I am serious. We should all quit our day jobs and start an insurance company. The model is pretty simple:
1) Everyone is required, BY LAW, to have insurnace - this means there is a market for customers
2) The insurance company formed collects people's money
3) When people file a claim, the goal of the insurance company is to minimize the amount of money paid out in the claim
4) If a claim is made, rates will be raised across the board to collect the money just paid out
5) The goal of the company is to collect money, never pay it out, and take over the world
It's ridiculous. Here is a breakdown of how the interaction has gone, to date, with my car:
Me: "Yeah, here is a video of blue smoke coming out the Driver's side exhaust bank. It never did that before. Here you can see the brake pedal goes to the floor without stopping. Not good. Here you can see the transmission shifting very rough and no longer smooth like it used to."
Agent: "We don't cover wear items."
Me: "Excuse me?"
Agent: "We don't cover wear items. Things like brakes, transmissions, engines etc. If your car was smashed up with visible damage, we could get you a check today."
Me: "You have to be fist F'ing me."
Agent: "We try not to do that. Liability issues."
Ok, I added the last part. But essentially the insurance company is saying they can't cover any damage to the car as a result of the theft because they don't cover "wear items". News flash - every item on a car is a wear item. The paint, brakes, engine, transmission, fenders, quarters, headliner, carpet, all of it. Even though it wasn't smoking before, it was shifting much smoother before, and it HAD BRAKES BEFORE, those items cannot be claimed for damages. I am half tempted to bounce it off a rock into the lake and come back to the insurance company with the claim - "Wear items uncovered after theft rendered vehicle unsafe to drive, causing accident and catastrophic loss. Please cut a check for replacement costs at $20,000."
Bunch of garbage in my professional opinion. I am with Allstate by the way if you want to move your insurance elsewhere. I wonder what Hagerty would have done.
Love the commercial!
I've had Hagerty coverage for a bunch of years, but (fortunately) have never had reason to file a claim, so I can't comment on their service in that regard. I do think, however, that as a general rule, collector car insurance brokers are more sympathetic to the special needs of hobbyists. Even if there were not a price advantage, I don't think I would insure my collector cars with a standard insurance company.
Good luck fighting Allstate.
I know this is an old posting, but thought I'd jump in anyway, here in Ontario Canada, the insurance companys require you to get an appraisel of your vintage car before they "fully" cover it!!! Section 19 of Canadian Insurance for vintage vehicles covers "said car" for the appr. value, if totalled, or repairs up to that value!!! No hassle it's covered, the higher the appr. the higher your premium, now as to mechanical damage due to theft, I can't answer that now but I will inquire with my vintage insurance co. up here!!!!!!!!!!!
