Insurance agreed value

[paul1962]

Hi,

I've got to renew the insurance on my 570GT in the next week or so

Just wondering if many owners go with agreed value cover and, if so, how do you determine its value ?
Currently talking to an insurer who doesn't want an independent valuation but I want to be sure I'm not covering it for too little.

Thanks
Paul

[anonymous-user]

paul1962 said:

Hi,

I've got to renew the insurance on my 570GT in the next week or so

Just wondering if many owners go with agreed value cover and, if so, how do you determine its value ?
Currently talking to an insurer who doesn't want an independent valuation but I want to be sure I'm not covering it for too little.

Thanks
Paul

I had my 2018 & 2019 720S on an agreed value with Zurich but recently moved to Admiral. The difference in premium was huge. Zurich was £2.3K / 4K mileage PA and admiral was £560.00 / 8K mileage PA. Zurich didn't value the cars, they simply asked how much did I buy them for and they agreed that as the insurance value.

What I found restrictive with Zurich is that it was difficult to add friends as additional drivers on an ad-hoc basis. The Zurich policy came with quite a few extras, such as track day cover, but I don't track. There was also European break down cover, but McLaren provide that as part of warranty anyway.

Insurance is a hot topic within the MOC UK. Quite a few go with NFU, but it seems that NFU are now bumping the premiums up. I haven't come across many owners who insure on an agreed price basis - I was in the minority. Admiral seem to be the most competitive.

[650spider]

Yup...i am also with Admiral.

They actually discounted it even further if i added another vehicle.

Think i am around £500 a year or just under, and they notified me last week i am getting £25 a vehicle back due to claims being down with the lockdown.

They wern't bothered about having a tracker fitted either; didn't change the premium either way.

I would defo recommend.

[RBT0]

650spider said:

Yup...i am also with Admiral.

They actually discounted it even further if i added another vehicle.

Think i am around £500 a year or just under, and they notified me last week i am getting £25 a vehicle back due to claims being down with the lockdown.

They wern't bothered about having a tracker fitted either; didn't change the premium either way.

I would defo recommend.

Interesting, I am with Admiral as well, but had 2 quotes, one with tracker and one w/o.

[paul1962]

Thanks for your comments.
I looked at Admiral last year but they wanted to know everything on the car which wasn’t base spec and I didn’t have time to work it out.
Will give them another go as they should come in a lot cheaper than my current quotes from what’s been said above.

Current renewal is around £900. Have quote from AIB which is a third more for agreed, covers anyone I want as long as they’re over 30 and don’t live with me.
NFU were no cheaper.

Edited by paul1962 on Wednesday 29th April 18:15

[Cheib]

Years ago I used to insure with Admiral and had just bought a new X5 with £15k of options on it which was a lot back then. They asked for a detailed breakdown of the spec....I checked with them and they said they needed to know for cover but the insurance payout would only be a base spec vehicle. With checking the T’s & C’s...also checking you can use McLaren approved repairers etc.

[anonymous-user]

Cheib said:

Years ago I used to insure with Admiral and had just bought a new X5 with £15k of options on it which was a lot back then. They asked for a detailed breakdown of the spec....I checked with them and they said they needed to know for cover but the insurance payout would only be a base spec vehicle. With checking the T’s & C’s...also checking you can use McLaren approved repairers etc.

White van went into the side of my Range Rover 2 years ago. The insurance company tried to pull a fast one by using a cheap non-approved RR repairer. I wasn't happy about that because there was a lot of damage to repair. Had a chat with a solicitor to understand my rights.

Upshot is that you have a legal / statutory right to have the vehicle repaired with your own choice of repairer (as long as it is a reasonable price), irrespective of what the insurer says. They will try it on, but they cannot force you.

Read this for a better explanation. These are the guys I eventually had repair my car > https://www.sjcurtis.co.uk/know-your-rights

[JulierPass]

MAC 720S said:

paul1962 said:

Hi,

I've got to renew the insurance on my 570GT in the next week or so

Just wondering if many owners go with agreed value cover and, if so, how do you determine its value ?
Currently talking to an insurer who doesn't want an independent valuation but I want to be sure I'm not covering it for too little.

Thanks
Paul

I had my 2018 & 2019 720S on an agreed value with Zurich but recently moved to Admiral. The difference in premium was huge. Zurich was £2.3K / 4K mileage PA and admiral was £560.00 / 8K mileage PA. Zurich didn't value the cars, they simply asked how much did I buy them for and they agreed that as the insurance value.

What I found restrictive with Zurich is that it was difficult to add friends as additional drivers on an ad-hoc basis. The Zurich policy came with quite a few extras, such as track day cover, but I don't track. There was also European break down cover, but McLaren provide that as part of warranty anyway.

Insurance is a hot topic within the MOC UK. Quite a few go with NFU, but it seems that NFU are now bumping the premiums up. I haven't come across many owners who insure on an agreed price basis - I was in the minority. Admiral seem to be the most competitive.

The premium is a lot less, but wait til you need to make a claim.......

I claimed on an agreed value write off with Zurich private clients on a car that had an agreed value of £380K. I got paid out within 45 days with very little trouble. Conversely, my wife's mini was with admiral and that took nearly 4 months of dicking around before I could get £15k out of them.

[anonymous-user]

JulierPass said:

The premium is a lot less, but wait til you need to make a claim.......

I claimed on an agreed value write off with Zurich private clients on a car that had an agreed value of £380K. I got paid out within 45 days with very little trouble. Conversely, my wife's mini was with admiral and that took nearly 4 months of dicking around before I could get £15k out of them.

Fair point. I was in two minds about leaving Zurich private clients, but it was more about the flexibility of adding friends on an ad-hoc basis which was the decision maker for me. The 720S is all bought and paid for so not risking any loss between finance remaining and real value. I tend to look at the agreed valuation method as a GAP insurance. With the way depreciation is going on some of these supercars (no McLaren jokes), at some point the insurance company won't stomach it.

[footsoldier]

JulierPass said:

The premium is a lot less, but wait til you need to make a claim.......

I claimed on an agreed value write off with Zurich private clients on a car that had an agreed value of £380K. I got paid out within 45 days with very little trouble. Conversely, my wife's mini was with admiral and that took nearly 4 months of dicking around before I could get £15k out of them.

Likewise, I had a large agreed value with Zurich, considerably above list, and it was paid out without any hassle at all.
It’s like flying with Emirates v Ryanair (If anyone remembers flying...)

[650spider]

footsoldier said:

JulierPass said:

The premium is a lot less, but wait til you need to make a claim.......

I claimed on an agreed value write off with Zurich private clients on a car that had an agreed value of £380K. I got paid out within 45 days with very little trouble. Conversely, my wife's mini was with admiral and that took nearly 4 months of dicking around before I could get £15k out of them.

Likewise, I had a large agreed value with Zurich, considerably above list, and it was paid out without any hassle at all.
It’s like flying with Emirates v Ryanair (If anyone remembers flying...)

It all depends.

If it is something very rare and worth more than the norm, yes, agreed insurance with the likes of a specialist is a given and paying the premium is part of the parcel; that's what i did previously.

Just now, if you have a current policy with an agreed valuation happy days; come renewal it shall be different.

Currently, for example with the McLaren, unless you have substantive proof that the near identical version of your car is selling for x, they will not give you a quote based on that valuation...a payout would be based on a fair market value; definitely not advertised prices.

So for instance, right now the insurance company would use an example of a crystal clear platform, such as the CC site, and base a value of an 18 plate 720 as £131k, and similar with what the '17 600LT ends up doing, which i reckon will be around £135k inc the premium....then you would have to work your view of the valuation up from there and try to strike a happy medium.

These are unfortunately the very realistic market values at the moment as such with footsoldiers R8 he sold.

Otherwise, anyone up to their eyeballs in financial bother at the moment with an asset that is significantly worth less than an agreed valuation, might just find their car gets stolen etc.

If you think that doesn't happen, you weren't around back in 2009 or 1998.

[Cheib]

I don’t quite follow. If you ask an insiurance company like Zurich for an agreed valuation policy that’s the payout in the event of total loss....it’s got nothing to do with market value at that time has it ?

[footsoldier]

Cheib said:

I don’t quite follow. If you ask an insiurance company like Zurich for an agreed valuation policy that’s the payout in the event of total loss....it’s got nothing to do with market value at that time has it ?

Yes thats right.
If it’s proper “agreed value”, it’s marked on the policy as such, and is paid out, not negotiated.
There are other ones that are ‘market value, not to exceed’, which can be more than list or price paid, but are negotiable.
But maybe 650S is saying that the days of agreed value are over, and won’t now be available at renewal for anyone?

[650spider]

Agreed valuations will always be available as long as its a classic, ltd edition or very rare and you can prove its greater value.

What i meant was insurance companies aren't daft, and most will cover every angle before paying out, especially in times like these.

For the guys whom say, took out the lease on the 600LTs late last year or this year, a lot of policies pay out full value in the first 12mths; after that you really want to have gap insurance as if anything goes wrong there could be a huge shortfall on payout and the outstanding invoice amount that someone will have to cover and i would be surprised if you could get an agreed valuation on most McLarens at the moment.

The CC auction of the 720 made big headlines everywhere, and the 600LT will do the same....these shall be benchmark prices for the next period of time as although it is an auction, it is very clear cut and transparent platform showing the prices achieved.

You 'write off' an 18 plate 720 today, and that's the baseline an insurance company shall be looking to payout. It would be upto yourself to provide clear evidence of very recent sold prices at £160k or whatever figure you have in your head its worth.

Not a McLaren specific thing mind; just using that as an example as we are in the Mac forum...so it shall be likewise with the GT3RS that's up for auction regardless what stitching the seats and steering wheel have etc....not that i am encouraging the usual Porsche bores to turn up.

[drcarrera]

I just renewed my classic agreed value insurance and the value was the same as it's been the last couple of years, which in the current climate seems a bit strange. If anyone offered me what it's insured for I'd bite their hand off!
I know classic values are far removed from supercar ones but even before Covid the value of cars like mine had "softened" somewhat. I wonder where the insurance companies get their info for agreed value?

[paul1962]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Admiral, via online form, is approx 30% cheaper than current renewal taking into account no tracker requirement. Need to talk to them regarding factory fitted options etc to be sure.
So, definitely the cheapest but I also appreciate that you generally get what you pay for. Having said that I've heard horror stories about many of the insurers mentioned on PH or approved be car clubs etc

Still waiting for NFU quote

Paul

[650spider]

There is a guy on the Mercedes forum whom just had Admiral pay out on his C63 AMG that unfortunately ignited itself after being on a 'run'.

Even with strange circumstances he reports they paid out very quick at, i am guessing, a very fair market value as he thinks they were great to deal with.

[footsoldier]

drcarrera said:

I just renewed my classic agreed value insurance and the value was the same as it's been the last couple of years, which in the current climate seems a bit strange. If anyone offered me what it's insured for I'd bite their hand off!
I know classic values are far removed from supercar ones but even before Covid the value of cars like mine had "softened" somewhat. I wonder where the insurance companies get their info for agreed value?

There is one downside to a high agreed value, which I used to think was “no-lose”. If there’s an accident, they will spend any amount of money to fix it up to a certain % of agreed amount.

In the US I think it’s generally about 50%, but here it can be more. So you can end up with something that has been heavily damaged and would have been a write off except the value is too high.

Properly put back together, so fulfills insurance obligations, but now not worth what it was before, even if it feels ok. It’s agreed value for total loss, but can also sets a high bar for repair viability.

[Cheib]

650spider said:

Agreed valuations will always be available as long as its a classic, ltd edition or very rare and you can prove its greater value.

What i meant was insurance companies aren't daft, and most will cover every angle before paying out, especially in times like these.

You don’t have to prove valuations in the event of a total loss claim on an agreed value policy....the value is already in the policy and that is what the insurer pays out. It’s a fixed sum. They clearly reflect that risk in the premium but total loss claims are quite rare so it’s not really that expensive.

Also to your point about GAP Insurance and financed cars....a lot of policies from these kind of insurers have an additional clause that they will pay out full invoice price for a period of two or three years from purchase. In the case of my policy with Hiscox the car had to be the first registered keeper or could be bought from the original supplying dealer with less than 350 miles on the clock. So not need to buy GAP insurance if that was a concern.

[650spider]

footsoldier said:

drcarrera said:

I just renewed my classic agreed value insurance and the value was the same as it's been the last couple of years, which in the current climate seems a bit strange. If anyone offered me what it's insured for I'd bite their hand off!
I know classic values are far removed from supercar ones but even before Covid the value of cars like mine had "softened" somewhat. I wonder where the insurance companies get their info for agreed value?

There is one downside to a high agreed value, which I used to think was “no-lose”. If there’s an accident, they will spend any amount of money to fix it up to a certain % of agreed amount.

In the US I think it’s generally about 50%, but here it can be more. So you can end up with something that has been heavily damaged and would have been a write off except the value is too high.

Properly put back together, so fulfills insurance obligations, but now not worth what it was before, even if it feels ok. It’s agreed value for total loss, but can also sets a high bar for repair viability.

Agreed.

Previously, i had to prove the higher worth on the application; not on a claim.

I knew you could get full value payout on the first 12 months of brand new ownership from when i was in that position, but i have never been offered it beyond that point...i have not heard of that outwith an agreed value policy.