If you have classic car insurance they’re unlikely total it unless the repair was very close to or exceeded your stated value. It would be very bad press for them. But qualified shops are expensive so it’s not like you can get away with insuring for 25k. So long as it’s high enough to cover a bad accident, the only way you’ll lose out is if it gets stolen.
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Correct !! And E’s don’t get stolen ! Too obvious.
I would think a hit in the front, enough to bend the sub frames and dent the tub is a total. So how much does it cost to disassemble an E, buy new frames and replace any other damaged under hood parts, then pull or replace a tub the, reassemble the whole thing.?
Doubt if frames are damaged with that hit, Much too strong.
we’re talking hypotheticals about how much to insure an E type for…
“…I would think a hit in the front, enough to bend the sub frames and dent the tub is a total. So how much does it cost to disassemble an E, buy new frames and replace any other damaged under hood parts, then pull or replace a tub the, reassemble the whole thing.?..”
If you can corner a competent agent at a cocktail party (do they still have those?) you might ask him – but I don’t think it as simple as that. As I recall a rule of thumb in the industry is that you need to be insured at 80% of value to fully collect on a partial loss. As for total, many companies will total the loss well short of stated value just because they know how likely it is that that number will increase once work commences.
Well anyway, I hope I never have to find out. Meanwhile I set a value where I would be sad but made financially whole should the worst occur.
Search the archive for Jerry’s accident. He drove under the back of a truck or something and toasted the whole front end. It was fixed by a high end shop for about 50K about 4 years back
That’s on a normal policy though. If it’s a stated value collectible policy you’l get up to whatever you insured it for. If that’s enough to fix it great. If not, TT.
Look up Jerry Mouton’s front end bash of a few years ago. It’ll make your eyes water.
Unfortunately the photos were all on his site and are no longer there but there’s plenty of gory details.
Not sure that’s quite right Erica, I recently upped my insurance with Hagerty because even though it’s agreed value the car would have been considered totaled at 70% of the agreed value. As I had the '68 insured for 80K an accident like Jerry’s would have been very close to totaling my car, unless I was able to buy it back from them (and they have that as an extra cost option) it would have been bye, bye Shawnee B. A…
Cheers,
LLynn
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Hrm, did they tell you that? It doesn’t make sense. If you and they agree the value is X dollars, I’m not sure why they would total it at .7(X)? Would they just pay you X and keep the car? It seems like a bad way to run a classic car insurance company. What would you recon the buyback would be? Would it be something trivial?
I don’t quite understand why they wouldn’t just hand you X and say, “fix it if you can”?
Lots of good advice here!
Just to add my $.02: Watching the collector car pricing over the years reveals that the pricing and “value” of many collector cars change with the aging of the collector car buyers seeking those cars.
I have a 1969 E-Type OTS because I remember them fondly as a teenager (when I could never afford to buy one). I remember them fondly as a husband and a father of two (when I could have afforded to buy one but couldn’t justify the purchase). And, now that I’m retired, I finally own one (because I am - at last - able to do so!).
As the car buyers in the market age out - to be replaced by younger car buyers who have similar strong memories of cars but of a different era - the value of the cars bought by the older crowd will decline simply because of the resultant change in their “marketability”. Of course some will remain strong sellers because they are so collectable (will that include my E-Type? No way to know…) but most regular production cars are priced to match the desires of those who have always wanted one and can now finally buy one.
If you do this right you are buying a collector car because you want it…not because you want to make money on it. You want the driving experience it gives you that is so different from modern cars. You want the pride of ownership it gives you just looking at it and marveling at the beauty of the design. The comments and thumbs up you get from other drivers is just icing on the cake.
Get the E-type you can afford - you won’t regret it!
Chet
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Well said, Chet… and congrats on attaining that dream!
Chet, you have hit the nail… I can hardly wait until a 1987 Ford Taurus is strongly desired by the “collector”.
(Gag 'n barf)
LLoyd
A step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.
Kurt Vonnegut
Oy, 87. If only you’d held out a year and got the 88 SHO version you might have a shot.
An E type is not like any other “classic” car. They are much, much nicer.
Most other “stuff” from the 60’s and 70’ has little appeal to me in 2018. Especially when you want to go somewhere. Old cars generally drive terribly, a good E type drives beautifully.
The other cars I could add to my list includes early Corvettes, a 67 Mustang fastback, XK 120/150s and few other ones perhaps. Happy with what I have though.
25 MPG does not discourage me from taking the E type out and an engine rebuild every 10 years at £5k is not terrible news compared to many other cars of an exotic nature.
They are also good value for money, even at current prices I think. Just look at what you get.
The SWB models are pretty, the LWB models are more usable. Many 6+ footers find it almost impossible to get into a fixed head SWB car and need the extra legroom and door length. For that reason all E types models are desirable and different models appeal to different markets.
They are not only pretty to the man in the street but also good on long trips and short trips. Reliable too. You can also afford to run an E type and enjoy the miles.
Try doing the miles in a Ferrari 250/330 or Iso Grifo and see what it costs. Try buying one in the first place!
The only problem with E types is that they made lot of them (relatively) and sold them too cheaply when they were new (in my opinion). I would guess that in the UK there are 3,000 of them alone in 2018. That is quite a few.
If they had only made a few hundred, each one may well be worth well over £1 million now. You wouldn’t be able to get the parts though now.
Therefore, on balance, they will always be a good purchase and a good investment because they tick all the other boxes. The population is rising exponentially and they aren’t making E types anymore( well, not many).
And young people like them as well. After all, why wouldn’t they? E types will always be cool.
And you can take an E type back to Jaguar and they will “Future Proof” it by adding an electric motor, just like the car used in the recent film “In Time”. What other classic can compete? Who else is offering that? An electric E type is surely better than no E type.
Not that I care about the investment side of things very much, I am just glad to drive one.
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I was surprised last Friday I took it out on a couple errands. I came out of one place a young guy in late 20’s was staring at it and said it’s legendary and he’s never seen one in person, and wanted to hear it run. The next place I came out and a young 30s fellow was staring at it with his young daughter. He asked “is this real e-type?”. Not XKE, but E-type. Usually only old guys ask me about it.
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My kids 18/20/23 have friends over now and then, I´ve had quite few nice remarks on the old car in the garage and when-will-you-take-me-for-a-spin requests. All well under 25. A few even knew what it actually is. The exception has to be davidsxj6 who is 20ish telling me how things work and why it´s designed that way. There you go, hope for the future. Now if they ever will be able and willing to spend real money to get an old useless car is a totally other question. It will need parking, old-fashioned fuel, maintenance and it doesn´t boast amenities like automatic traffic communcation (distrionic, bluetooth, wifi and the like). And it can´t be shared (carshare systems) so they would have to commit totally, which doesn´t seem the way that age group is trending towards. Come to think of it of maybe 15 kjids only two come to mind with their own car. All others are family cars or public transport a lot. When I take the car out I do get thumbs up, and even from small kids the ooh and aahs - but pricing? I´m bearish on that.
Many thanks, and I agree wholeheartedly that at this stage of my life, I just need another one to drive, to admire and replace the ones I owned in my misspent youth. I have had E-types in many periods of my life (at least four), so I am very familiar with their faults. I currently have an XK-8, and it has some of the styling cues of the old cars, but is not the same kind of car. My thinking is to sell off some of my other ‘treasures’ and focus on getting my last E-Type. Having purchased a new one for little more than $5000, it is hard to swallow the asking prices, but inflation has take it’s toll to the tune of one thousand percent, so I guess the prices reflect that.