I am 15 (so I dont have a car yet) but I will get my dad's 97 Max when I turn 16 in August. If I put a few mods on it like an intake and other small things like that will my insurance go up much? I know it will be extremely high already since I will be a 16 year old male. About how much would that make it go up? Any experience with that?
WaarrEagle

 

ok my insurance cost 1000 a year for full coverage this is what my dad did put it under his name. keep all your recipts for your mods so if car gets jacked u can get your $$ back. dont get any tickets cause the insurance company will find out your driving. for me it would be 3000 a year if under my name what bs. if under your name and adding performance parts omg rate will go up i would think try convince parent to put under their name and give them 80 bux a month tht wht i do and every 1 is happy=] o yea congrats on car glad to see people my age here.

 

Thanks for your help. Do I even have to notify them if I do anything to it? Someone told me that when you first apply for insurance they ask all kinds of questions about whether your truck is jacked up or if you car has been modded.

 

no, do NOT tell the insurance company about mods... trust me, the rate hike is gonna end up costing you a lot more than replacing the mod if your car got stolen or hit or something.

Your ins company might have a stereo protection program and if you have a $2000+ system that might be helpful but as for intake/ypipe - don't even bother.

chris

 

about the replacement to small mods not equalling what insurance might cost you. Plus, the ins. co.'s shouldn't be asking you about that stuff. They just need the VIN and ask about air bags, ABS, and standard crap like that. Stuff that should all be identifiable through the VIN anyway. If your putting in a butt load of mods, upwards of 5G, then your car probably isn't legal to drive on the road anyway and you should BY NO MEANS tell your ins. co. about that.

 

you can mod the hell out of your car and not have the insurance go up, but if you insure those mods in case you smash the car to pieces in order to get some money invested back (like stereo equipment) they might put the car in another class higher up. it really not worth it, unless you have like $4000 of highfi stuff in your ride..

 

As much as I hate paying it every month, I'm glad to have it. Not to long ago, I woke up to a large elm laying on the back half of my car. There had been a large storm come through during the night and the wind blew it over. I was sick to say the least. But, after about a week and $6500 in body work, I was back in my ride. Even replaced the $1500 worth of stereo equipment in the trunk that got rained on. The adjuster was *****in' about the stereo though. Said they should "require an extra policy for all that crap".

 

Technically speaking, if you completely read your policy,
you will note a section addressing this topic. Modifications
to appearance and performance will raise your insurance
premiums just as adding an alarm, ABS, and air bags will
lower the premiums. If you do not report the mods to your
agent, you could run the risk of losing your insurance,
but this is an EXTREME case. Most companies/agents will
not dwell on the topic, but there have been cases where
no insurance was paid because the mods were not reported.

Now, most of the mods discussed in the forum do not need
to be reported because they do not change the class of your
vehicle from the class it is currently in.

I was surprised to find out that cosmetic changes are
(wings, grilles, body kits) cause the highest rate
increases (I guess from the theft risk...). Most agents
are pretty good if you just ask them about things like
rims, intakes, etc. The supercharger, however, does change
the class of the automobile...

I have NOT reported any of my mods to my agent, but I have
discussed general cases with him to know it is not
necessary for my mods. However, if I were to have a wreck,
I would have to pay for all of the mods AGAIN out of my
pocket, as my policy is an original condition policy.

BB