Insurance, anyone?

[Felinae]

Anyone thought about insuring one of these beasts? I wonder how my Ins. Co. is going to look at this. Might be a bit hard to tell since this version is not on the U.S. market yet.

Thoughts, y'all?

[smartwo]

State Farm has already agreed to insure my smart when it arrives.

[MSOEMiller]

Originally Posted by smartwo

State Farm has already agreed to insure my smart when it arrives.

How much, if I may ask?

State Farm is usually high if you don't have other insurance with them too.

[rgaus]

Our converted smarts have generally not run into any problems with insurance companies. We had initially thought that the higher priced vehicles would have been a problem and that we would need to find an insurance company that understood the car and its history of low claims. What we actually found was that most insurance companies that already insure a person's vehicles are more than willing to insure another one for them... even if the car is unfamiliar. In two cases, we furnished an appraisal of our converted smarts from a recognized automobile specialty appraiser (our appraiser is extremely credible with insurance companies since he is also connected with the folks from Antique Roadshow). In short, the 2008 vehicles should not be a problem with their relatively low cost of replacement panels and strong steel framing. As for the theft potential? Think about it. Would you feel like you could "hide" and fade into the background in a smart car? Won't happen.

Ron Gaus, aSmartCar.com, St. Louis

[eqwalker]

My insurance company is Shelter Insurance and they told me that it would not be a problem. They didn't have a price yet because the car hasn't been actually release yet.

[SmartCard]

Originally Posted by smartwo

State Farm has already agreed to insure my smart when it arrives.

that's good to know (we currently have State Farm as well)

[Felinae]

Ron,

Thanks for the information regarding insurance. That was a great post!

I think I'll call my insurance agent today!

[RLove]

I hope it isn't like when i tried to insure my Mini Cooper...it went like this, "Who makes the car?" "Mini Cooper, but they are owned by BMW" "So, it's a BMW?" "No, it's a Mini Cooper" "So, we'll list it as a BMW" ...with all the usual higher rates for an expensive German sports car.

So......Smart is owned by Mercedes Benz, what do you think will happen?

It always puzzles me that there never seems to be any car people working in the insurance office.

On the other hand your Lamborghini may be insured as an Audi, your Rolls as a BMW, your Jaguar as a Ford, etc.

[rgaus]

I pay about $1000/year in St. Louis for our smart car coupe.

Ron Gaus, aSmartCar.com

[teapots]

Hi Everyone

I have State Farm and I have already contacted them. I was concerned about the insurance rates...I liked the Fortwo the very first time that I saw it but didn't want to the insurance to cost as much as the car.

Of course, I can't get a firm quote yet but I was able to get an approximate quote. I called my agent and gave her different websites to check out, especially any that mentioned safety and crash tests.

My approximate quote was just over $700 for the year. Remember, that is only an approximate quote.

Teapots