Insurance Coverage

[matt9]

Many threads exist about car insurance but I am just in the process of renewing my policy and trying to get a better rate. I am calling around, asking questions etc. I want to be covered for the car that I have, period.

I have read a few threads on insurance rates and it's almost to the point of outlandish. To begin, TD Meloche Monnex, PC Insurance and Statefarm does not cover or insure ANY car with ANY performance mods of any sort, including changing your springs to ANYTHING (including Mazda offered ones). Reading people saying they have TD and then in another thread saying they are at the track is almost laughable.

In each case, I asked them "What if I didn't tell you I lowered my car and had this policy", their response "then you will NOT be covered and effectively have no insurance. If you have an accident or a write-off, we will NOT cover you"

Now does anyone have real insurance where you are actually covered for what you have - insurance companies that will at least inspect your car and approve these sorts of mods? don't want to hear "I have PC blah blah and pay 100/month!?" and then in their signature they have: "CAI, blah exhaust, blah springs". You have "effectively no insurance".

[aris]

Not sure but i rember last year when had my truck....i lowered over 5 years and was with the same insraunce for the that amount of time and when they found out my truck was lowered they droped me. I got a registerred letter in the mail saying that i have 15 days to find new insraunce...my broker said that they would have to put me in facilty insrance...so i went insraunce shoping and found new insraunce and never said anything about my truck been lowered...i figure i rather take a loss then pay insaunce for facilty.

[matt9]

How much was facility costing you compared to other companies?

And I don't think not telling them is going to help you if you get into a major accident.. apparently 'ignorance' doesn't work either.

[whiteomega]

I suggest calling Facility directly and trying to find out what kind of rates they will offer you. I'm assuming if your record is clean your facility rate won't be exorbitant; however if you do get into an accident, i'm sure then your rate will go up. edit: that is, up to the ridiculous rates you would normally get with Facility

[shootemup]

I recently had a not-at-fault collision with my old car and the adjuster that came to photograph it told me that I may be given a hard time about my modifications, pointing out the STOCK strut tower bar and the CAI. I told him that the STB was factory and that the CAI was for improved fuel milage, to which he replied that my claims adjuster will be notified of the mods and it is up to her if they will cover the collision repairs. I never heard anything from my claims adjuster about it.

[aris]

How much was facility costing you compared to other companies?

And I don't think not telling them is going to help you if you get into a major accident.. apparently 'ignorance' doesn't work either.

Facilty insurarncce is where people who get imparied driving charges, bad drivers.etc.

My broker told me that that its going to be between $5,000 to $6,000 for insraunce.

Just don't say nothing about lowering...just do it and if something happend to your car...let them put stock parts back on.

[06Touring3]

I recently had a not-at-fault collision with my old car and the adjuster that came to photograph it told me that I may be given a hard time about my modifications, pointing out the STOCK strut tower bar and the CAI. I told him that the STB was factory and that the CAI was for improved fuel milage, to which he replied that my claims adjuster will be notified of the mods and it is up to her if they will cover the collision repairs. I never heard anything from my claims adjuster about it.

I had a similar experience with my intake in my old civic. My car was stolen and I claimed my intake (I have State Farm) adn they didn't even question me about it at all and that was the only time they knew I had an intake installed.

[matt]

Facilty insurarncce is where people who get imparied driving charges, bad drivers.etc.

My broker told me that that its going to be between $5,000 to $6,000 for insraunce.

Just don't say nothing about lowering...just do it and if something happend to your car...let them put stock parts back on.

I dont know about that, your playing with fire, and risking a lot of money in the worth of a car to just have a mod, b careful bud

[bluemazda3]

I had a real bad wreck about a year and a half ago.. I had a CAI in my mitsubishi lancer and the car was a write off.. and they still gave me $12,000 for the car, no questions asked about the mod.

[silvermist99]

one of my friend rolled & totalled his $30k car with $10k~ish mods.. had bigger turbo, full exhaust, coilovers.. the list goes on.

Anyways he rolled the car when i was driving really fast, the cops ended up charging him, took his lisence away adn his insurance wrote the car off and gave him $0 back.

So he ended up loosing his lisence, $30k car, $10+k mods, + lawyers fee to get lisence back.

Becareful with this stuff.

I know too many people that totally screwed up their cars/lisence because of mods & their aggressive driving and dug themself into a big hole... which turned me into a cautious and slow driver on the street now, I can't afford these mistakes.

I'm sure most insurance will be ok with smalls things like a intake & strut tower bar. But things like changing height of the car, ground clearance, illegal exhaust/emission systems are big no nos.

edit: see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeKSDpFjlg (first half of video)two indentical car crashing into each other, one is two inch lower then the other one.

[matt]

one of my friend rolled & totalled his $30k car with $10k~ish mods.. had bigger turbo, full exhaust, coilovers.. the list goes on.

Anyways he rolled the car when i was driving really fast, the cops ended up charging him, took his lisence away adn his insurance wrote the car off and gave him $0 back.

So he ended up loosing his lisence, $30k car, $10+k mods, + lawyers fee to get lisence back.

Becareful with this stuff.

I know too many people that totally screwed up their cars/lisence because of mods & their aggressive driving and dug themself into a big hole... which turned me into a cautious and slow driver on the street now, I can't afford these mistakes.

I'm sure most insurance will be ok with smalls things like a intake & strut tower bar. But things like changing height of the car, ground clearance, illegal exhaust/emission systems are big no nos.

edit: see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeKSDpFjlg (first half of video)two indentical car crashing into each other, one is two inch lower then the other one.

ouch thats a lot of coin

[matt9]

Update:

TD MM, PC, Statefarm et al will NOT insure your car if it has any change to springs, suspension, CAI, exhaust, engine mods and the list goes on.

I have called a couple brokers who said that none of the insurance companies they deal with would cover just a change to the springs. I did find one broker (relativelty big insurance company) who says that the springs aren't a big deal and that I have asked him to put in writing on my policy every modification I have done (ie: Eibach Prokit Springs) so that I cannot get screwed over in the future.

Any thoughts?

[Noisy Crow]

Update:

TD MM, PC, Statefarm et al will NOT insure your car if it has any change to springs, suspension, CAI, exhaust, engine mods and the list goes on.

I have called a couple brokers who said that none of the insurance companies they deal with would cover just a change to the springs. I did find one broker (relativelty big insurance company) who says that the springs aren't a big deal and that I have asked him to put in writing on my policy every modification I have done (ie: Eibach Prokit Springs) so that I cannot get screwed over in the future.

Any thoughts?

One is: which company says the springs aren't a big deal?!? But yes, get the fact that the mod does not affect your coverage in writing.

[matt9]

I'm surprised not more people are writing in this thread.

I have contacted now ~8 insurance companies: 7 of them absolutely refuse to insure any car with any of those types of mods.

Now it makes me suspicious of the one that allows it.

As for Facility, I have contacted them and its a joke.
Me: 7 years driving experience, no accidents/claims/speeding tickets, 500 deductibles, living in a small city and it was ~6100/year.

[jaimie08mazda3]

my father tells me that because i have one speeding ticket im going to facility. i said yea okay there. call the insurance company they didnt do an abstract on me so im good for another year.

[matt9]

Anybody here have legitimate insurance?

[Iceman_F1]

I'm currently in talks with the company I'm with to see what possibly installing a CAI and minor stuff would do. So far, the news is promising as if they deam it minor, no rate changes and no problems with coverage. However if it's a "major mod" then I would have to get the car appraised and then rates/coverange may change from that. I'm trying to determine what to them is a "major mod".

[matt9]

Do you mind me asking what insurance company you are with? That does not sound like the words of ANY of the big/common ones.

[Iceman_F1]

Right now, I'd rather not say until I can get further clarification from the company about this...but I will say I don't think it's a "big/common" company. It's pretty small that my family has been with for quite awhile.

Here's a bit about the answer I got...I'm trying to get more clarification...but basically, I asked about a MS CAI, Springs to lower the car (probably not going to end up doing this but asked anyways) and rims/tires...didn't want to go overboard with the questions at first. Dealing with those, I basically asked "If I do these mods, will my costs go up and if so, how much? Or would I lose coverage with these?". Not in those exact words but basically asked that. Here's the response I got back about that part...

"In answer to your questions, none of the items you have mentioned would change the cost of your insurance, however we do need to keep in mind the value of your vehicle and how much the changes you make would change the value of your vehicle.

The Insurer anticipates a standard market vehicle. If you had a claim that totaled the vehicle, the company would look at the value of the vehicle (age, model, mileage, condition etc) to come up with an actual cash value. They would do this by contacting several dealers and from records of recent comparable vehicle sales. If the items you intend in installing creates a significant change, I would suggest that a vehicle appraisal would be a valuable thing to have. We would provide the Insurer with the appraisal and if a significant change, there could be a change in premium, however it would be a minor change. I would also suggest that you keep any invoices for the additional equipment so that you have a record of what you have invested in the vehicle."

So, from what I gather from this (and trying to get clarification) is that if I add mods to my car and let the company know/get an appraisal, while my premium might go up, I wouldn't lose coverage just because of the mod. If it's a minor change, they are aware of it but my premiums wouldn't go up because of it.

Again, I'm still trying to make sure of everthing before I myself mod my car since I don't want to A) lose my coverage or B) lose my warrenty right now but like I said, things with my company look promising to me.

[CWP]

What happens to liability insurance if you mod the car? Beyond the cost of them not paying for your car in an accident, what happens if someone sues? I would assume that insurance wouldn't cover that if your policy had been effectively canceled by mods, and that can be a lot more money than the cost of the car.

[matt9]

Right now, I'd rather not say until I can get further clarification from the company about this...but I will say I don't think it's a "big/common" company. It's pretty small that my family has been with for quite awhile.
...



I got a similar explanation. Things like lights, spoiler, tints, wheels won't effect your premium but STILL need to be listed on your policy to keep you safe.

He said that most insurance companies would cover you for upto $1500 in modifications provided they are known before-hand by your insurance policy, otherwise they will give you nothing for them or even worse, pay you nothing in the incident of an accident. Anything more than $1500, you may want to get an appraisal done (~$100) to get a value on your car. With this, you may pay ~$10+/month more but in the case of an accident, they will cover all your mods too.

Regardless, if you have done a performance mod (CAI, springs etc), do NOT tell your current insurance company about it after-the-fact, otherwise they will demand a vehicle inspection and failure to provide that will cause them to drop you which is even worse than the mods to begin with.

[matt9]

What happens to liability insurance if you mod the car? Beyond the cost of them not paying for your car in an accident, what happens if someone sues? I would assume that insurance wouldn't cover that if your policy had been effectively canceled by mods, and that can be a lot more money than the cost of the car.

There is probably some law in Canada protecting people from this ... That would be ridiculous if your insurance company could fail to cover you in some 1-million dollar lawsuit because you failed to tell them you tinted your windows.

[silvermist99]

There is probably some law in Canada protecting people from this ... That would be ridiculous if your insurance company could fail to cover you in some 1-million dollar lawsuit because you failed to tell them you tinted your windows.

thats a good question about tints, if you tint your car 5% all round, crashed it at night into a BMW with a doctor making $250000 income yr and made him disabled. Insurnace denies your coverage because you tinted the car over the legal percentage which resulted the incident and the doctor sues you. What happens? :S

[shootemup]

You claim bankruptcy... IMO, you shouldn't be driving with 5% tints though... that's WAY too much for the front windows.

However, I don't believe an insurance co. would drop you cause of unclaimed tints.

[06Touring3]

I don't think so either because there isn't a "legal" percentage...it's discretionary...35% is just accepted

However...I wouldn't put it past your insurance to drop you for that reason

[ds2chan]

interesting.. it never occurred to me that the insurance company would pay out $0 and would just drop you like that..

I hope mine insurance is ok.. I read somewhere here that stickers add about 10hp per sticker.. =P

[matt9]

Some of the insurance companies i talked to wouldn't even accept wheels unless they were offered by the dealer specifically for that car model.

[matt9]

Read this:

http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-driver/32982-ontario-residents-you-really-covered-do-you-have-modified-car-please-read.html

the part that caught my eye is even if the insurance broker said it's OK, it may not be.

[Stretch]

Sort of on topic; I currently pay about $200-$220/mo for insurance with Statefarm here in Ottawa, but will be moving to Toronto for September and was told my insurance would go up to $340/mo. Does this amount sound ridiculous to any of you? I have 5 yeas of accident-free driving with driver's training and all discounts. I am also an A Plan driver with Statefarm. What insurance companies would you recommend I ask? $340 is quite steep for me and is almost laugheable. Any insight is appreciated.
eric

[matt9]

Try

insurancehotline.com
td meloche monnex
pc financial
rbc

[super_vixen]

Sort of on topic; I currently pay about $200-$220/mo for insurance with Statefarm here in Ottawa, but will be moving to Toronto for September and was told my insurance would go up to $340/mo. Does this amount sound ridiculous to any of you? I have 5 yeas of accident-free driving with driver's training and all discounts. I am also an A Plan driver with Statefarm. What insurance companies would you recommend I ask? $340 is quite steep for me and is almost laugheable. Any insight is appreciated.
eric

No it's not ridiculous as a rule. Your insurance rate is dependent on so many things including what area you live in. And Toronto is broken down into MANY areas. Some which will pay higher rates than others - so expect to pay more regardless. But how much more is up to the company you look into.

Not to mention, State Farm is crap and you'd be best to look elsewhere anyways.

[gabbygenier]

IMO they can do what they want. i had my insurance cancelled when i irst got my 3 casue of the stereo, and all the other insurance companies told me its illegal for them to cancel for that. only thing is they can only allow 1500 for it. and thats it, even if its worth more. probably casue of when car stereos came out ppl would get their friends to steal them and then claim them haha.

but on the pside the new insurance company i found at the time was 1/3 the price haha. so screw you pafco

[matt9]

Did you get an insurance company to properly insure your car and your mods?