Your supercharger and your street insurance

[CamasM3e93]

I was reeling from a 20% increase in my State Farm policy compared to the rates from 6 months ago, so started shopping rates. Makes me wonder if they are surreptitiously purchasing GPS data and somehow know how the car is driven...in Mexico.

Anyway, I called the American Family Insurance carrier through Costco and was turned away when I disclosed installation of a supercharger, in response to a direct question about performance modifications. They sent me to their related broker who went to quote it with Progressive, no dice there either. Um, no bueno.

Soooooo, I suppose I am stuck with State Farm for the moment. I haven't reported the supercharger to them mainly because I view it as my loss if it goes in an accident (I don't care if it's insured). However, wondering if my policy is completely voided just having the SC in place. I'll have to go over the policy binder with a fine tooth comb but absence of an explicit exclusion may not mean I'm in the clear.

Have others run into this with their engine performance mods?

[drwankel]

I don't think they will deny coverage on the car, just they wont cover the replacement cost of the supercharger should something happen. My policy for example covers up to $5,000 worth of mods. Obviously that wont get me another harrop should something happen.

The general rule with insurance is to STFU about mods like that. The only time I'd care is if I was doing insurance through haggerty or something and had an agreed upon value for the car set.

[roastbeef]

Insurance has more to do with your zip code than mods.

[omgzirra_exe]

insurance generally increases over time, as things progress. so this has nothing to do with mods or anything.

[astris]

I have State Farm and I'm supercharged. Latest bill went up around 15%. I think prices actually dropped in 2020 due to Covid. So not surprised they are going back up.

That said, the 15% increase is honestly barely noticeable for my age/location/driving record. I actually didn't even realize it increased until I checked after reading your post. So changing insurance has not even crossed my mind.

[pbonsalb]

Probably all of us with modified cars are at risk of a denial of coverage if damage can be proven to be linked to the mods. An insurer is basing coverage and risk and price based on a stock car. I am not sure whether it could say you breached the policy and deny coverage or whether you simply owe back premiums for the greater risk.

[tbuck]

Originally Posted by CamasM3e93

I was reeling from a 20% increase in my State Farm policy compared to the rates from 6 months ago, so started shopping rates. Makes me wonder if they are surreptitiously purchasing GPS data and somehow know how the car is driven...in Mexico.

Anyway, I called the American Family Insurance carrier through Costco and was turned away when I disclosed installation of a supercharger, in response to a direct question about performance modifications. They sent me to their related broker who went to quote it with Progressive, no dice there either. Um, no bueno.

Soooooo, I suppose I am stuck with State Farm for the moment. I haven't reported the supercharger to them mainly because I view it as my loss if it goes in an accident (I don't care if it's insured). However, wondering if my policy is completely voided just having the SC in place. I'll have to go over the policy binder with a fine tooth comb but absence of an explicit exclusion may not mean I'm in the clear.

Have others run into this with their engine performance mods?

It has been my experience that all insurance companies play the same game, and it is called the Reverse Customer Appreciation game. Over the last 20 something years, each and every company I have had, regardless of not having tickets and wrecks, has systematically raised my rate nearly every year. The longer I am with them, the more it seems to go up. Same car, same driver, same record, rates go up. Obviously some of that can be expected due to inflation, but the numbers have always been 15% or more.

So one year I called my agent and asked why my rate when up over $100 for no obvious reason, and after 2 days of my asking the same question she could not get me an answer other than "everyone in the state had a rate increase". My answer to that was "Well, guess I will be going elsewhere". I have ZERO problem changing companies for this kind of BS (and State Farm was one of them) and have done it many times. Coverages stay the same, driver stays the same, car stays the same, rate goes down with new company every time. If I had a shitty record or was under 25 I would sort of understand, but that is simply not the case. Here I am at 56 and they still do it, and as I write this I am reminded that Progressive just got done raising my rate again. So, here we go again.

Personally, with my M3 and the cost of the car and the mods on it I will likely be going specialty insurance, like Hagerty. Their rates, last I checked, were quite good considering I would want full coverage and actual replacement cost for the car and mods. For my other cars I will likely be going USAA for all of them. They are a little higher but from what I have heard from other members their prices seem to stay more or less level, but we shall see. I know the best I could get from USAA for the M3 was market +20%, which does not even come close and would have me losing maybe $15-20k in a total loss wreck. I would recommend that anyone with a seriously costly mod like an SC to not take a chance with a "normal" car policy unless you can get an agreed-upon value at the outset. It just ain't worth it.

[M43S7RO]

Agreed, I find that my rate goes up over time regardless of clean driving record, older age, same car, no changes in driving distance. I was faithful to State Farm for a long time and then the rates started going up regardless of multiple lines and good rapport w my agent.
I tried to show them what other well rated companies were offering but it was useless to get them to match. Blew my mind that they would let a long time customer go... For this reason, I find that I have to look to switch about every 3 yrs. Its like they give you a low bait rate and slowly jack up rate once they figure you're settled in a less likely to bother with shopping to leave.

Originally Posted by tbuck

It has been my experience that all insurance companies play the same game, and it is called the Reverse Customer Appreciation game. Over the last 20 something years, each and every company I have had, regardless of not having tickets and wrecks, has systematically raised my rate nearly every year. The longer I am with them, the more it seems to go up. Same car, same driver, same record, rates go up. Obviously some of that can be expected due to inflation, but the numbers have always been 15% or more.

So one year I called my agent and asked why my rate when up over $100 for no obvious reason, and after 2 days of my asking the same question she could not get me an answer other than "everyone in the state had a rate increase". My answer to that was "Well, guess I will be going elsewhere". I have ZERO problem changing companies for this kind of BS (and State Farm was one of them) and have done it many times. Coverages stay the same, driver stays the same, car stays the same, rate goes down with new company every time. If I had a shitty record or was under 25 I would sort of understand, but that is simply not the case. Here I am at 56 and they still do it, and as I write this I am reminded that Progressive just got done raising my rate again. So, here we go again.

Personally, with my M3 and the cost of the car and the mods on it I will likely be going specialty insurance, like Hagerty. Their rates, last I checked, were quite good considering I would want full coverage and actual replacement cost for the car and mods. For my other cars I will likely be going USAA for all of them. They are a little higher but from what I have heard from other members their prices seem to stay more or less level, but we shall see. I know the best I could get from USAA for the M3 was market +20%, which does not even come close and would have me losing maybe $15-20k in a total loss wreck. I would recommend that anyone with a seriously costly mod like an SC to not take a chance with a "normal" car policy unless you can get an agreed-upon value at the outset. It just ain't worth it.