Turbo/Insurance/Parents

[Cam]

no, my neighboors not in town till tomorrow
so when he pays me im gonna ask him and all that.. my parents still refuse to talk about it.. my moms like Dad says not to talk about it and my dad says im not talking about it with you.. were adults and dont have to explain ourselfs to you.. however i think that they'll listen at least... in a day or 2... i hope

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

your money and you life, do you pay for the car? i would say as long as you don't get stupid with it........

[Tarball]

Hi there,

It just so happens that I'm a Safeco agent. Adding the turbo to you car will not void the insurance since the policy was written before you added the turbo. However, the insurance will not pay for the turbo if it is damaged or destroyed in a wreck. Many companies offer an endorsement to insure opptional equipment that you have added to your car like custom wheels or nice stereos etc. for a charge. You have to check your policy closely though. Some companies will not insured altered vehicles like lowered cars. If you wilfully mis-represent on an application it can void your insurance. Hope that helps.

I should note that this info is based on Oregon data. Each state has different rules.

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

but will the company raise rate knowing there's a turbo on the car (aftermarket turbo like our cars would be)

[CamTheMan]

Thanks tarball. My neighboor was still outta town this weekend so i ended up emailing safeco to double check with what tarball said. Lets say that i put the turbo on today. I would be good untill my 6 months im insured is up then when its time to pay again would i have to tell them i have the turbo. If i dont would that be considered willfully mis-representing myself. And viper my parents payed for a little under half the car. So they still get a say in what happens to it.

:::This is my at school account:::

[Silv6]

say "would you rather me be doing drugs?"
id had the same thing but with n20. ended with" this is what i like, i dont want to play football or soccer, i want to make my car faster!"
good luck

[tucsoncamaro]

I have finally gotten to the point where my mom is letting me do anything I want with my car as long as I pay for it. Took a long time. Plus driving for one year and not getting any tickets or in any accidents helps. You just have to prove to them that you are a good driver, and annoy them until they let you.

[CamaroRob97]

My mom never says anything about me doing things to my car. She acutally thinks its kinda cool for the most part. I guess my mom is just cool lol [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Biffy]

As bad as getting a V8? how much do you pay? I pay 140/mo w/4 points

[Cam]

UPDATE:

I e-mailed them back and forth a few times and heres what they said:


Hi Cameron,

I understand your concern, however, we are only allowed to make
changes to policies when specified to do so. Whenever a policy
change is made, the system records who made the change. Therefore
is someone were to make changes to your policy that were not
applicable, that person could be terminated. I really don't
feel like getting fired today.

To answer your question, you can still be insured with us even
though you have installed a turbocharger in your firebird. However,
not reporting it would most likely cause problems. There may
be a small surcharge for modifying the vehicle. I recommend
you contact your agent about this matter.

Thanks,
Service Operations Unit
Safeco Insurance Company


> I dont really want to respond with my policy information because i dont want
> you guys changing everything around.
> Im not sure if this was understood but my main question i was trying to ask
> was: Can i still insure with you guys and have a turbo on my car, but not
> pay to insure the turbo, and not get introuble for not reporting that i have
> a turbo.
>
> The car is a red 6cyc auto firebird.
>
> Thanks, Cameron
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <custmr@SAFECO.com>
> To:
> Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 12:10 PM
> Subject: Re: Auto Insurance
>
>
> >
> >
> > Hello Cameron, and thank you for contacting Safeco online.
> >
> > In response to your email, I doubt Safeco would drop your insurance
> > because you installed a turbocharger in your vehicle. In order
> > to give you a detailed explanation about the costs of adding
> > a turbocharger, I will need to forward this on to the underwriting
> > department for review. If you could, will you please supply
> > us with your policy number, or your full name and address so
> > we can access your policy? This way, I will know who to refer
> > this to, and the underwriter will be able to see what type of
> > vehicle you added the turbocharger to. You can respond directly
> > to this email.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Service Operations Unit
> > Safeco Insurance Company
> >
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Comments from: Cameron
> > >
> > > I was wondering what happens to my insurance if i put a turbocharger in
> my
> > > car. How does this affect insurace. Lets say that i have liability only
> > > and i get into a wreck and its my fault. I have a turbo on my car and
> you
> > > dont know about it. Will this void my insurance? Will i have to pay the
> > > damages to the other person? Will my insurance be coverd for that time
> and
> > > then dropped later? Also do you guys support adding turbos to a car and
> > > let us add it as an option to insure? If so how much does it add on to
> > > insurace? Thanks.


They are kinda funny. However thats bs, they told us if we find our your son is driving the firebird then were going to switch the cars around. Anyway do you think i could get away with adding a turbo to the firebird, i mean my dads 45 or so and hes only owned hondas i think they might notice somethings up.

Also what would you guess the turbo will cost to insure. I only pay 570 every 6 months so its really cheap bc im insured mainly under an old 4cyc accord.

I'm now trying what tucsoncamaro did cause i think that might work with my parents. No matter what i try now they just say why would you need to go faster? and i dont think those are safe, your going to mess up your engine installing it yourself.. Stuff thats hard to answer lol.

[Tarball]

Here is how the insurance works. You would not be canceled if you installed a turbo charger. You would not have to pay damages if you hurt someone with your turbocharged car.

Safeco wanted to get your policy number because they were going to forward that information to the underwriter. The underwriter would then contact your agent saying "so and so informed us they have a turbocharged fire bird...blah blah blah." "Please call them to see who is the primary driver an we will rate for that person and we need to add high performance surcharge"

If the vehicle is liability only it will not mater that much as they would not fix your car if it was damaged regardless.

However, Safeco wants to know who the primary driver of the vehicle is because they want to charge a rate appropriate for the risk.

Adding a turbo to the vehicle increases risk as well. There is the posability that Safeco could non-renew the account due to increased risk or what ever reason they wanted to list (not sure what the law is in your state).

If they were not informed of the turbo and there was a bad liability claim you can pretty much count on the policy being non-renewed. Though if your record is clean and no claims its not likely they would cancel.

You would not get into trouble for not reporting the turbo...since it was added after the policy was written. The only exception might be if they sent out a vehicle questionnaire asking for info on the vehicles and it had a signature line at the bottom where you swear that the info in it is accurate. Then if you didn't list it you could get into trouble.

Let me know if you have any other insurance related questions.

Tarball

2000 Silver Firebird

[Cam]

First off thank you so much for your time tarball, its greatly appreciated. Second im really worried about them dropping my insurance since our house and just about everything is insured with them. Also i dont want them switching around my plan because its my car but its insured under my dad. So do you think they would figure out that im the one thats driving the car if i added a turbo. Also what would you guess the high performance surcharge would be.
I dont know if this matters or not but my dads paying 50 a month right now, hes a 48 yr old guy and the car is a 98 auto firebird.

[Tarball]

No problem,

If you don't have any tickets on your record and no claims I don't think they would drop you. They will want you to be the rated driver on the firebird if its the vehicle you primarily drive.

As far as price...not sure. You'd probably be lookin at anywhere from 125-175 per month on the firebird depending on what tier your in with Safeco and geographic location. It can be alot more if you live in a large city.

Insurance is rated based on the symbol of the car and the factor of the driver (for the most part). Example would be my Firebird = symbol 20-23 depending on options. 27 year old single male driver would be Factor 1.25-1.75 or so depending on conditions (commute distance, business use etc.).

To relate this a plain jane honda civic would be around symbol 10-12 and 18 year old single male would be around factor 2.5-3.0 This is why your parents want you rated on the 4cyl liability only car. Keeps the rates WAY down. Of course the company wants you rated on the firebird IF that is the car you primarily operate. They need to generate the correct level of premium for the exposure.

The high performance surchage usualy adds an "H" to the symbol and creates about a 10-15% increase in the physical damge rates. Very minor increase in Liability rates. It can vary per company. I'll look at my underwriting manual tomarrow and see what it says for Safeco.


As far as Safeco figuring it out? Your agent probably already knows you drive the Firebird...I would know. Safeco won't know because they don't know your policy number from your conversations. So unless your agent makes the change or informs Safeco of the exposure then there won't be any changes to your account.

Again, this info is based on Oregon data. Your state may be different.

Ok, off to play some Call of Duty.

Tarball
2000 Silver Firebird