Are you a classic car enthusiast? There are very few "hobbies" in life that offer you as many opportunities to combine the past and the present (and a fine love for a good engine) for fun and profit as wheeling and dealing in classic cars. There's more to being a classic car owner than owning a great set of wheels. It's up to you to take care of those wheels, whether they're in the garage or out on the highways. The only surefire way to do that is to insure your car with the right car insurance policy from Leland West Insurance.
How's your coverage?
The thing is, buying insurance for your classic car isn't as easy as picking up a policy for your pick-up truck or the family sedan. Oh, sure, you can cover your baby under the same policy as your other cars. It's allowed. Your liability coverage will be perfectly adequate, and you'll be safe enough when you're out on the highways. The catch is, your car insurance rates are going to be considerably higher than they need to be.
A study published in the Chicago Tribune stated that classic car owners who insured their collectible car under the same policy as their family car could end up paying hundreds of dollars a year they don't need to. Why? Relative risk and depreciation
Let's talk about depreciation first. See, car insurance companies insure their vehicles under the assumption that the vehicle's value is going to depreciate over time. Yours is going to appreciate instead, making a depreciation based policy a poor fit for your investment.
Next, let's talk risk. How often do you actually drive your classic car? Even if you're an avid Sunday driver you probably still don't log nearly as many miles a year on your collectible as you do on your commuter vehicle. Studies guesstimate that the average classic car only travels 5,000 miles a year, max. Most travel much less than that, an average of 2,000-2,500 miles a year. When you compare that to the 15,000 miles+ traveled by most commuter vehicles it's easy to see that there's much less chance that you'll end up having to file an insurance claim.
So why are you paying the same price to insure your "low risk" car as you do your "high risk" one?
If your car spends most of the year garaged out of the elements in a safe location and you only take it out a handful of times a year, you could be eligible for some great savings. All you have to do is find a car insurance company like Leland West Insurance that specializes in insuring classic cars in your area. Everything else will take care of itself.
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