Insurance in Ontario

[theDreamer]

The other thread about insurance got me thinking, who uses what here in Ontario? I did a search but most of the insurance related threads are too old. We don’t have to worry about things like Drive Clean anymore. Plus, my “new to me” car is a well documented 1993 Caterham. I am hoping I can get it registered as “Historic”. If so I’ll probably go with one of the big names like Hagerty or Grundy. Any thoughts?

[Vovchandr]

57 minutes ago, theDreamer said:

The other thread about insurance got me thinking, who uses what here in Ontario? I did a search but most of the insurance related threads are too old. We don’t have to worry about things like Drive Clean anymore. Plus, my “new to me” car is a well documented 1993 Caterham. I am hoping I can get it registered as “Historic”. If so I’ll probably go with one of the big names like Hagerty or Grundy. Any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

One word of concern is that historic often comes with limitations either by registry or insurance company (such as not allowed to daily drive, drive to work or use for chores and miles limit). Your results will very depending where you are and who you use. Just a word of caution. 

[Croc]

Ask to see the policy wordings.  Some of the classic car policies have garage restrictions (e.g. type of construction, locks, etc) which you need to meet.

Hagerty usually has the most flexible wordings. 

[Baptistelake]

I just got a quote from Hagerty for my 2004 SV (arriving in April). I wanted to make sure I could get insurance before I purchased the car in the UK, RHD. Although the car is not quite 25 years old they agreed to insure it. There are mileage restrictions but if you are only driving it occasionally and not doing frequent long road trips it shouldn't be a problem. There is no insurance if you take it to the track (obviously).  I keep the car in a locked garage in suburbia .... but Croc makes a valid point, I will read the fine print! 

[theDreamer]

Oh great, more BS to deal with. I have a quote from Hagerty and it’s about what I was paying for my BRZ. The Subaru is gone now so the wife called to have it removed from the policy. I asked to her to inquire as to how much to put the Caterham on.

Well, first thing was she went from paying just over $1000 per year for her 2024 Crosstrek to over $1800 per year. Why? It seems that she has not been off work long enough to be able to claim “Retired Discount” which she was getting with me. Plus, we lost the “two car discount”, the “two line discount” and I now have to be listed as a second driver on her car. (Like I wasn’t allowed to drive her vehicle or she mine before? And what about her getting my retired discount, WTF??)

She argued like a lawyer but got nowhere. So she dropped that and went on to add the Caterham as a sunny day, low yearly mileage, fun machine. We will have to get it appraised but for the sake of this quote we went with $60,000. The agent comes back with $1700 per year, both vehicles. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE PEOPLE? We will pay less for two vehicles than for just one!

Now I have to find a reasonably priced appraiser who knows Caterhams. Plus, my car is still in Utah! ACK!

[theDreamer]

Insurance update.
The wife called our insurance company to add the Caterham and low and behold after 2 ½ hours and talking to three different people it seems that, QUOTE: “We do not insure that type of vehicle”. Furthermore, they all claimed that there was no record of my wife getting a quote for a Caterham. She asked to speak to a manager but was repeatedly declined. The best they would do was to ask a manager to look into the recording and we’d have to call back in 3 to 4 days. Plus, still no joy with lowering her rates on her Daily Driver.
I went ahead and insured the Caterham with Hagerty.
Well, three days later a manager called us. Turns out that the person who had given the quote had asked the wife; have Caterhams been distributed in Canada? The wife says she asked, do you mean are they available for sale? Then said yes. What they actually meant was, were Caterhams imported and sold as new vehicles in Canada? We never did get an answer as to why that wasn’t explained or why a 30+ year old used Caterham imported into Canada from the US wasn’t insurable as a special interest vehicle?
So while the wife had this person on the phone she pressed for answers about her insurance. This person talked so much bull I couldn’t keep up. It seems that the wife had had a decreasing deductible on her last three vehicles and that transferred over to her new Crosstreck. However, it appears that the rates for that had gone up plus it was to reset each time she bought a new car. Bottom line is, the only way she can get a lower rate is to write a new policy and according to this person the lowest deductible she can get is $750 and not the decreasing type. After much discussion she did get my name taken off the policy as I now own a vehicle that is insured. That saved her a whopping $120!
In the mean time she had been phoning around to every insurance company we could think of. The best deals of course came with us transferring out house insurance too. BUT! So far none will take our house as it has forced air OIL heat. Some won’t even look at us because our house has actual wood burning fireplaces. WTF???

This world is going to heck in a hand basket!

[wdb]

We went through an insurance nightmare about 2 years ago. My wife bumped a car in a parking lot, causing extraordinarily minor damage, but still. Then within 60 days she had an actual accident, again her fault. 

 

Our auto insurance carrier immediately dropped us.

 

This despite my wife being with the carrier for 40+ years, me being with them for 20+ years, plus us having the house and an umbrella policy with them for 30+ years. They didn't say "we're raising your rates", they didn't try to renegotiate the policy, nothing. And we had no recourse. They simply dumped us, end of story.