So there's plenty of people here with a high vehicle-to-occupant ratio in their household. Is everyone just eating the cost of at least liability and accepting that owning a bunch of cars is 'spensive or is there another strategy you have up your sleeve that don't involve unregistered cars on jack stands?
Older cars can often get classic insurance. My wife's '83 380SL is on a Hagerty policy that is much cheaper than a regular policy.
The C10 has some special classic thing going on. The Tib is currently Liability, the truck and Rio have comp.
The daily-ish vehicles are on normal insurance (my Alfa + my "backup truck, and my wife's Ranger Rover and Jeep, plus the Honda GoldWing), everything else is on classic insurance.
Forgot to mention, full coverage on everything - once I add underinsured motorist coverage to the policy (which I want to have), going the rest of the way to full coverage is only a very small bump in premium.
I used to know a guy that had a summer car and a winter beater. When it was time to switch, he would go online and swap the status of each between non-op and regular and do the sme thing on insurance. He was very skilled at being thrifty. I was only ever thinking insurance, but he also cut registration almost in half.
Private classic car insurance for the old stuff and the exotics. Milelage and usage limits in the 1K a year range and show and weekend use only.
Mercury insurance for the daily. 250/500 with a 1 million umbrella on all.
I probably should have mentioned I'm aware of the classic/collector policies, but my current prospective addition does not qualify.
The whole pricing scheme seems crooked to me. I get why I should pay full comprehensive for each vehicle since a tree could fall on them all at once, but why I have to pay full price on liability/property/collision for every vehicle when I can't clone myself and drive them all simultaneously is absurd.
Ok, I'll stop yelling at the clouds.
I have 4 cars with full coverage and 1 with just max medical and liability (no FTC). It is expensive but all the cars get used with my wife and daughter also driving. Round numbers it is about $700/car/year for the full coverage. The other one is only a couple hundred a year. Anyone can drive any car I don't have any exclusions and I carry max medical and max liability so I do pay a little more for that.
I use USAA. Not only is it cheap, but you can turn the insurance on and off with the click of a button and this saves you money. If I look at the weather and decide to drive particular vehicle to work the next day, I turn it on and go. Park the car, turn off the road insurance, and save money when it's covered on the storage policy. The coverage can be customized for every line item. Want more Underinsured coverage, but less medical? Easy. Want X dollars coverage on one car and something different on another? Easy. Want agreed value? No problem. I've had Hagerty etc, and nothing beats USAA in my experience. They also seem to view me as a client rather than an adversary, which wasn't the case with State Farm or Nationwide.
Hagerty on three specialty cars, State Farm on two daily drivers plus one million umbrella policy. Motorhome insured under specialty RV insurance. Six vehicles for two drivers.
In reply to dean1484 :
Man, my insurance wants that much just for liability. Full coverage is nearly a grand. There's nothing in my driving history or age demographic to drive it up considerably, so I'm going to guess it's because I live relatively close to downtown Atlanta.
Either that or I'm getting a...
6 cars insured. 4 on regular, 2 on Hagerty/classic.
One driver...
Yes... I try not to think about how much I'm paying. It's one of the main reasons I want to get rid of a couple of cars.
Apis Mellifera said:I use USAA. Not only is it cheap, but you can turn the insurance on and off with the click of a button and this saves you money. If I look at the weather and decide to drive particular vehicle to work the next day, I turn it on and go. Park the car, turn off the road insurance, and save money when it's covered on the storage policy. The coverage can be customized for every line item. Want more Underinsured coverage, but less medical? Easy. Want X dollars coverage on one car and something different on another? Easy. Want agreed value? No problem. I've had Hagerty etc, and nothing beats USAA in my experience. They also seem to view me as a client rather than an adversary, which wasn't the case with State Farm or Nationwide.
This is exactly what I want. Unfortunately, myself nor my family have served in the military.
Matt B (fs) said:but why I have to pay full price on liability/property/collision for every vehicle when I can't clone myself and drive them all simultaneously is absurd.
They don't for sure that only one of your cars is on the road at a time - as far as the insurance company is concerned, you could be letting someone else drive one of your cars. I don't think there's any way around it.
I have wondered what museums or people with large collections do, although some of them may be in such a high income bracket that the cost of insurance isn't a concern.
Matt B (fs) said:In reply to dean1484 :
Man, my insurance wants that much just for liability. Full coverage is nearly a grand. There's nothing in my driving history or age demographic to drive it up considerably, so I'm going to guess it's because I live relatively close to downtown Atlanta.
Either that or I'm getting a...
Dont complain. I just sold my 2017 M4 ... was paying $2400/year in S Fl. 
I currently have Geico on 2 dailies and 2 motorcycles. Cars are around 1700 each.
The rest are with Hagerty, seldom driven.
My insurance company offered me a reduced rate for a daily driver I had that saw limited use. No longer have the car but I think the mileage limit was 8,000 per year. It still had full coverage. They checked mileage when insurance was changed but never again in two years before getting rid of car.
I called Hagerty just today about covering my non-DD vehicles. Only willing to cover the ones that are stored under a roof. Open carport is okay.
If I had the cash flow I would save enough to pay for a small pole barn.
why I have to pay full price on liability/property/collision for every vehicle when I can't clone myself and drive them all simultaneously is absurd.
Makes perfect sense if you're the one being handed the money. This is THE singular I will never have any sympathy for my insurers. The way I see it i've been paying them 2-3 times what their price to insure ME as the driver is, and i've been paying it for almost 20 years.
I use USAA. Not only is it cheap, but you can turn the insurance on and off with the click of a button and this saves you money. If I look at the weather and decide to drive particular vehicle to work the next day, I turn it on and go.
I have USAA too, and that is one of the two main reasons I keep them. The other is their reputation among body shops for being willing to fork over money without a lot of back and forth if my cars ever end up needing fixed.
Unfortunately they did add a minor cost to constantly switching them on and off the policy. A year or two ago they started charging a $1 fee the first time you switch a vehicle in a month. And $2 the 2nd, time, $3 the 3rd time, etc So if you WERE to make like 7 changes in a month, it would cost you $28 extra over the next month. It's bothersome, but they must know it's still better than a lot of the alternatives, so i'm paying it. I usually only make 2-3 changes per month.
I usually keep 3 cars on my policy at a time. Depending on which 3 cars that is, one of them may have full coverage. I try not to have more than one car with full coverage on my policy at a time, as it gets expensive. Limiting myself to paying for 3 means i do a lot of swapping out vehicles. As a mechanic i drive tons of other people's cars, but I would say i probably drive around 7 of my cars during a one year period. Some of them sit for years, get driven for a year, and then sit for years again. I just take my ADHD out on cheap cars.
In reply to Vigo (Forum Supporter) :
Easy to deal with in a claim is important. We had the spare stolen from under the 4Runner. Just cut the cable and took the full size alloy spare. State Farm kept wanting to reinspect what was nearly the most cut and dry claim possible. Reinspect for tpms replacement. Reinspect for carrier assembly. They planned to pay for wheel and tire, and every other screw or bolt would occur over their dead body.
Call an independent insurance broker. First, they work for you if there's a problem and not for the insurance company. Second, they will have access to companies you've never heard of because they don't shell out for Super Bowl ads. They'll also do the legwork to find you the best deal. The savings are far more than the cost of the small commission.
I do go directly to Hagerty for the classics.
In reply to stuart in mn :
In BC they could have fleet insurance, it saves money but the whole fleet is effected by a claim.
I have a classic policy on everything that isn't a daily driver, including the 350Z and my Isuzu Trooper. A car doesn't have to be old to qualify for a specialty policy.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Good advice for using an independent broker. I've done that for decades.
I'm going to try some other companies to see if I can get coverage for the non-garaged vehicles.
I don't own a car (even my two cars from the 60s) that isn't designed to be driven daily, so I just keep State Farm on mine.
Maybe it's PA, but classic car insurance here basically only covers car shows and weekend drives. If you have a claim at your workplace or the grocery store, it's not covered and you get dropped.
I want to take my 67 LeMans convertible to work, or drive it cross country, or to Home Depot to pick up some screws. I don't want to wipe it down with a soft cloth and store it in a bubble. All of my cars are driven and used as... well, cars. When I contacted Hagerty and other classic car insurers, they basically said I was allowed to drive it back and forth between car shows. Not for me, man.
stuart in mn said:Matt B (fs) said:but why I have to pay full price on liability/property/collision for every vehicle when I can't clone myself and drive them all simultaneously is absurd.
They don't for sure that only one of your cars is on the road at a time - as far as the insurance company is concerned, you could be letting someone else drive one of your cars. I don't think there's any way around it.
I have wondered what museums or people with large collections do, although some of them may be in such a high income bracket that the cost of insurance isn't a concern.
You mean to tell me the insurance industry doesn't cater to my personal opinion of how-things-should-be? 
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