

For the first couple of years after I had the Explorer classified as a recreational vehicle, I had to submit an affidavit stating the current mileage.

After a couple of years, they stopped asking.

 

[MS03 2500]

That's pretty much the same first year they asked how many miles, the next year I just took a picture of the cluster for the miles after that they stopped asking. It beats the classic plates stuff.(which is 25 years old)

 

[ygmn]

I am surprised at the number with C&C for Avys not worth much more then what would a 2006 go for maybe on best day $10k?
Maybe AVY book value is higher in other regions?

But the insurance companies have their own book value and I wonder where they get their info.

 

[frito]

You could look into a stated value policy from Hagerty (I think that’s the company, especially since you drive it so little. While it’s hard to get parts, these trucks are irreplaceable since they are so unique. From what I understand they are fairly inexpensive. A writer on the BMW CCA has it on most of his fleet of 13 old jalopies.

 

[EXT4ME]

I was curious about the private sale value of my two trucks.

According to Kelly Blue Book my 2004 Cadillac Escalade EXT in very good condition and 236K miles is worth between $4425 and $8812.

My 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche Z-66 in very good condition and with 270K miles shows to be worth between $3500 and $6495.

These values are for private party sale with the trade in values obviously being listed as lower.

My experience has been the magic valuation book the insurance companies use tend to list the values more toward the lower end of those scales.

So, using the values generated from the KBB website and not nitpicking the little defects like an insurance company will do when processing a claim, I will pretend to make a claim for a body damage repair on my EXT.

I will start with the higher end of the valuation of the EXT and not deduct anything from that point.

The higher value is listed as $8812.

I am going to pretend that I managed to sideswipe a metal pole that caused enough damage to paint and bodywork to cost around 70% of the higher projected value of that truck.

I will say the estimated cost of repairs will be around $6168, which some of you may already know, is not a lot of money to do any kind of bodywork and paint.

Now, I will also pretend that I had carried a $1000 deductible for each of my C&C coverages.

When I file the claim and the insurance company uses the value I provided in my example, they will cut me a check for $5168 and total my truck.

I get a check and my truck is gone.

Now, at this point if I feel the damage to my truck is not enough to send my truck to the scrap heap, I will be given a salvage value from the insurance company from their magic valuation book, and I can have that value deducted from my settlement to purchase the truck back from them.

Also, depending on where you live and the practices of your insurance company, the paperwork for your damaged vehicle may now list that vehicle as totaled or a salvage vehicle.

Something to consider when filing a claim.

Two things you can be sure of, the actual projected value of your vehicle will be lower than you think it should be and the salvage value will be higher than you think it should be.

This is standard practice to make sure the insurance company is going to be out the very least amount of money possible.

The example above is a general one and anyone can look up their own vehicle values and plug them into their own example.

Your insurance agent should be able to provide the current valuation of your vehicle in their eyes.

All this being said, I do have C&C coverages for all of our vehicles that have a value that I feel I may could use some settlement money to help with repair costs or to help cover my loss if the vehicle was stolen.

On vehicles where a very low value is applied and even the smallest of damages would result in the vehicle being totaled, I tend to forego the C&C coverages and plan to pay out of pocket for any repairs without involving the insurance company.

If the damage is too much, I will have the vehicle scrapped on my own.

The point of my post is I would venture that most people have no clue as to what their vehicles are actually worth, especially the worth applied to them from the insurance company.

Taking the time to review your policy with your agent and going over some scenarios where one might be planning to file a C&C claim, might give them a better idea of what to expect and help to decide if the added cost of the C&C coverage is worth the time and money.

Just assuming that an insurance company has your best interest at heart and they are going to bend over backwards to make you whole is most likely nothing more than wishful thinking.

Know where you stand and don't pay for any more than you have to, especially as the values of these older vehicles continue to drop.

I am not trying to convince anyone to do anything.

I am simply sharing, right or wrong, my thoughts on the matter.

 

[TheBlackMoon]

I tend to put Full coverage (Comp+Coll) on my winter vehicles (Truck, in this case Ava, and Subaru) during the Winter, dropping to Liability for the Summer ones (Bike and G6), then switch to Liability from Spring to Fall for Winter Vehicles and Full Coverage for Summer ones. With the RV now in play, the Truck may be switched to Full coverage, may not, during Spring-Fall Seasons (year round) to protect RV more, but I have separate RV insurance, (which was just dropped to Comp for Winter storage), so may not.

I think it boils down to what you can afford to do.

As stated above, the 1st accident, and insurance WILL total truck over the most minor damage, just because it's not made anymore. I own MANY "exotic"/"Collectible"/Antique vehicles, and have been dealing with this for a very long time. Know the Blue-Book/Re-Purchase value of your truck, and FIGHT the insurance company on the replacement value if/WHEN they try to total it. You won't get the total value, but you WILL get more than their initial offer. Also, keep pics and proofs of ALL mods you do, with copies/pics of receipts, as you will be able to recover some of that investment also. Then remember, if YOU FEEL the damage is minor or repairable... BUY YOUR TRUCK BACK from insurance company (you can carry Liability coverage on it). They'll prob only want a few hundred back of what they're giving you for it, which only means they'll give you a "Salvage Title" on it (which you can have changed to a regular or "reconstructed" Title with just a State Inspection, and be able to get Full Coverage insurance on it again.).

 

[TheBlackMoon]

You could look into a stated value policy from Hagerty (I think that’s the company, especially since you drive it so little. While it’s hard to get parts, these trucks are irreplaceable since they are so unique. From what I understand they are fairly inexpensive. A writer on the BMW CCA has it on most of his fleet of 13 old jalopies.

Yeah, Nationwide used to offer that insurance too (Called a "Declared Value" Insurance Plan). It's more expensive than a "regular" C&C (full coverage) plan, but if your truck is worth it to you, and you can afford the plan, no one should open their mouth to you. It's about what YOU value. I have one on the Yamaha during the Sping-Fall season. Bike's an antique (w/ plates et al).

 

[TheBlackMoon]

I agree with the points EXT4ME made, The Green Booger, I have the required Liability insurance AND the MICHIGAN $2- $300 per vehicle per year penalty / surcharge (Actually punishment) for actually having insurance to go in a fund "mismanaged by the state" to allegedly cover the folks that don't buy any insurance but still get in an accident that causes them high medical bills. Since it costs me over $1k/ year to make the math work I figure more than 1/2 the folks don't have any insurance (that's right Michigan is close behind California in Communism).
ANYWAY, when I insured the ('04) AV ( to register it) My agent says you don't want collision, my book says it is worth $8K.. I replied I'm not buying collision insurance for more per year than I paid for the truck, he said we need pictures so we can cover it .. OK, sure.. (The drivers side front fender has a small "creased" dent, about the size of a fist).. He called me back and said the underwriter won't write for collision until that dent is fixed..
1) I laughed, he doesn't care about the rust?
2) You know, I didn't think collision was necessary on this truck, right?
3) Just so you know ,there are things on this truck I will take care of, but that little dent doesn't even make my long list.
4) He replied, I know, but I thought if we got you a good deal you would cover it..
Note I have dealt with this agency for years, the owner is slowing stepping aside, my "new" agent is his son, likely takin over the business, and trying to get a little bigger sale.

Just an FYI, Maryland does that to "New Drivers" too; EVERYONE'S first 3yrs (I've heard they've gone up to 5yrs now) of having a driving license, they FORCE YOU to have what they call MAIF (Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund), REGARDLESS of who your actual insurance company is.

 

[Durwin]

I have both. Here in California, we have a LOT of uninsured people.

 

[Avalanche Addict]

I keep reading posts about members looking for parts that it seems like are needed after minor accidents.
Door Panel, Cladding, headlight, hood etc...

Collision insurance to fix your truck should it get wrecked up to an amount they deem as about 50% value then they total the poor thing.

Comprehensive insurance to fix your truck for things that happen to it not accident related - rock to windshield, Someone breaks side window with rock for fun while parked in your driveway, lots of weird things here s I had comp cover 2 blowout tires I had after hitting one VERY large POINTY and NASTY pot hole.

OUr truck values are not that high anymore
Anybody have a list of what each year is worth?
I figure my truck on best day would fetch $5k

SO why have C&C INS if not much to value to cover?

Get in wreck and heck there are no parts to fix truck anyways so they end up totaling truck for very minor FIXABLE accidents. an all you get is a tiny check tht barely covers taking family out to steak dinner today.

Got examples of Insurance C&C situations? post up.
Lets learn from one another.

Lets hear your insurance story if you care to tell...

FYI I do not have C&C on my avy since it is a 2002 built in 2001 and well Mrs Kelly and her neighbor Mr BLue Book do not like my truck so much
I see it vary from $4-$6k - My golf cart is worth about that plus I do not drive her much - under 1000 miles per year - Home Depot and a few work drives.

Keep it first gen due to age and CLADDING and other first gen issues

My 2005 LS 1500 was totaled last year. State Farm gave me $10,000 for it

 

[ygmn]

wow $10k for a 17 year old truck...
IT is a crazy market right now.