• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

An Insurance Quagmire

Share this page

QuickSilver

QuickSilver

Jedi Trainee
Offline
So I rang up AIG, my insurance company to add Nigel to my policy.

First surprise, AIG, at least the insurance wing, is now 21st Century.

Second surprise, they will not insure any MGB.

So back to square 1 with Hagerty but then that means I can't commute in the car, which is why I bought it in the first instance.

Hmmmmm.....
 
I was not pleased with the waiver either with Grundy Insurance. I too got the car for a commuter. I went through our home/auto insurance, California Casualty, and they wanted ~320/year. I can drop it to comp only for the off-season and save some $$. There was not much difference between liability and full coverage. Also, the standard insurance was better than the collector or classic coverage. You will need an appraisal.
 
I've had my Midget insured (liability only) through State Farm for years without any problems. Rates are reasonable, just another vehicle added to the others on the policy. The problem with the regular insurers is usually when you want comprehensive and collision insurance and they can't find a value listed because of the age of the car. Most of the big names don't like to even talk about agreed value policies.
 
That is what alarmed me. I was very clear to inform them that I was only looking for limited liability. I even spoke to an alleged "Supervisor".

It's still puzzling, from a limited liability perspective. I mean they insure my 1992 Mazda B2200, which is more capable of causing more mayhem than the B.
 
There are no classic insurers who will give a true classic car policy on a vehicle used as a primary mode of transportation. This includes Grundy, Haggerty and all the others. Classic car policies are cheap because the vehicles are not put through the dangers of daily driving. I've insured MGBs through several companies on standard policies for daily use, it's not a problem. But you will pay based on blue book value and that's what you'll get in the event of a loss.

Grundy is the most lenient I've found on vehicle use, but they still aren't going to let you drive it to work daily, just once in a while.
 
You may have gotten bad information from 21st Century. My MGBGT is insured with them and I recently reinstated the car with them after it not being insured for about 10 years. I also experienced the transition to AIG (when AIG bought 21st Century) then back again (when they sold it). The premium is relatively low. I didn't try to get comprehensive though...perhaps that's the issue. Note that the account person did have some difficulty locating "MG" in their database. I seem to recall that it was listed with MGB as the manufacturer rather than MG (I don't know what they do with Midgets..."MGB Midget"?
 
My MG's are just another vehicle on my policy...all are insured for liability only...never had my company say anything about insuring one!
 
I had no problem adding my 73 to my allstate policy with full coverage and it cost 94 bucks for 6 months. However the second I added the second car the total cost of my policy went down 20 bucks from the previous single car price. So basicly allstate pays me 20 bucks to insure the MG with them.
 
I just got of the phone again with them and they stated that MG and/or MGB are ineligible for insurance through them.

Out of curiosity, if someone has time, can someone call and see if they get a different story?

21st%201%20Vs%20MGB%200.jpg
 
Never tried AIG but my '67 MGB was insured with 21st Century for several years. It is now with another major carrier, no problem.
 
I got the same "no can do" from AIG for my MGB, even with 5 other cars on the policy at the time. They referred me to American Collector Insurance and I pay less than $72 for full covrage and an agreed value of more than I really want for the car. I have renewed for 5 years with always a slight increase in the agreed value and premium. This is for 2500 miles per year, but there is a slightly higher premium for 5000 miles per year. I am happy.

Bruce
 
I'm not surprised that some insurers won't provide coverage for relatively rare, antique autos. Seems strange that they won't cover a car for liability only, tho', but insurers are in the business of large numbers, I guess.

And regarding the purchase of minimum liability limits, remember that liability protects you and your family against financial loss in case of a lawsuit. You purchase liability coverage to protect your assets - your house, cash, anything that a judge could grab in a bad lawsuit. So, <span style="text-decoration: underline">never</span> simply purchase minimum/low limits of liability unless you have no assets and nothing to lose. $300K is considered a minimum for most, middle-upper class folks nowadays.

Regarding coverage for your antique car, unless you purchase agreed value or stated amount physical damage coverage your insurer will reimburse you practically nothing in case of an at-fault collision loss. Without this specific coverage, the loss will be depreciated down to a fraction of the car's value.

Ya get whatcha pay for in the insurance biz. :yesnod:
 
This is very odd. I just checked my 21st century account page and there doesn't appear to be anything unusual about the coverage. Here's a screen capture of the appropriate bit:

mginsurance.jpg


As I said earlier, I had a little difficulty doing this. I tried to add the MG using their web page but couldn't find MGs in there, and ended up having to talk to someone on the phone. Even then, her first take was that MGs weren't in the system so they didn't insure them. However, I persisted since the car had been insured through them previously and she ended up saying "oh, here it is" after some searching around. This conversation was only a couple of months ago. Perhaps you need to talk to somebody else there.
 
Maybe by not having comp/collision you fly under teh radar as teh policy then is non-car specific. I never had a problem with STate Farm, simply added them during use, reduced to sustainable amount during off-season.

Keep in mind regardless of how you drive your MG, if you do not carry comp/collision you understand that any and all repairs are on you - and if you've already spent a metric tonne rebuilding one you don't want to leave it completely uninsured. An uninsured vehicle may or may not be covered if your garage ctches fire or a tree falls on it.
 
There's no way comp/collision is worth anything unless you have an agreed value policy, which you won't get from most of the major insurers. I guarantee that they will lowball the value to just a couple of thousand dollars and pretty much any damage will result in a total, a salvage title (happened to me), and a microscopic payout after the deductible.

Also note that we hadn't discussed whether I would request comp-collision until after they agreed to insure the car, so that shouldn't make any difference.
 
Back
Top