Check INSURANCE / CAR BURNT NO COVERAGE

9/2/10 RETRACTION: MY BUDDY WITH THE CAR NOW TELLS ME THAT HE DID NOT HAVE FULL COVERAGE, JUST LIABILITY. I GUESS HE DID NOT WANT TO ADMIT NOT GETTING FULL COVERAGE?
SORRY GEICO!


One of my customers car burnt down last week due to a brass fuel nipple that failed.
Really crazy, broke at the top of the threads right before where you tighten it causing a fire. Which is not really my point.

The point is that GEICO INSURANCE did not cover.
He had purchased full coverage.

They did not cover for 2 reasons:

1) They said since he had worked on the car and it burnt b/c of mechanical failure, and he was not a certified mechanic, just a hobby mechanic at home they would not cover the failure!!????

2) His policy didn't cover total loss due to mechanical failure = if your cars burns by itself you are out of luck. If he hit someone or got hit and it burnt he would be fine.
They said he could have bought more coverage to cover due to mechanical failure. But they did not tell him this when he bought the insurance. It would have been a couple more dollars a month.
## Check your policy!

He had an industry pro look at the fine print, and there is was.

Check you coverage! Call your agent!

Main thing is no one was hurt.

I added this info below as requested:
The car was a 1963 Olds 98 with the Ultra High Compression Rocket Motor in it.
There are pics on my website www.sakowskimotors.com
I am actually really sad about it. It was our family daily driver for a couple of years...
We drove one of my daughters home from the hospital in it when she was born 2 years ago, the other came home in the daily 1950 Ford.

Lots of great memories in that car. So sad to see it go down like that. I had sold it to a friend a while back.

Wil
www.ridefree.com California Tours
www.sakowskimotors.com

Wil Sakowski
www.ridefree.com California Tours
www.sakowskimotors.com

 

If he had agreed replacement value, backed by an appraisal he would have been covered. "Yes" check your policy.

 

Geico is horrible, my van was totaled by an uninsured dirtbag while running from the cops. I had uninsured motorist coverage and I had to hire a lawyer to get those bastards to settle. Once everything was settled I dropped them. Besides where do you think they get the money for all there commercials which they probaly have more than any insurance company, it comes from their high premiums

 

What kind of car was this? OT car or HAMB friendly?

 

Thanks for the heads-up .

 

One word........Grundy

 

I agree Denise, they really do have fantastic coverage and great customer service. Thankfully I have yet to file a claim with them, but those who have seem to be happy with their service.

Auto insurance contracts are ones where there is a strong presumption of coverage and unequal bargaining power in favor of the insurance company. As a result, the courts will sometimes look for favorably on the insured if they genuinely thought they had coverage. If I'm your customer, I'm on the phone with my attorney pronto and filing a suit against GEICO for indemnification. The insurance companies will try to weasel their way out of paying any way they can. Push back hard

 

Has it occurred to anyone that this concern affects every daily driver late model in the driveway? Grundy won't help those.

Change your own oil? Rotate your tires? Replace a fuel filter? DIY that cylinder head?
Now if something leaks and causes a fire or breaks and causes damage or injury, you may not be covered because you aren't certified? I wonder how many state insurance boards know this is happening.

 

This concerns me on old cars, ASE does diddly for working on old cars. So there really isn't any certification for working on old cars, and don't tell me WyoTech or the like. I'm interested to find out what car it was.

 

I know of a lawyer in Delaware who makes his entire living suing insurance companies when they don't follow through. So, talk to a lawyer. Sometimes a letter from a lawyer all it takes. A lawyer should have a couple of different fees, $100-200 to listen to you and write a letter, more if he has to follow through and sue, etc.

But the facts in this case seem to be against the guy and it might not help...

 

Hire a good attorney. I had an insurance company play games over a home issue and they really changed their tune once the attorney contacted them. Most insurance companies play games and their claim adjusters get "raises" and promotions based on their performance. (re: getting claims settled for less than the company average would have been)

 

Sometimes, with insurance companies, a lot depends on how things are said. For instance, if I torch my car, (arson) no pay. But if I call my insurance and say, " I just did the dumbest thing. I checked my gas level with a match, and poof!." That probably would be covered under the "dickhead clause". It's almost criminal, how some insurance companies try to worm out of paying. Stu

 

I've had insurance adjusters tell me flat out bullshit lies, quoting laws that do not exist, hoping I'd believe them and settle for less.

 

Geico covers hotrods.....? I have found that with insurance you need to double check everything and cheapest isn't always the best way to go... when you spend 20 to 50 thousand on a hotrod and then try to cut corners on insurance that isn't very smart......

 

Cheap is not the way to go with insurance...They screw the next guy and pass the savings on to you......GEICO sucks....for all coverage...They are some CHEAP BASTARDS when it comes to paying a claim! Progressive is next in line for shitty claims services!
READ YOUR POLICY!!!

 

From an insurance agent..............lawyer up, that's "bad faith" on Gecko's part, no judge or jury in the country will side with them.

 

15 minutes can save you what?

 

Cheap is not the way to go when it comes to insurance. I've been with the same high end insurance company since 1970. Never had a problem having claims paid on my OT vehicles. I use another high end company for my collector vehicles. They are always set at agreed value. Luckily I have never had a claim on any of them.

A friend of mine shops the cheap insurance companies every two years to save money. Last year he had a claim on his OT luxury car. That cheap company did not want to pay to have the car fixed at a reputable body shop. He had to pay the difference out of his pocket to get good work. He has since stopped telling me how to save money on insurance. In fact he does not even want to discuss insurance anymore.

 

I had a claim against State Farm on my daily driver. My wife was rear ended so I went to the other partiy's insurance agent. They didn't want to cover all the damage so I asked for a supervisor. When the supervisor came out, I asked for the number of their legal department. Surprise, they covered everything.

When my daily driver was totaled by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel, I contacted her insurance company, which was the same as mine. I wanted to fix my car even though the insurance totaled it. The price the gave me was too low to fix the car. The agent said to send him all my receipts for work done prior to the accident. He said, by law, they had to replace the car in the same condition it was before the accident. They didn't want to find another car. They negotiate a price that allowed me to fix my car. He was the only honest insurance agent I ever met. It was 20th Century Insurance back in the mid 80's.

 

Warren Buffett is one of the richest men in the world for several reasons. GEICO happens to be a major one. And GEICO has a long, at times unsavory, history....

 

The car was a 1963 Olds 98 with the Ultra High Compression Rocket Motor in it.
There are pics on my website www.sakowskimotors.com
I am actually really sad about it. It was our family daily driver for a couple of years...
We drove one of my daughters home from the hospital in it when she was born 2 years ago, the other came home in the daily 1950 Ford.

Lots of great memories in that car. So sad to see it go down like that. I had sold it to a friend a while back.

Wil
www.ridefree.com California Tours
www.sakowskimotors.com

 

I'm with you there,Denise. They are a good insurance company to deal with.
Glenn

 

Thats the great thing about insurance, the only way to find out if its worth a shit is to have something horrible happen. And if its not, its too late to change it.

 

You just said a mouthfull. This is especially true on health insurance.

 

Never buy insurance from the companies that run commercials on TV claiming low-cost insurance.
It costs less because they don't pay out when the time comes, so they keep their overhead down.
So, in effect, you don't really have insurance, you just have someone who expects you to send them money regularly.

 

They cancelled my homeowner's insurance after I got my first payment after a partial flood because I had "all those car parts laying around and clutter - and it was a fire hazard."

There were a few engines lined up real nice, and the last time anyone from the insurance company came over was like 8 months ago, 2 days after the flood happened.

Tricky bastards...

 

This is great, even if you have insurance, you might not have insurance.

It looks like one should put together a questionnaire to have your insurance agent fill out, to see if he is selling you the insurance that you think you are getting.

One of the things that you need to be careful with, while dealing with insurance agents, is that they are probably not going to be your friend.

 

sadly yes, low cost insurance is low cost for a reason.
READ your policy! Truely how many of you ever read it thru? Most people get it when you they pay, and just pitch it.

I have worked at companies that in their policy it stated that a car was un-insurable if it had over sized cylinders, altered ride height, performance camshafts, superchargers, etc.

read it read it read it! ask question of the areas of the policy that you do not understand (yes, they are hard to read sometimes)

In my experience, we (the insurance company) would not pay for the part that failed, but we do owe for any resulting damages. i.e.--the wheel bearing went bad, causing the front wheel to fall of. The bearing is not covered, but the fender damage would be.

 

It was the first classic car he had owned. He just graduated from The Citadel, and is about to go to OCS. He wasn't trying to be cheap just didn't know better. They had other cars covered with Geico etc.. He said he wanted full coverage to cover anything. They signed him up and away he went.......
He thought that since he wanted full coverage and was paying all the money, and said he wanted it all... he was getting it.

 

9/2/10 retraction: My buddy with the car now tells me that he did not have full coverage, just liability. I guess he did not want to admit not getting full coverage?
Sorry geico!