Topic: need help with insurance battle

[smashedmelon]

Hey all,
was wondering if anyone could help me by posting links of sold prices for mint condition all original early - mid 70's cb750?  need to provide proof to my insurance company since I never had the bike appraised, so far have a few prices but its hard to find mint bikes out there. Theyre tellin me its worth $750 right now and I have seen them go for over $5000.
please help!!!!
thanks

[BobbyR]

It is so variable that anything you show them would not hold up during a claim. I deal with people whole restore 70's muscle cars and all of owners have them are appraised by an appraiser recognized by the insurance company. That sets the value of the bike for underwriting and avoids disputes. Anything else is conjecture and you will get $750 from the Court.

[edbikerii]

I used American Collector's insurance co. for my 1958 Jaguar XK150.  They asked for pictures of the car and we agreed on a fair market value without any appraisal necessary.  Of course, the higher you go, the more your insurance premiums will be, so they really shouldn't give you too much of a hard time on an agreed value.  They deal with classics and customs so they know that book values don't mean a damned thing.  Of course, there were mileage limitations and a requirement that it be stored inside a garage, etc.

Also, despite my very high agreed upon value, the policy was quite inexpensive, costing much less than liability + comprehensive on my daily driver.

[csendker]

Head over to e-buy, click on "Advanced Search" then search for "Completed Listigs" and drill down to get what you want.

[csendker]

...last two pages.

[Gordon]

Unfortunately I think Bobby is right.  Unless the insurance company has agreed to a higher-than-book value for the bike before the wreck, you're not going to get one extra dime from them.

[BobbyR]

Unfortunately I think Bobby is right.  Unless the insurance company has agreed to a higher-than-book value for the bike before the wreck, you're not going to get one extra dime from them.

I hate to be right but, I know a lot of people in the Insurance game and have had a go around with one years ago over a 6 moth old Trans Am with 6K miles which was stolen and totaled. I finally had to sue them and they settled. Unfortunealy, ebay would be laughed at if push came to shove, you would have to prove those sales actually went through. Bottom line is Insurance Companies make money by investing the premiums and not by paying claims. The adjusters job is to pay the minimal amount and they are measured on that.  Shop around and see if you can find one that will give you agreed value.

[jmckinne]

I used American Collector's insurance co. for my 1958 Jaguar XK150.  They asked for pictures of the car and we agreed on a fair market value without any appraisal necessary. 

I use Parish Heacock out of Lakeland Florida for my classic cars and bikes and they work the same way. It wasn't clear to me from your post if you are in the middle of a claim or just getting coverage. If your trying to settle a claim, and you just had regular comp/liability on it you're screwed. Sorry man they are just going to give you KBB for it.

Collect every auction sale price you can I guess, but EBay auction info is better backed up with something from Barrett-Jackson or Walnecks - they have reciepts.

Anyone else out there - if your bike is in any kind of shape do NOT let your auto insurance company cover it under comp/liability. You need agreed value AND comp/liability if your bike is a driver. Some big firms (State Farm for one) are doing agreed value for classics now, but watch the restrictions on usage etc.

Sorry to hear if you're in a claim 

[edbikerii]

Good point.  I was just getting coverage.  I never had to file a claim while I owned that Jag.  The agreed upon value was what they based the premiums on, but of course, this had to be agreed upon at the time of buying the coverage.

Also, I don't know if American Collector's does motorcycles.

I used American Collector's insurance co. for my 1958 Jaguar XK150.  They asked for pictures of the car and we agreed on a fair market value without any appraisal necessary. 

I use Parish Heacock out of Lakeland Florida for my classic cars and bikes and they work the same way. It wasn't clear to me from your post if you are in the middle of a claim or just getting coverage. If your trying to settle a claim, and you just had regular comp/liability on it you're screwed. Sorry man they are just going to give you KBB for it.

Collect every auction sale price you can I guess, but EBay auction info is better backed up with something from Barrett-Jackson or Walnecks - they have reciepts.

Anyone else out there - if your bike is in any kind of shape do NOT let your auto insurance company cover it under comp/liability. You need agreed value AND comp/liability if your bike is a driver. Some big firms (State Farm for one) are doing agreed value for classics now, but watch the restrictions on usage etc.

Sorry to hear if you're in a claim 

[jmckinne]

Good point.  I was just getting coverage.

Sorry edbikerii. Although I was quoting you I was talking to SmashedMelon, which wasn't clear in my post.

[Wycked]

Hey all,
was wondering if anyone could help me by posting links of sold prices for mint condition all original early - mid 70's cb750?  need to provide proof to my insurance company since I never had the bike appraised, so far have a few prices but its hard to find mint bikes out there. Theyre tellin me its worth $750 right now and I have seen them go for over $5000.
please help!!!!
thanks

If you have good solid pictures of the bike prior to the incident, you may be able to have an independent appraiser do a work up, it will cost you some cash to get the appraisal done, and it will not guarantee the insurance carrier will change their tune. It also depends on the carrier your dealing with. Someone along the lines of Safe Auto, Titan, and other assigned risk carriers, your not going to get much cooperation to begin with. For them it is easier to just pay you what they want and let you take them to court, then it is to try and give you fair market value. If you have a log of the restoration, as well as any before pics to show the work put into restoring the bike, or anything at all that can be used to show the true value of the bike, then that is all things to be shown to an appraiser. It would also do you good to find out by what method they are using to appraise the bike. Just using KBB or if they had an actual Motorcycle knowledgeable appraiser do the work up.

[Bodi]

It doesn't matter what the bike was worth after the fact if the bike was already insured and then stolen/wrecked. The insurance company wrote you a policy using some value for the bike, basing the premium on the value and the risk of loss (in theory at least). On a claim, that value is all they will ever pay.
If you just go in to Acme Insurance with a "mid 70's CB750" where the book value is $500-$1000 you will be paying the premium appropriate for that value. You can not then come to them and say the bike was stolen... and, by the way, it's worth $5,000.00 and that's what you have to pay me.
This is your basic problem if I read your message correctly, and no amount of proof of value will change that. Maybe the book value of old Hondas is unrealistically low, but your insurer just has to have followed reasonable industry practices in good faith using an accepted used vehicle pricing guide. Unless you can prove they were negligent or incompetent, their presumed value that they priced the policy on is all you can hope for.
If you wanted $5000.00 insurance you would have to have done an appraisal and payed the higher premium from day one.