srobert910

I went to switch insurance companies and I get to the part to enter my vin. Progressive's system then said that my base car was a Z51 and raised the rate considerably. I called customer service and they said their system was right and that's what they had to go by. Needless to say, I'm not a progressive customer haha. Anyone else run into this before?

l.i. bruce fan

Yes, me too...

alienranch

That is really odd. It either is or is not a Z51. The VIN definitely tells, so I'm not sure how this could be misinterpreted or represented. I wonder how many people are getting ripped off by this.

bruce - was this Progressive for you as well?

crawfish333

Not sure, but I have had Allstate Insurance for 25 years and when I bought my new Corvette (I had a C6 before this one) my insurance went up quite a bit.

I got a quote from "the Lizard" and ended up saving $1350.00 a year. We have 3 cars on the policy. I called my Allstate agent and ask if he could make certain everything thing was correct because it was so high (over 3300 per year.) He told me that since I had just got my car in April, he could not check it on the system yet. That sounded crazy so I just and bought insurance from the Lizard.

I have seen commercials for years about comparing rates, but I had no idea there could be that much difference.

l.i. bruce fan

Yes, Progressive. But I went with them anyway as it was less than any quote I had received, the car was waiting to be picked up and Geico was trying to screw me even harder, raising the premium from their pre-VIN quote by almost 50%.

I plan to revisit this with Progressive, because the car is simply not a Z51

l.i. bruce fan

I wonder if we can get anything definitive from Chevy/GM to help these insurance companies interpret the VINs correctly?

Any suggestions?

srobert910

When I bought my car in April, I was insured with geico and they gave me a great quote. Fast forward to now, and the quote went up 63%. No changes to anything on my policy, residence, credit, etc. I started shopping quotes and the two lowest for me were progressive and esurance. I told the cust service lady the issue, ready to email or fax proof that my car was not a Z51... She could care less, said that their system was right and I was wrong. Lol. Flo is annoying anyways.

FireChicken_n_Vettes

I work for an Insurance co and have an answer for you guys. Im not going to go in depth of boring lingo so Ill just state the fact.

Most insurance company's get our VIN Symbols from a third party like ISO. Its up to that insurance company to refine the VIN symbols that they receive so that each corvette based on options is rated properly. Company's like Progressive are notorious for over pricing rates to people. My advice is to not insure your corvettes with big insurance co's. The other advice I give people is don't believe the hype about saving money by switching on car insurance. its not true....its a marketing lie that isn't regulated by the state insurance departments. You end up with the same rate for everyday cars no matter who you are with because of what you need to add to your policy and because each state tells the insurance company's how to set the rates basically. For higher end performance cars and classic cars that are worth lots of money....its better to get a separate policy from an insurance co. that specializes in that market. Good luck...hope this helped.

Mike

EDIT: Just to hit on the Z51 thing....The symbols for these cars come in higher...if your insurance co. doesn't realize that or doesn't want to, they are going to match that Z51 symbol with a baseline LT1-3 Stingray and give you the higher rate hoping you either don't care or don't realize. Good eye by the way.

Zymurgy

Yes, this:

drs

I switched insurance companies last year and dropped my rates by 53%.

FireChicken_n_Vettes

All of that is great, but insurance companys don't care about that info unfortunately. Like I said, it comes from third party vendors.

FireChicken_n_Vettes

Then unfortunately for you, you have been over paying on stuff you didn't need for years or as I stated, the insurance company you were with didn't focus on having customer based VIN symbols. I know my company takes pride in how we do our VIN Symbols so our customers are not getting ripped off.

crawfish333

Then how do you explain the 1300 dollars a year difference in my policy from Allstate to Geiko? Maybe my agent was making a mistake on my rate, but I gave him an opportunity to check and he would not bother with it. My wife and I had not filed a claim on our car insurance for more than 15 years.

One more thing, my deductabel went down from 1000 to 501.

l.i. bruce fan

Zymurgy:

Could you upload that GM chart in a way that we could download and send to the Insurance Company? And/or is that available on GM's website? I could not find it...

Thanks!

Zymurgy

Here you go:

C7Joy

I don't know why a Z51 justifies a premium jump. But I switched away from the lizard for other reasons. I am saving about $800/yr on my 3-car policy.

B747VET

There are four basic factors to consider when it comes to policies provided by auto insurers, unless one is financially strapped and strictly needs the absolute cheapest legal level of coverage in which case other longer term issues may become less relevant.

First and foremost, what is their proven track record on small claims, large claims, and personal injury claims? In this respect, there are great companies and there are dirt bag companies. Historically, on large claims, Allstate is a company one might wish to have avoided from the outset. Simple claims? Yes, they all do pretty well there. But, on larger more complex claims with significant outlays some companies will fight you tooth and nail and almost never cave in to what might be more routine expectations with the better quality companies.

Second, is the company strictly a stock company or more of a mutual company, such as an interinsurance exchange? In the long run, because of the impact of what amounts to policy dividends, the mutual type companies such as USAA or Auto Club, offer not only the best possibility of the lowest net rates after a few years, but they also tend to be more responsive to policy holders as they are in essence owned by the policyholders. This does not mean that stock insurance companies should be dismissed outright or cannot be price and benefit competitive. Just be aware of the track records.

Third, generally speaking larger companies have greater broad financial stability. In ordinary times this aspect can be less significant. However, in extreme claims situations, such as a major earthquake or unusually heavy claims due to wildfires, the resources of smaller aggressive companies can become stressed which may impact their approach to claims and can result in strategic market withdrawals or modifications which might impact high performance and/or collector cars.

How might wildfire claims impact your auto coverage? If for example you have good discounts for packaging home and auto coverage together, after big fires the company might significantly increase pricing on all homeowner coverages and/or eliminate future coverage of new wood shingle roofs from coverage and price coverage for existing wood shingle home policyholders way above the market. Your car insurance pricing might remain the same but the homeowner coverage component would make the overall cost untenable.

Also in this vein, many of these companies no longer optimize their potential claims exposures by working out reinsurance arrangements for their various portfolio risk segments. That means they make higher profits in good times but face higher potential losses after major calamities.

Fourth, company underwriting departments expertise in specific market segments can vary greatly. The type of business that one insurance companys underwriting department will readily accept and price, another similar companys underwriting department might view very differently. No insurance company can possibly be all things to all consumers. In this vein, specialty companies are sometimes a viable alternative to consider as opposed to coverage packaging with one company.

Don't assume that claims philosophies and pricing are the same from company to company because they simply aren't. You have to be a proactive consumer. This is especially true if you are young, low income, and/or have a very sketchy track record in the area of violations and previous claims.

kp

State farm for the coverage I have:

2016

Regular Stingray: 815/yr

Z51 cpe: 858/yr

Z06 (1LZ coupe): 1001/yr

BlueFinn

I guess some will now be removing their Z51 badging!

B747VET

State Farm is another very high quality company. But, even with the best companies, pricing in various markets will sometimes vary significantly.