I would like recommendations from members who have insured their modified cars as daily drivers.
I will have a highly modified '91 CRX completed sometime in mid 2018. Will have some $17000 tied up in it, just in mechanical mods. 2.4 swap, etc., etc..
Will keep it stock looking.
May do some auto cross, no road racing or drag racing planned.
Will appreciate advice on "reasonable" insurance carriers.
Thank you for your time and advice,
Lee

 

You'll either need to find a "stated value" insurance plan, probably with a provider that does custom / historic cars (this is the $$$ option), or do what everyone else does and just assume that your mods will not be covered and that you'll need to buy the car from insurance if they consider it a total loss and pull the mods off of it yourself to transfer to the replacement you'll buy.

 

If this wasn't a daily I'd suggest you look at Grundy and Hagerty - but even still, may be worth talking to them to see what they can do for you with allowing more mileage per year. These "collector" car insurance companies are now starting to cater to some of the 80's-90's cars which is great. I started the estimate process for insuring my 92 GS-R track car but haven't locked it in yet. So far the pricing and coverage is fantastic compared to what I currently have thru AAA. Of course this is for a car that almost never gets driven.

 

I think you just have to self insure. The cost to insure the extra $12k in value on top of the standard car will be astronomical.

 

This is not necessarily true. I currently have pretty baseline coverage on my '92 GSR through AAA and it's a few hundred per year (this is not a daily, so it doesn't get driven much, plus I have 2 other cars on the policy). I didn't think it was worth paying for full coverage when they value the car at only a few thousand dollars - my wheels/tires are worth almost that much, my engine cost more than that to build...etc. When I checked with Grundy it actually cost LESS money to insure with an agreed upon value of $10k. This might have been mileage limited at around 2000mi/yr, I didn't get that far yet to get into specifics. Although, I still think it's a pretty good apples to apples comparison because AAA adjusts pricing based on how much you drive each vehicle and historically I drive this car very little (<2000mi/yr) so it's already at their very lowest mileage/price tier.

 

I Have a swapped 91 hatch that I drive about once every couple week. I dont daily it bc I have 3 other cars that are more comfortable to drive, but I had to get it insured to make it street legal. I have insurance through Allstate and just added it to my regular family plan. I made no mention to the fact that it's modified and it actually brought my rates down bc it was so old but not quite a classic car. I think it went down because im on the same plan as my wife, siblings and their spouses. We went all in together bc it was much cheaper for everyone to do it that way.
I should also mention that my EF only has liability. I barely ever drive it so full coverage wasn't necessary for me.

 

Would the cost to insure be about the same as to insure any car worth the same?
AKA brand new $17,000 vs this car, would they be the same to insure?

 

Probably more since there are so many more safety systems on a newer car that would either help mitigate damage or avoid a collision altogether.