I'd like to get some feedback about the experience others have had with agreed valued insurance policies and vehicle valuation. I learned something new today about how my current insurer does their valuations and I'd like to get some feedback from the Pelican brain trust.
Today I have an agreed value policy on my '83 SC with my insurance company. I got my annual notice in the mail the other day that it's time for my policy renewal. As the market has increased over the last few years, I've had to keep increasing my agreed value to keep up with increasing values.
It just so happens, I took my car in last week to get the headliner replaced (sunroof snagged a loose piece of material and ripped it -- that's another story). Anyway, the guy that is doing the headliner replacement is a restoration expert and concours judge. About 2/3 of his work is Porsches. Point is he knows what he's talking about.
Anyway, I talked to him this morning and so I thought I'd ask him to value my car. I told him I'm just wondering for insurance to make sure I'm not undervaluing it. The current agreed value is $36k. He said he thought I was a least $15k underinsured without hesitating.
Armed with my highly scientific statistical sample size of 1, I called the insurance company and asked what my options were. They told me max agreed value is $40k for a car like mine.
I asked them how they derive that and their explanation is that they use Excellence and eBay auctions to value cars. They also will not take into consideration an individual appraisal. My understanding is that they only insure for a general market value, which is not necessarily what an individual car may be worth, and they only base their valuation on actual sales prices (not asking prices, so they don't count for sale ads).
I checked
the Hagerty market valuation tool and came up with these numbers:
Category #1 (Concours) $62,000
Category #2 (Excellent) $44,200
Category #3 (Good) $28,400
Category #4 (Fair) $14,600
I don't know how Hagerty derives their valuations but it is seems higher than my current insurer.
We could debate whether my car is 'Excellent' or on the low end of 'Concours' but that's not really the point. I've done a tremendous amount of work to the car and it looks great. My goal is to properly insure the car and nothing more. The cost of insurance in this case is cheap - we're talking about a little over $120/yr increase to insure it to $50k based on the current pricing. I would be willing to pay the marginal price increase to insure it to say $50k but they won't let me unless I can come back to them with some proof of a car similar to mine selling at that price.
All this leads me to the conclusion that I should talk to other insurance companies. I'm wondering if other people have had similar experiences in negotiating agreed value policies. If I was asking for something completely absurd, I can see their hesitation, but again, other data sources seem to validate that $50k is not entirely off base.
What do you guys think? Get a quote from another insurance company?
Has anyone talked to their insurer about how they arrive at a mutually acceptable agreed value?
Has anyone had an appraisal done and had the insurer use it in coming up with an agreed value?