How do you insure your personal fleet?

Hagerty isn't quite that restrictive, they do understand occasional pleasure use. But their entire fee structure is based on low-risk use, so if you want to use your classic as a daily(ish) driver you'll have to insure it as one. That seems fair. It's when you rarely drive the car but when you do it's being used like a normal car - that's where you fall into a hole that's very difficult to define.

I do have a few cars that have lower insurance rates due to their low annual mileage. I have to provide an odomoter reading every year, which can be a little embarassing as to how little some of them actually get used.

In reply to Slippery (Forum Supporter) :

Ouch. I would imagine SF being more expensive than Atlanta, but not 70% more.

There was a time where I could just call my insurance company and drop whatever car(s) weren't being driven at the time and then just put them back on when I was ready to go.  Not something to do every day, but it worked well for if I was going to have a car undergoing work for a while or for something that I didn't want to drive in the winter.  When I wanted to drive the thing, I'd just call them up and have the car added back on in about 15-20 minutes.  But then the braintrust down in Frankfort decided that if you pull coverage on the car, the insurance company has to notify the state and then they yank your registration.  So now I just have all the cars on the regular policy with the exception of der Scheßewagen.  I've heard tale of some way that they can reduce the coverage for a car that's parked for the winter without triggering the state's registration claymore, but I've not dug in to that.  I do get a credit for "reduced mileage" or something like that, so that's something.

What I really need to find out in the next couple years is if forming an LLC using my workshop's address and getting commercial coverage for all the cars will be more or less expensive than having an 18, 17, and 16 year old on my policy!

This thread makes me happy to only own 3 crappy cars. I've got more than the minimum coverage on all three and standard Farm Bureau policies for all three. I pay 900 per year for the fleet and I could probably get it down now that the Jeep is my primary instead of the BMW.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

I called Hagerty just today about covering my non-DD vehicles. Only willing to cover the ones that are stored under a roof. Open carport is okay. 
 

If I had the cash flow I would save enough to pay for a small pole barn. 

Interesting... I've been eyeing one of these for the side of the house anyway.  If a carport is sufficient I wonder if this would still suffice?
Carport Cover

To those who recommended an independent broker - great suggestion and we actually already have one.  With him we're currently with Travelers (bundled with homeowners & umbrella).  He's not offering any options to turning coverage on and off though, despite my asking.  I'm also not sure he's aware of Hagerty insuring non-DD cars that wouldn't normally be considered collector-status, so to Floating Doc's point above I'll do a little digging.

wae said:

<snip> But then the braintrust down in Frankfort decided that if you pull coverage on the car, the insurance company has to notify the state and then they yank your registration.  <snip>

That very well may be the case here in Georgia. I haven't looked into it.

Tom Suddard said:

I have a classic policy on everything that isn't a daily driver, including the 350Z and my Isuzu Trooper. A car doesn't have to be old to qualify for a specialty policy. 

Between this and Keith's post about Hagerty I finally went and checked for myself.  I was wrong about my prospective purchase being eligible (15 yr old SUV for towing/vacations).  Assuming I've given them the correct info they're entirely reasonable.  Interesting enough, they are only charging for liability once and then adding comprehensive & collision per-vehicle. If I switch the MR2 to them an SUV is only an extra $160/year classified as utility/towing at 2K mileage/year.  I think this is the answer.

The truck and my wife's Fusion are insured with Encompass which I'd never heard of until my broker recommended them. Their rates are reasonable and they've been very good to deal with on the home owners policy claim I filed for the tools that were stolen recently.  My trailer was insured with Hagerty and the claims process with them on the stolen trailer has been relatively painless as well.  The race cars that weren't in the trailer are also insured with Hagerty.  Unfortunately the one that was in the trailer wasn't covered by anyone because I'm stupid and simply hadn't gotten around to insuring it.