[Backwoods]

Do any of you purchase additional insurance to cover the value of accessories that exceeds the value of the accessories that your auto insurance covers?

If so, from what company? Are you happy working with the company?

In my case, my 2013 Tundra has about $11K in accessories. My auto insurance company (USAA) said that they cover up to a maximum of $5K of accessories. That leaves me with $6k of uninsured accessories. I asked USAA if I could buy additional insurance from them to cover these accessories and they said "no."

I already talked to an insurance company that focuses on "collector" vehicles and they said that they only cover entire vehicles and those are 1989 and earlier.

I just want to buy supplemental or a kind of gap coverage for the additional $6k.

Any recommendations?

 

[Backwoods]

No one?

 

[Toxarch]

I have Progressive. It was an option for additional insurance to cover accessories. They don't require you to list the accessories so I just put $3K in extra accessories.

 

[Backwoods]

From what I've learned so far calling various 4wd shops and insurance companies, I'm unable to find an insurance company that will write an additional policy just to cover the gap in coverage. It looks like I may have to move the coverage from USAA to an insurance company that caters to car collectors and get an estimate of the total value of the vehicle as-is and try to get coverage of that total value. Would the cost = the value? Don't know yet; more work required. This takes a lot of time!

 

[tjm]

My question is, how fast do accessories depreciate? How long would it be worth paying for "extra" insurance? I would hate to pay it for a couple years and then find out they are worth diddly squat.

 

[speedysparky]

Contact State Farm. My agent says my truck is covered completely and I have way more then 11k invested.

 

[Powertechn2]

It depends on what those accessories are.

Wheels retail for less than what oem wheels cost, so those aren't worth having extra coverage...

Amps and speakers and in dash units mostly retail for less than what the oem unit costs at a dealer... with the exception of the amp and the subs, which if you pay an extra 100 per 6 months, after 2 years when you include the depreciation you would likely not get enough back to cover the new amp to replace the one that is gone if you include the extra you paid for insurance...

 

[Backwoods]

Good points. The other issue is that after I negotiated the price for the vehicle in Oct 2012, I got out my checkbook to buy it and the dealer asked me to finance it and I said that I was just going to buy it. He said "What about zero down, no interest for 5 years?" Well, okay! So of course I was technically upside down when I drove it off the lot.

So there are 2 issues:

1. Being upside down on the loan (gap in debt to replacement value), and
2. The value of the accessories, plus non-trivial installation costs

As of today, combined, that's about a $20K

Based on a no interest loan, I'd estimate that the cross-over point (debt to resale value) is about a year. I'd be looking to consider having that additional coverage for about a year or so.

So insurance is about risk management, what's the risk?

A couple of things:

1. Theft. I travel frequently so the vehicle is in the airport parking lot frequently.
2. Totaling due to damage. I do use it for 4wd -- not just driving dirt roads but on some pretty challenging terrain in the back country in the Rocky Mountains. There is also lots of snow and ice here just driving int he winter - I live at 9500 ft elevation. While I'm careful and don't do pure Jeep-style rock crawling, rolling a vehicle under these conditions is not unheard of.

Powertechn2 - you raise a good point about the type of coverage - retail value vs replacement costs - I will check on that! Whether installing an ARB bumper and winch or replacement sound system or anything else, it all adds up.

 

[rangerbrown]

Mine is covered with geico and have
Lift, lights, bumpers, radio, tool box and tools all covered around 13K total for a extra 20$ a month with 500$ deductible


My 98 BMW 528i cost more to cover than the truck

 

[nibbs]

I have travellers- when my Tacoma was totaled- I gave receipts to them for everything from my light bar and Piaas to aftermarket bumper and everything in between. They covered almost everything in full except depreciating my cap and about 80% of my audio upgrades. This was with their standard policy (no additional accessory coverage).

 

[hardrivr]

I own a Farmers agency here in California, and we offer $1k in BOLT IN upgrades for free, and then can add additional...

 

[timsp8]

I have USAA too, and they told me that they would cover all additions as long as I had the receipt showing what I bought. Maybe they just forgot to tell me it was only up to $5000.