I have Hagerty too and always wondered something. If my car is worth $50K but I only have it insured for my parts and money that I have invested, $25K, (none of my own labor) Would the other insurance company only give me what I have it insured for? Don't they have to find me a comparable car being sold then give me that amount? I don't see how Hagerty would subrogate $50K when my agreed value is only $25K. Hagerty shouldn't have to get involved unless you have a problem.
Well. I'm finding that Hagerty's isn't all that up for protecting my best interests, or so it seems. My mistake apparently was not to raise the declared value of the car when we finished it. It is/was insured for $30K and the damages (parts and labor) look to me to be about $21K. On the face of it, that wouldn't seem like a problem, especially since the other guy (a trucking co.) was deemed 100% responsible and he has insurance, but Hagerty's figures it differently. The adjuster put out the car for a salvage bid, and someone said they would give Hagerty $12.5K for it, so Hagerty subtracts the $12.5K from $30K and says that that they're not comfortable paying me more than $17.5K. What they're saying is that if they "totaled" it, they would give me $30K and then sell the car for $12.5K so they would only be out $17.5K. But wouldn't they subrogate that cost to the other insurance company? Well, according to the adjuster, the other company would balk at paying that kind of money out on a 40 year old car. So far, the Hagerty experience isn't exactly the warm and fuzzy one portrayed in their email and magazines.
We had a very nice (but far from perfect) '68 Camaro that was stolen in 2005 and it was insured with 21st Century as a daily driver. I was pretty sure that we were going to get next to nothing for a settlement, but 21st Century totally surprised us. Without any prompting, they enlisted a company in L.A. to assign a value to the car. They used classified ads and determined "comps" for '68 Camaros, and 21st Century ended up paying us a very handsome settlement (over $20K) that was twice what I expected and a few thousand more than I was hoping to get. I thought 21st Century did a great job for us, so I'm pretty disappointed so far with Hagerty's, a company that enjoys a pretty good reputation.
