Classic Car Insurance - who's got the best deal?

[avenga]

True true, One of my old co-workers who moved over here from UK told me it was cheaper over there because of that, I guess he was full of crap.

[oldschool]

Yeah, you can see the problem with compulsory insurance here, with our ACC system and motorbikes. Because they have to cover every bike rider, including those with unregistered bikes who have accidents off road, like motocross riders and farmers, who don't pay any levies!
It costs me more to register my motorbike, than my car! :-(

[avenga]

Yeah bikes are crazy expensive. I have a few mates with bikes and they say it is cheaper to ride unregistered and get a couple of fine each year than it is for the rego but they suck it up and pay though the nose.

Who I feel sorry for is bike collectors who may have say 5-10 classic bikes and they might only use some of them once in the 6 month period but they still need to pay stupidly high rego on all of them.

[avengertiger]

coming from a country with compulsory insurance i can only say insurance companies are pond life,they will suck what they can out of you and try to get out of paying whatever way they can at home anyway.we suffered astronomical insurance policys for years when i started i had to pay 1600 euros on a van worth 200,thats 3200 dollars per year,when i left it had come down to 400 after 18 yrs on the road thats still around 800 dollars.the government here need to be careful how they regulate the industry or it will go like europe and people wont be happy in the slightest.
i find the insurance here a pleasure to pay for just that little extra piece of mind,we have both our cars insured for 200 dollars which is great,im just hoping i never have to avail of it,i never did at home which is why it annoys me so much that they got so much from me....
if they make 3rd party compulsory the government need to cap the maximum premium allowable and make it compulsory for companies to quote everyone.so many young people were turned down or given unobtainable quotes i have heard such horror stories as youngsters paying up to 4000 euro for 1 litre cars thats 8000 dollars a year its just plain illegal in my view.
i had all my classics insured at them time which was 6 with 4 named drivers for 300 euro and brekdown recovery with a limited mileage policy but the limit was per car so i had 30,000 miles per year to play around with between the 6 cars which was great.
i am still trying to get my head around what happens here if an uninsured driver hits me but what from what i can make out my insurance company will honour the claim if i have the other drivers details,reg,name,address etc is that correct or am i reading it wrong......

[hunted]

some companies have an innocent party thingy where you may be able to get paid out if hit by an uninsured driver. worth finding out tho. if someone uninsured hit me, the insurance company would be the second thing id get round to doing....

[avenga]

With an uninsured drivers it depends on the wording of your policy. at Swann they say.

Section two

[hunted]

just sent swann a proposal/quote form for getting full cover for me and the avenger. will be interesting to see what they say. 22yr old male driver etc....haha

[oldschool]

If you're hit by an uninsured driver, who then does a runner....you're still covered, just have to pay the excess.
Same situation when your car is parked on the street and gets vandalised. The insurance company will repair it, then charge you the excess and probably bump up your premium, as they can't recover any money from the other party.

[hunted]

got quote back from swann,

"As per your request please see below quote for your vehicle.

Full Cover Annual Premium $369.00 or Monthly $33.82
Standard Excess $250
Theft Excess $500
Under 25yrs Drivers Additional Excess $400

Full cover includes: 1 x Free Windscreen per year, 3 x Roadside Assistance Callouts and we insure for Agreed Value.

We will require photos of your vehicle so we can confirm Agreed Value for your vehicle."

Under 25yrs excess is a killer but still pretty good. said car was worth $3000...might be pushing it haha

[hunted]

oh and asked abot unlimited km's with swann, this is what they said

"Our cover is unlimited kms however if this is your daily used vehicle we will not be able to cover it as our cover is purely for Classic Cars that are driven on weekends and holidays"

so if I drive my car bugger all (which I do really) but get hit during the week I wont be covered?

[avenga]

When I talked to them they said it was fine to use it 2-3 times a week.

They also said it is on a case by case basis. I told them my situation, that I work from home and don't need to drive it much and they were sweet with that. I guess they just don't want you to use it on a car which is driven to work every day.

[avengertiger]

i see so i believe from a quick check we are covered by the innocent party clause.if hit by an uninsured driver and they dont run i assume its good to call the police or would they come out to a road traffic accident were there is no personal injury?

hunted the policy for weekends and holidays doesnt sound much use,what if you took a day off to go to a show early? it would really need to be 7days a week 365 days a year for you to be confident they wont turn around and say "ah well you see you were driving it on a tuesday,we dont cover tuesdays"
the only stipulation on classic policys in europe is that you have insurance on another daily driver,and dont exceed your mileage limit,although they dont enforce either,until an accident that is.

[avenga]

Swann is not literally only weekends and holidays. When I talked to them I told them that I did a 12 day tour of the south island in my Charger with my MoPar club and they were sweet with it. I also told them I do a lot of driving in my Avenger to shows like the Hastings one and the OS nats. Both of which I will be driving down on a weekday and again there we sweet with it.

In their wording for the policy they mention nothing about a limit or days you can use it or anything so they can't use that against you. Also when I signed up both my cars they never mentioned anything at all about limited use, in fact I asked them about it and they said there is no limit.

Talking to the people at Swann they just said they wouldn't insure a daily driver. If it is a classic and they are happy with it's use then you are insured with no limits on use. what they mean by "Weekends" is figurative like I call my charger a weekend car, although it is more a once a month car. it is just slang for a car you don't use everyday and only bring out on special trips.

It is more the spirit of usage because they never in writing tell you about any limited use clause so they can't hold you to a nonexistent clause. It is just a criteria they use to see if they will insure you in the first place.

I had a big talk with Swann about this a few weeks back because I don't want to be left with out cover and they told me there is no limit but it can't be a daily driver and my usuage falls within what they are happy with.

Here is the Swann policy wording and I have read it again and it doesn't have one word in it about limited use

http://www.swanninsurance.co.nz/upload/2009%20Forms/Swann_Intermarque_Classic_Car_Policy_Wording_(SWN0013).pdf

[Kiwiflyer]

Talk to Swann Insurance, I got my Daughter's Classic mini insured for 15K agreed value, $350 per annum $400 excess and she was 17 and on a restricted license......great to deal with too

[avenga]

Wow that is good for her age and restricted license.