The V8 Miata Insurance Conundrum

For those of you considering building a V8 Miata I’d like to pass on some insurance info so you know what the trap it is going in.  For the rest of you who could care less about how to insure a high dollar non classic car you should skip this post.

In my research I came up with 3 kinds of full coverage available for a V8 Miata: 

Normal full coverage treats the car as a normal Miata using NADA or Kelly blue book to establish the value of the car and pays accordingly.

Stated value I tell the company what I want to insure the car for and they write the policy for that amount.  In the event of a claim I have to prove that it’s worth the amount of the claim and they have the option to agree with me or not.

Agreed value I prove to the company now what the car is worth and they agree to that number.  In the event of a claim they have already agreed to the value of the car and pay accordingly.

 

So with that back ground let’s shop for insurance for a 1996 V8 Miata that would cost around $18,000 to replace.

Normal full insurance on my Progressive multi car policy is 93 bucks for 6 months. If totaled they would take the book value of a normal 96 Miata with 170,000 miles on it and probably pay me around $3000 for it.  However most policies will cover aftermarket parts like custom wheels and trailer hitches up to a certain value and for me that is $5000. Better but still $10,000 short of covering a total loss. Also if totaled they don’t have to let me buy the car back so the potential is there to have to deny the payout or loose the car. 

Stated value insurance of $18,000 on my Progressive multi car policy costs $622 for 6 months and has no driving restrictions on it. Besides the staggering cost there are a few other drawbacks to this. Notice the asterisk comment on the bill.

The problem is they decide what the "Actual Cash Value" of the car is and since I have no receipt for the Camaro parts it would likely be a battle to get them to agree to my numbers. Also they will depreciate value of the receipts I do have from when it was built.  Like normal full insurance they don’t have to let me buy the car back but if they did with the bigger the payout they would want more for it.  In a nutshell it’s a gamble and they hold all the cards... 

For most companies a 1996 is much too new for agreed value insurance.  Even if they would insure it none of them would allow me to drive it to work every day like I do.  The one company I did find that would insure a 96 would not allow the car to be driven for any use that my normal daily driver could be used for.  So the car could only be used car shows and cruises with no driving it to work, the store or church.  And of course timed events and track days are out of the question… Just to know the number I did get a quote and the price is $310 for 6 months to never use the car.

So the options are:

A: Meaningless full coverage at $93
B: Expensive crap shoot at $622
C: Garage queen at $310
D: No full coverage liability at $51

I wanted to let you know about this nasty little rock and hard place situation because I did not research insurance well before I built the car and I really should have.  Not that it would have kept me from building the car mind you…