richms: They look at what the last one sold for and then depreciate it. For a rare or modified car you need to do agreed value to not have a rude suprise when you thought that it was going up in value while the insurance company was making it go down.

All the new zealand insurers use an australian service called Redbook (which is also localised for NZ) to get the Market value for vehicles. Check here for more info: http://www.redbook.co.nz/

There are many cars for which there will be no industry source for market value... A properly restored 1950s US wagon, a custom build Lotus 7 replica with silly motor and lots of carbon fibre etc... If it's truly rare and unique you may have to use a specialist insurer. I use Classic Cover Insurance for one car and while I haven't had to claim off them they seem very comfortable with unique cars.

Cheers - N

Talkiet:

 

There are many cars for which there will be no industry source for market value... A properly restored 1950s US wagon, a custom build Lotus 7 replica with silly motor and lots of carbon fibre etc... If it's truly rare and unique you may have to use a specialist insurer. I use Classic Cover Insurance for one car and while I haven't had to claim off them they seem very comfortable with unique cars.

 

 

 

Cheers - N

 

 

 

I used them for one car i had and they were great, cheap too. Did have a 5000km per year caveat on the policy though

Jase2985:

 

Talkiet:

 

There are many cars for which there will be no industry source for market value... A properly restored 1950s US wagon, a custom build Lotus 7 replica with silly motor and lots of carbon fibre etc... If it's truly rare and unique you may have to use a specialist insurer. I use Classic Cover Insurance for one car and while I haven't had to claim off them they seem very comfortable with unique cars.

 

 

 

Cheers - N

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used them for one car i had and they were great, cheap too. Did have a 5000km per year caveat on the policy though

 

Also use Classic Cover for the race car.  I have Road-Race-Rally cover which covers the car while it's not actively competing.  So anything on open roads, commuting to events, touring between stages etc.  If I bin it while actually racing, that's my problem obviously.  Approx 5000km per year but they aren't too strict on it within reason. 

But also have agreed value on it with a valuation provided from a car dealer who knows race cars.  Classic Cover were happy with that.

They do seem to understand fairly unique vehicles.

Insurance companies have no idea what most cars are worth. One of my vehicles the insurance company think its worth 6k but if I was to replace it would cost me around 11k.

Insurance companies also depreciate ALL car policies even though some models of car hold their value and they never increase the value as market rates go up. Long story short you need to work out what you car is worth and if you have a car that holds its value you will have to call your insurance company every year and get them to hold the value.

Good luck, btw would be nice to know what model of car you have.

 Insurance companies do not depreciate car models. It is Redbook that does it. Redbook derives it's data from vehicle dealers across NZ and Australia. There are big gaps for vehicles that dealers don't normally deal in i.e. classic, vintage and exotics. They also don't normally have values for grey imports (direct imports from Japan/Europe/US). For example, Redbook has data for the 2014 Chev Camaro SS but not the ZL1. The insurance agent will normally just select the SS and then increase the agreed value as much as they can.

If you have a vehicle that is an exception you obviously need an agreed value cover not market value. They normally allow agreed value to be within a range of +/-30% of the market/redbook value. If you have a vehicle that increases in value - you need agreed value from a smaller insurer and not the big boys i.e. AA Insurance, State, Tower etc.

Just to clarify - I have worked in the pricing area of two of the big insurers and I know exactly what they do - which is nothing - it's all coming from a 3rd party.

flynkiwi: I learnt my lesson with market value. Some stupid uninsured drunk driver crashed into my parked car the week of my wedding doh! . I had bought my Alfa 147 for about 12k about 6 months prior. Was a Manuel (rare in NZ) with Ricardo racing seat package and was in mint condition. The insurance company assessor didn't care about any of that and valued it at $8000. The cheapest replacement you could find on trade me was 10k for a standard version.. Had to fight the insurance company and best I could do was pay for my own assessor and then insurance company agreed to split the difference between the two values. Nightmare. Ever since have got agreed value.

had a similar experiance, got paid 2k less than what i thought it was worth, took the payout, asked for first right of refusal on the tender for the wreck, and got the wreck for $1500 parted it out and made about 6k on that, so ended up about about having about 2k more than what i thought i should have got. Yes it was a PITA with having to dismantle the car but somethings are worth it.

Any modified/rare car i have will always have a valuation done on it.