New Caprice - Discussion forums

Hey guys,

I've been looking at getting a Caprice for some time now. I'm close to pulling the trigger on one I've found. I was getting an insurance quote and they considered it a gray market car and had to insure it for a specific price. I'm probably looking at $200 a month for full coverage in my area. Did you guys have issues with insuring them because of their rarity? It's the central Florida area for those curious. I know there's at least one of you guys here.

I use Gecio and when I called them up they had to do "looking up". I pay $200 and change for my car and the wife's car. What company do you use?

I was on the phone getting my 11 insured, $605 every 6 months. State Farm

I had no problems getting insurance through Allstate. I don't carry full coverage as I figure it will be someone else will that hits me. My biggest fear is the insurance companies will total the Caprices in a heart beat and not want to give us anything for them.

David

This was through a friend of mine who is an adjuster. I honestly hadn't shopped around at all. This was the first quote I received. I was just curious if it was typical.

When I first notified our insurance co. (USAA) of my intent to purchase a Caprice, they couldn't find the VIN. I'm guessing that they might have had VINs filed under the different manufacturers so a search of the VIN didn't match the listings for Chevrolet (one of the characters is different in the first part of the VIN, IIRC). When I told them it was manufactured by Holden in Australia, they started talking 'gray market'. I let them know that, no, it's a GM, built by a GM subsidiary in Australia to full US standards, and imported as a GM vehicle. I told them it was just like the G8, SS, late model GTO, etc.

They did a little more searching and found the VIN, and we got the car quickly on the books. So yeah, there's either some sort of lookup in certain records that isn't working right, or they're seeing the Vendor-specific VIN code (it's like the 4th character, or something like that) not the 'standard' Chevrolet letter, and stopping there.

Tell them it's just like a Chevrolet SS, or Pontiac G8. That should stop the 'gray market' talk.

That's basically what I had to do. None of the mainstream insurers would even touch it. Even Haggerty who insure exotic and collector vehicles just said no. And since it's so rare in Canada made it even harder. I was even contemplating parting it out if I couldn't insure it. I then contacted a broker and followed the advice of someone else on here to tell them it's like a G8 and eventually one company was willing to insure it. Only caveat is that they would only insure it for the purchase price rather than actual value since they have nothing to directly compare it to.

Find another insurance company. They are incompetent. My 13 caprice with full coverage is $700ish a year.

Well, not exactly. If the insurance person on the other end of the phone has a list of numbers to look for, and that number isn't where it's supposed to be, that'll put a kink in the works.

I think in my case, the first '6' and then the 'G', indicating that it was a foreign-made NOT Chevrolet, and I was telling them it was a Chevrolet, started the questioning. She had to go a couple of extra steps before indicating that all was well, but 'gray-market' did get mentioned a couple of times. :-/

My insurance company had no idea what it was and asked me about replacement cost. Collision coverage is steep and I raised my deductible to $2000. Still like $600 every 6 months.