Reader question:

I bought a classic car, and it’s kind of messed up, but I want to fix it up, give it a really powerful engine, good stereo, all that stuff. What should I be expecting once it’s ready to drive and thus ready to be insured?

Daniel

While your pimping your ride, consider the insurance cost.

It costs a lot of money to insure any kind of car, and car insurance companies will use any kind of excuse to send your rates rocketing sky high. There’s nothing that you can do about that on their end, but you can moderate your own actions. Not every change or addition to your car is going to get you charged more on your car insurance premium. The companies don’t care about your flame seat covers. However, once you begin to put real time and money into making modifications to your car, the insurance companies start to look a little closer.

High performance vehicle insurance costs a lot more than regular vehicle insurance, and that isn’t the only problem. One problem with having a high performance vehicle is that many insurance companies will just flat out decline to insure you, so it may take a little more looking around than usual to find a company that can cover your high performing vehicle. You can still get online quotes from various companies, though.

If you have a high performance vehicle and want to get insurance, you don’t always have to depend on the regular car insurance companies. There are car insurance companies who cater more specifically to customers who fall into a higher risk pool. This includes those with high performing cars, cars with lots of expensive equipment, and even those who have gotten drunk driving or speeding tickets and thus can’t find insurance elsewhere.

If all else fails, most states have a car insurance risk pool that you can join. The downside of this is that you don’t get to pick the company that you go with and the rates are usually even higher than with the specialized companies. Still, though, beggars can’t be choosers.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.