I got an oil change yesterday and gave it a wash. Cover is on and now the wait for spring. On nice winter days I'll be detail the interior and install some easy mods.

 

Thank you very much Tom for your illuminating post on insurance coverages!

I though it was excellent.

 

Tom,

I have an insurance question for you. I store my car outside covered in the winter and of course keep the full insurance coverage year round. Would my auto insurance policy (NJM) cover damage to the car from animals, such as mice or chipmunks? I have stored my car for years and never had a problem so far, but the thought of uncovering my car in the spring and seeing that some rodent has torn apart my interior scares the hell out of me. I was just wondering if that kind of damage is covered. I have taken all the usual precautions, but nothing is fool proof and I have seen nests in my shed come spring.

Thanks

 

Yes, that would be covered under comprehensive. I've had a few claims like that over the years. Critters like to chew up interiors and insulation for nesting material. Mothballs seem to be a good preventative step.

However, if you have a "named peril policy", rodent infestation may not be covered. But you shouldn't have to worry about that. I haven't heard of that type of policy in quite a few years. There may be other states where such a policy exists, but I don't recall ever seeing one in NJ. For those of you outside of NJ, you might want to double-check your coverages.

It's always a good idea to become familiar with your insurance policy. I realize it's boring, and sometimes written in insurance-speak. But it is somewhat self explanatory.

One of the basic rules on any insurance policy is, if it's not specifically excluded, then it's included.

By the way, you're insured with an excellent company. I've heard great things about NJM service, and you get dividends to boot. Stick with them.

 

Thanks, I will sleep better knowing that. I use Fresh Cab rodent repellent instead of mothballs, farmers swear by it and my car doesn’t smell like my grandmothers attic in the spring.

That is so true about reading your insurance policy, most people in NY/NJ don’t know how lucky we were that Hurricane Sandy was classified as a tropical storm when it made landfall in NJ since there would have been a MUCH higher deductible for claims had it been classified as a hurricane. The insurance companies snuck that one in there fairly recently.

I know all about how great NJM is, I’ve had them for 30 years. There was absolutely no increase in my premium when I upgraded to a high performance car.

 

Sounds like you have everything under control. I have stored numerous cars this same over many years and without any problems.



You will have no issues with respect to the electronics once you reconnect the battery on your Boss but having said that you have to keep in mind that your drivers door and passengers will not close properly or at least it will be difficult to close the doors due to the windows not automatically dropping down after you reconnect the battery.


Of course it is an easy fix once the battery is reconnecting as all you have to do is to lower the power window down part ways and then raise the window to the top position after which time the door will close much easier.


If you periodically start your car up I suggest starting a calendar log so that they can be started and run on a regular basis. As we all know the longer a car sits the worse it is for them so if you are in a position to start your car on a regular basis and even better take it for a short spin over the winter it will do your car a world of good.


Lastly, I suggest that you pump up your tires to at least 38 pounds pressure as one or more of your tires can leak down very easily over the winter and nothing worse than coming back to a tire that is down on inflation with the chance of flat spotting based on long term storage.


Good luck!

 

Again, unless you are driving the car once and a while, you are wasting your money to keep full coverage on a car you are storing......

 

And again, if you remove coll/comp coverage while the car is in storage, you are not covered for anything that happens to the car....fire, theft, roof collapse on top of the car, etc. Auto insurance and Homeowners coverage would not respond. Period.

Further, if you remove all coverage, then your insurance company may be required to notify your state DMV of it's uninsured status and you might be subject to a fine and have to surrender the plates and re-register the car once you prove you have insurance.

If you are willing to assume those risks and you can say for certain that the car will never be damaged by anything while not in use, then by all means remove your coverage. Otherwise, paying the premium for a few months even though the car is not being used is relatively inexpensive peace of mind.

 

You obviously don't know the difference between full coverage and coverage for a car in storage....

 

I give up.

 

Well...why pay for full coverage of you are not driving the car???? It is a waste of money....I never said I removed ALL coverage.....what part of that don't you understand??????

 

From experience and 2 deductibles later, true

 

My Mustang is classified with my insurance company as “pleasure use only”, the fact that it is driven less than half the miles of my other cars is already factored into the premium. Even if I wanted to reduce the coverage further, I can’t drop the liability since the DMV in NJ would be notified and they could cancel my registration which then would mean I would have to surrender my plates. So that is really not an option. The collision and comprehensive portion of my policy cost around $500 for the year, if I drop it for 4 months and assuming the insurance company reduces my premium proportionately, I would save $165, minus the multicar discount I would lose. By doing all this, now it would mean that for those four months I could not use the car without taking a risk, should there be a nice weekend in the middle of winter where I felt like taking it out for a spin or if my other car broke down and I needed it to get to work. Not to mention the risk of fire, theft, rodent infestation and all the other possible ways it could be damaged just sitting in my garage or driveway for those four months. Taking all that risk on a $45,000 car just to save less than $165 a year doesn’t sound like the best financial decision to me. I will keep my insurance year round and continue to “waste” my money, at least I will sleep better at night.

Side note: This is why I have a fear of rodent infestation, my neighbor found this in his Grand Mark after returning from a one week vacation. Lucky there was no damage to the car.

 

But the point is....most people who put them in storage are NOT driving them and do not plan on driving them until next spring, thus we do not need full coverage. If you plan on taking it out and driving it once and a while, of course leave full coverage on it, but if not, tell them it is in storage and will not be driven and they will reduce the coverage accordingly. My car is still covered and I am saving money. And mine is pleasure only...I put a whopping 1,683 miles on it this year.

 

^^^This. I am not rated pleasure only. I save 3/4 of my premium with comp only. And, my agent can flip it on and off easily. Want to take it out this weekend? I call and say cover me Fr-Sun and turn it back to comp Mon. They just need a record of the coverage request in case something happens. The home office figures out billing after a week or 2.

 

Tom, this is almost comical and I can certainly understand your frustration and appreciate all of your comments and feedback.

 

Thanks...much appreciated.

I used to say before I retired after 34 years that I wore two hats...in my personal life I'm a very upbeat and positive person. But in my professional life I played it much closer to the vest, almost negative in a way, always analyzing worst case scenarios for my claims customers based on their specific case. I never sugar coated anything.

I've seen the good that proper insurance can do for people. Likewise, I've seen how people get hurt financially, sometimes even bankrupting themselves, by taking shortcuts.

Insurance can be intimidating. It doesn't have to be as long as one makes informed decisions.

 

Mutual dividends are "a partial refund of a deliberate overcharge" as per IRS. Which is why they are not reportable as income.
VS stock dividends which are actually "income" and therefore taxable.

 

Again, unless you are selling insurance what reason should someone keep full coverage on a car if it is in storage? Oh, and I have almost 39 years in insurance....

 

Yes that's true, but all insurance companies "deliberately overcharge", that's how they assure cash flow to pay off claims. Then the following year, if the profits exceed the claims, that profit is split with the shareholders of the corporation in the form of dividends which are of course taxable. The difference with NJM is there are NO shareholders, its not a publicly traded company. So the following year if their profits exceed claims, that profit is split with the policy holders in the form of dividends. But since its basically just a refund of your own money, its not taxable. No insurance company in NJ as been able to even come close to the rates I pay with NJM, with or without the dividend.