Well I don't know about most of you and your cars but I do have a good idea
of what it costs to refresh/restore your typical car whether it be a
Plymouth Fury, MGB, TR6 or Magnette. It isn't cheap. Yes, most of our cars
are undervalued especially those of us who have gone and done the big deal.
Just ask your body shop what a good paint job costs, now go and ask your
favorite chrome shop how much to do your chrome, then see the interior
fellow for the cost of quality carpet and headlining and if you have
leather, how much per hide and how many hides (mine was 5!), then there is
all the mechanical bits to do over and the list goes on. Sure you can do it
all yourself for 10 cents an hour and I admire those who have the skills,
talent and tools to do a superb job. I'm not one of those so I have to work
hard at something I am good at and contract out these other jobs to people
who can do a good job and one I'm satisfied with and proud to own. We have
rare cars and even if there were 10 times as many, they are still expensive
to do over. Like they say, start with a million and you end up with 10000
after restoring cars. You might be lucky and get a well done machine for
peanuts because the owner wants to move on to other projects or in an estate
sale and that is fine, but remember someone put a lot of effort, money and
love into getting that car done well. So don't begrudge those of us who do
that by saying it's only a car and a bit of dust or rain on it, who cares.
Well, it's an investment and we should respect the owners point of view even
if we don't agree with it. We all love these cars whether they are rust
buckets or show winners. Like Aretha sang, RESPECT. My insurance company
didn't have any problems with my appraisal and didn't even feel the need to
see all my receipts as they know what it costs to restore a car. Hopefully I
never need to ask them for it, but if I do, at least I'll get something
close to what I have in it. If I sell it, I won't get anywhere near what it
is worth because too many people want it all for nothing or as close to
nothing as they can get. Nothing fair in that approach. Sometimes you have
other needs, desires or just fall out of love with the machine and you want
to move on, so you just push it out to the first person that doesn't insult
you with a low ball offer. The insurance company didn't seem to have a
problem with the miniscule track record of public sales of Magnettes in the
last 10 years and as I said above, they know what these things cost. Maybe
having a good appraiser helps too. Especially one who knows where to find
information on obscure cars. The first insurance company I went to sent me
an appraiser who said my car wasn't a real MG because MG only made sports
cars. On to the one I have now who were more knowlegeable and realistic in
their thinking.
-----Original Message-----
From: zmagnette-bounces@autox.team.net
[mailto:zmagnette-bounces@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Steven Trovato
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 8:10 PM
To: List for the Z Magnette Group - North America
Subject: [Zmagnette] Magnette values and stated value for insurance
I have a ZA and an MGA. I wonder how many people have a Magnette and an
MGA. I've definitely heard of others. As for insurance, have you had a
classic car insurance company refuse to insure for your stated value? I
have found them to be pretty flexible, but I haven't tried to request
anything too crazy. I think the only reason for them to hesitate is that
they don't want you to be able to put a match to it to make a profit. I bet
there are people on this list who have their Magnettes insured for 25K. I
am just guessing, though. I suppose we will get some data points shortly.
Has anyone had an insurance company refuse to give you as high a stated
value as you wanted?
-Steve T.
At 07:20 PM 10/25/2013, Mike wrote:
>SteveT, I'm with you except for one thing - value for repair or
>replacement after an accident or other incident.
>
>If nice Magnettes were trading at around $10K, while they cost upwards
>of $20K to get to that condition, you can be in a bind even with a
>stated value policy. Is your underwriter going to go for you asking for
>$25K of coverage for a car that trades for $10K? Perhaps not.
>
>But if the cars are trading in the $20K range, or to put it another
>way, trading at a price that approximates what it would cost to
>duplicate the car, getting them properly insured becomes easier.
>
>I'm not even going to consider the super-deluxe cars out there, the
>ones with A/C, breathed-upon motors, and so on.
>
>I don't think the sedans will ever be as popular or pricey as the
>sports cars, for all the same reasons that the sedans were widely
>outsold by the sports cars when they were new. I've never really
>understood that, but that's how it is. I have both a ZB and an MGA, and
>the ZB is the much nicer (& rarer!) car. Go figure.
>
>Mike
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