Grundy Car Insurance Prices and Review

Grundy Insurance is based in Horsham, Pennsylvania and has been providing coverage to collectors of all kinds of vintage things, from cars to wine collections, since 1955. When other classic car insurance companies were just thinking of getting started, by 1981 Grundy had already written over a million classic car insurance policies. If you’re seeking out classic car insurance, there are reasons to opt for Grundy (hint: the cost) rather than some of the more recognized companies.

Pros and Cons

Grundy Insurance Review

If you’ve been seeking out classic car insurance coverage, you’ve probably visited a few forums, or asked a few questions in Facebook groups about it. Invariably, one of the top responses to questions on classic car insurance is Grundy. They’ve been in the collector car insurance business a long, long time, and they’ve figured out how to offer a low-cost policy that still works for its business model. We’ll get to how Grundy does that in a bit.

Beyond the policy premiums, a key difference between Grundy and most other collector car insurance plans is the mileage you’re allowed to put on a car. Like most competitors, Grundy does require that you have a daily driver registered and insured. For most people in the collector car hobby, that’s not an onerous stipulation. Most people who own cars “of a certain age” aren’t really interested in driving them every single day, and usually they have another vehicle registered anyway, whether it’s something newer or a “beater with a heater” that they use to get them through the winter months.

Grundy doesn’t place mileage limits on their classic car policies, though, which is a key differentiator. If you feel like driving your classic car on a circuit of the four corners of the contiguous United States, you don’t have to call ahead to make sure you’re covered. You are, and you can just drive the car and not think about it. Other insurers will either set hard mileage caps, or seriously frown on driving your car more than 7,500 miles a year. If you are thinking about driving your car a lot, the mileage leniency may be your go/no-go indicator.

On the negative side of the ledger, Grundy does require that you have a locked garage to store your car in.

Back to the other key differentiator for Grundy: the low-cost premiums. It’s a little misleading because the default for a policy at Grundy is a $500 deductible. You reduce or eliminate the deductible by paying a little more in the premiums, but that puts Grundy’s rates in competitive distance of the rest of the bigger classic car insurers. But it’s definitely something worth thinking about: If you make a claim against your classic car insurance policy, things have gone really, really badly. According to several people we’ve talked to at the major classic car insurance companies, more likely than not, that claim is going to be for fire damage. The second thing on the list is theft. Classic car insurance claims ares hardly ever for collision damage because people who drive these cars tend to drive them with a lot more care and caution than they do their daily driver. A $500 deductible against a car that might be worth $30,000 is pretty easy to accept if things have gone really haywire.

Like all of the classic car insurance policies worth buying, Grundy writes insurance on an “agreed value” basis, meaning that both you and the insurance company come to an agreement on what the car’s worth. If something bad happens and the car is totaled, you get a check for that amount, less any deductible.

How Grundy Insurance Works

All of the major classic car insurers work pretty much the same. After almost 75 years, Grundy really has it down to a science:

• Agreed Value: Like any other classic car insurance policy, you’re going to need to come up with an “agreed value” for your vehicle. That’s what you think it would be worth in its current condition on the open market. Be generous, but be reasonable. Grundy isn’t going to insure your rusted out ‘66 Ford Falcon for $80,000, but they do take the specifics on your car into consideration. If you’ve got an original brown 1977 Firebird Esprit with exceptionally low mileage, in amazing condition with original paint, graphics and interior that made an appearance on The Rockford Files, it might be worth $30,000 on a good day, or $45,000 if the stars have aligned. Grundy will agree to insure it in that range, and they’ll write a check for that value if something happened to it. Try explaining why your Firebird is worth $45,000 to GEICO after it’s been totaled in an accident.
• Daily Driver Requirement: You have to have a daily driver in order to get a Grundy policy. That’s not an unusual requirement for any classic car collector insurance policy. What IS unique, though, is that Grundy will insure a lot of cars that some of us consider daily drivers. Through its MVP program, Grundy will insure your classic, your RV, your motorcycle, your trailer and your daily driver, no matter what it is. It’s nice to be able to write one check for all your insurance needs.
  
• Use Limitations: Grundy has fewer use limitations than most classic car insurers. As we mentioned, the mileage is the biggest factor in Grundy’s favor. The other use limitations are kind of fuzzy. Grundy tells you on its website “It is even OK if occasionally you drive your collector car to work to show it off to friends.” But the next sentence tells you you can’t use your car as a daily driver. How they determine whether or not you were while offering unlimited mileage is a bit of a mystery.
• Garage requirement: Some classic car insurers have gotten more lenient on the mandatory garage policy, but that’s clearly stated in Grundy’s materials. You have to have a garage, and it has to be locked. Most people who own collector vehicles are probably going to have some kind of garage anyway. Some may need to throw a padlock on the old barn to satisfy the requirement. But there are plenty of people living where it never snows and hardly rains, who have a carport rather than a garage with four walls and a lockable door. If you’re one of those people, you may want to look elsewhere for your insurance needs.

These are the things that are more restrictive than traditional insurance coverage. But their are benefits that hugely outweigh those limitations:

• Cost: This is Grundy’s greatest advantage, though it does present its annual cost numbers with the $500 deductible. The annual fee is about half what you’ll find from some of the other classic car insurers, but the numbers from those companies are all shown with NO deductible. You can pay more and get $0 deductible from Grundy, but that puts the rates closer in line with the competition.
• Restoration or Parts Coverage: Grundy Insurance does provide coverage for cars that are under restoration, or particularly expensive parts, but the parts insurance is only up to $500. If you have a Cross Ram intake and carb setup for a ‘69 Camaro, for example, those parts alone can be worth $6,000 or more. The $500 in parts coverage is pretty cold comfort.
• Trip Interruption Coverage: If you’re on that trip around the country and the transmission falls out of your 1970 Chevrolet Kingswood wagon, you may be out of luck on the hotel you booked for the following night. Grundy provides up to $600 in trip insurance to help defray the cost.

Grundy Classic Car Insurance Rates

Again, beware of comparing these rates with those of Hagery and American Collectors Insurance, because these rates were quoted with a $500 deductible in place. Nevertheless, they’re significantly less expensive than the competition, and you may be willing to sacrifice the five hundred bucks rather than paying a hundred bucks more for coverage every year.