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Insurance costs
New member here posting for the first time. My wife and I are currently looking for our first Prevost and have found a 2007 Liberty Elegant Lady that we are considering making an offer. I was wondering what insurance would cost. Does anybody have a ballpark figure what it would be? I have had a class A CDL for years and have a spotless driving record.
Thanks for any help you could provide. -
23 Replies
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The premium will be influenced by purchase price or appraised value and how it is used.
Contact Miller Agency. They know these coaches and can give you a quick rundown on premiums.
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Jon,
I have Safeco with a stated value and my brother is my agent. The rate has gone way up the last two years and there has been little he could do. After getting our April renewal notice, I had him check for any other options and AIG was the only option for stated value. AIG required all business to be written through them as a package. Progressive would write a policy but it was based off ACV coverage. I hope this helps.
Jim
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That’s a great idea Jon. I know these insurance companies feel they are the king of the hill. But they also know things change and their may be a direct benefit to them on an insurance group plan type thing. I hope a company can be found!
I remember years ago I had a group plan for my employees and a day came that I was sick. And I thought I’ll go to the doctor and use the insurance for the first time. So I went to the doctor and when I got to the get-out-and-go-desk. There was an old Marine nurse with a tattoo on her upper arm that said “Payup or Die”. So I put my group plan card on the desk and she said “It’s no good”. As it turned out, the group insurance plan only works if the entire group gets sick!
Lets not get that kind of insurance Jon.
Harry
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Dito Jim above. Same experience.
Good idea Jon.
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I have done a lot of investigating and gotten a lot of quotes. Unless I missed something here is what I have found.
AIG may have favorable agreed value rates, but you have to qualify to be insured by AIG and they will not write a policy just for the bus. To the best of my knowledge unless your home owner’s insurance is for a house with a minimum value of $90000 you don’t qualify.
Other insurers will write a policy for our coaches, but few if any will do an agreed value, or will limit the policy to $500,000. There might be someone out there that I missed but I would not talk to an underwriter who did not know what a Prevost Conversion was.
From all indications unless an insurer see the bus conversion insurance market as viable the cost for an agreed value policy in excess of $500,000 is going to get a lot worse because there is little or no competition.
I will continue to pursue this, but will accept any and all help I can get from members. Insurance has risen to the point where it is the first or second largest cost of coach ownership.
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Jon,
I went down the same path you are traveling last year. I could not find a reasonable quote for an agreed value policy. I gave up and went with Progressive through Miller Insurance. They have access to a special desk that will write above 500k. We did have a long discussion on the value and that did affect the premium. Which I’ll certainly reference if there is a total loss and a huge disparity in assessed value. I know ACV isn’t optimal but I can’t see paying those crazy rates. Marlene is who we dealt with.
-jeff
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ACV is a double edged sword and the real value of the coach plays into potential concerns.
I think we all can recognize that it doesn’t take much more than some cosmetic damage to run repair costs into 6 figures. Get sideswiped and have damage that extends from bay doors into the paint on the upper portion and you end up with skin replacement and a lot of paint work.
Using that example it means your pristine late 90’s coach with an ACV policy can end up being “totaled” by your insurance company. They think it is worth less than $100,000, and you think it is worth more than the cost of repairs by a generous margin, but by having an ACV policy you gave the insurance company the right to determine its value.
If on the other hand you have the same amount of damage to a newer coach the insurance company has no choice but to pay for the repairs. But if the loss is total then plan on hiring an attorney to fight for a settlement check closer to what you think is the coach value rather than the low ball value the insurance company will calculate.
It is all about a risk versus reward calculation. You are betting when you buy an ACV policy you will not have a total loss or a high dollar claim. The greater value your coach has the more risk you assume. Spend some of the savings in insurance premium to get annual appraisals, document any updates or major work done, and in every way possible try to prove your real market value such as photos, log books, receipts, etc.
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Jon, there is precedent for what you suggest.
USAA was founded as a “mutual insurance” agency where essentially Officers insured each other. Idea was they were a trustworthy, homogeneous group – minimal overhead and negligible fraud. Very low rates and no one making a profit.
20 years ago, a group of ER docs I know got pissed over malpractice rates and started their own insurance company to cover themselves. Decisions on suits and settlements made by actual ER docs who understand their industry.
suggestion: everyone buys “liability only” insurance from existing agencies. Then we buy a secondary Agreed Value policy on the coach from a mutual insurance group formed by Prevost and the major converters.
Just a thought.
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Liam, thanks. I tend to be a little doubtful we all as a group can pull it off “self insuring” which is in essence what a defined group does.
We thought the fuel program would be a home run and our participation is only about 5%. Too many coach owners have their preferred fuel stops and ways they prefer to use to buy fuel. We are very lucky we have a program and if we had a 50% participation weight we would possess a lot of negotiating strength.
The problem we have with insurance is vastly more complex. Owners want to use the agent that insures their house and cars. Owners are OK with ACV. Owners are far more interested in the price of premiums than they are quality of coverage (up until they really need insurance). Combine the probability few will participate with the costs of administering a plan and we likely end up worse than we are.
I am still going to keep investigating, but I’m not sure we have enough members pissed off enough about their premiums to want to make this a serious priority.
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Anyone have opinion on Foremost Ins. ?
I have not had a claim but the agreed to acceptable value and the rate was less
than I was quoted for Progressive thru Miller.
Jim
2025 Marathon H3 / 4th Prevost
21 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel 4x4 -
Insurance is about numbers. If an insurance company quotes 50% less for an ACV versus Agreed Value, it 100% means they count on paying 50% of what you think the coach is worth. The buyer is self-insuring the difference.
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For this discussion lets be sure we stay with the same terms ot avoid confusion.
ACV is actual cash value and what that number is will be determined by the insurance company. If the insured is happy with the value an insurance company has placed on his coach it could be a good deal. If the insured is not happy it becomes a battle.
Agreed value is what the insurance company and the insured agree the coach is worth (usually by a bill of sale or recent appraisal) and in the event of a total loss the insured receives that amount, sometimes adjusted for depreciation.
If other terms are used please define them.
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We all know insurance rates are going to skyrocket. I`ve changed three companies in 5 yrs to keep agreed value. My plan when this gets stupid expensive is to “part time” my policy just like my autos when out of service for several months. The autos, Bus ,etc must be housed at your residence so the umbrella policy/ homeowners covers it.
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Foremost is owned by Farmers Insurance Group. Farmers Insurance group is owned by Zurich. They are a foreign company. Stay away from them and consider using an American owned carrier.
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I have been with Farmers for 35 years with everything we own and have been with Foremost for 11 years with the buses.
Many people on here have been getting their asses handed to them with premiums.
To say that about Foremost is bullshit, people east of the Mississippi don’t know much about em.
Later
bv
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