good morning, hopefully someone will be able to answer these two questions or point me in the right direction...My car is a 89 Chev Camaro with T-Tops.
1. When i am trying to look up the NADA or value of car, when asked what is the body style. What are the T-Tops considered? Corvette Top?
2. I am having trouble getting insurance for the vehicle. My ins. comp. (liberty mutual) does not want to write a policy b/c they would only give me value for it in the year 1989 and they said to go with classic car ins. American Modern who wrote the policy and then cancelled b/c they said it is not a classic vehicle. Any suggestions?

 

1) NADA is a little shaky on the details of classic cars. You can find MANY errors in the way options are listed. I'm not at all surprised to hear that you found t-tops NOT listed as an option.

2) In my opinion, as long as it meets your needs, collector car insurance is THE way to go on this type of car. I have quotes in hand for my '88 from Frankenmuth, American Collector, Heacock, Grundy, Hagerty, and Condon & Skelly. You should not have any problems with finding coverage. Just read carefully, and ask lots of questions about restrictions / coverages, and make sure you are getting the coverage you need.

 

I usually click sun roof if available, on this it looks like a few ambiguous options. The online deals don't really take into account the rarity of convertibles or the difference in "alloy rims" (Ie. 15" vs 16" IROCs). Looks like it adds $275-$450 to the value.

If you aren't using it, there is a "Classic Cars" NADA and you can click all of the oddball options to see the difference in prices. Note that an insurance cost of replacement of the rear hatch and T-Tops are actually pretty high and probably not accounted for in the value of the car. I agree with the specially insurance if you can get it, I see a lot of people doing that now.

http://www.nadaguides.com/Classic-Cars

 

Gieco had no problem covering my 85,Liberty Mutual was my old company but they were getting way out of line with their rates.

 

ok thanks for all of your responses

 

I use Hagerty for my Malibu (owned by Allstate). No problems getting whatever you want covered. It's "agreed value" coverage. You can specify the value of the car at whatever number you want withing reason. The higher the value you put on it, the higher the rate. But it's still TONS cheaper than "regular" insurance. And if you ever wad it up against a telephone pole, they pay the agreed value, not "blue book". (NOBODY will cover you if you smash the car up at a dragstrip or racing event, obviously.)

In the case of my old Malibu it was the difference between $6500 worth of coverage for the vehicle and whatever blue book is for an old 78 Malibu (probably $500, if I'm lucky).

There ARE limitations. Those limitations basically boil down to the fact it can't be your daily beater car. But if it's an "occasional driver"/"weekend fun car" you can't argue with the coverage. Even if you drive it almost every day, but only in the summer (as many friends of mine do with their cars), you're still OK.

More to the point, the agents on the other end of the phone were very "modification friendly" in all areas except nitrous oxide systems (my Malibu is supercharged). They seemed to understand "car people" and I never felt like I had to give them a watered-down version of the truth as far as what I do with the car.

One of my favorite questions was regarding the horsepower of the car. They asked if it had "more than twice the factory horsepower". I said yes, about 4X the factory rating. "Hold on a minute, please, sir." (I thought, oh, boy, here we go!) They came back on the line and said they needed to "adjust" my rate. How much difference, I asked? $20. I asked "$20 a month?". "No, sir, $20 a year." I almost laughed out loud. No problem, sign me up, I said.

I think I pay something like $280/yr. for full coverage. Including little things like roadside assistance (no matter who's driving it, if they have my permission) and unlimited mileage towing (if I break down driving home from a "car event" 2 states away). And yes, I can drive the car at night.

 

I called and tried to get a quote on my 86 IROC, no dice, as my daily driver is a 68 dodge van.their rule is your daily has to be 20 years old or newer. just a heads up