ontario car insurance for modified cars

[99mini]

if you live in ontario, and are thinking about serious mods to your car, you might just want to buy an SRT instead. if you disclose the mods to your car, the insurance companies are cancelling the policy....and if you don't disclose the mods, they can deny coverage in the event of a claim. here's a forum on the subaru board:

http://www.toronto-subaru-club.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=SF;f=25

looks pretty serious. even a 50 year old, top rated driver, had his policy cancelled when he disclosed his miata had an aftermarket supercharger. :dead::dead::dead:

edit: there's a very good discussion here:

http://www.mco.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2603&whichpage=1

if i got the gist, state farm is sending out warnings to its policy holders saying that if you have any undisclosed mods, they can deny coverage (but they're vague about what coverage they're talking about...third party liability (ie a $3M lawsuit cause of a fatal accident) or comprehensive (ie the value of your car if it's stolen).

so they scare people into disclosing their mods, and then they immediatetly cancel the policy.

so if you don't disclose your mods, you won't get replacement value if your car is stolen. if you do disclose your mods, you run the risk of having your policy cancelled.

but the key issue is, if you don't disclose your mods, can the insurance company deny third party liability coverage? don't know, but the quebec govt bulletin quoted in the link says performance upgrades themselves are not a problem:

""While not definitive, QC certainly allows:

- "Augmenter la puissance du moteur." = "Increase the power of the motor."

Other things that are allowed:
- wings
- exhausts (made for roadway use - ie no 'racing' exhausts, so most should be 'okay' in QC)
- changing tires (diameter must remain similar, mentions nothing of width), etc..
- windshield tint, cannot come down more than 15cm from the top of the front windscreen.

But in the list of things that are NOT allowed include :
- cut/heated springs, car being 'too stiff', tires touching any part of the body, etc.
- reducing the capacity of the braking system (eeek!?)
- race tires, or tires that protrude from the bodywork
- tinted headlight covers, etc.
- changing the colour of the headlight/taillights etc to colours that do not conform to the QC Code.
- modification of original seatbelts including anchor points
- modification of the windshield wipers to sweep a smaller area (ie, no race style 1 wiper cars allowed)
- mirror window tint is a no-no.
- tinted windows, must allow at least 70% light pass through.
- remove or deactivate airbags""

the situation might not be as bad as i first thought. no guarantees, but it may be that undisclosed mods affect comprehensive coverage, but not third party liability coverage.


[Edited by 99mini on Mar 24, 2004 7:16 PM]

[canadianshark74]

I got the newsletter from statefarm
Piss on them.

[Edited by canadianshark74 on Mar 25, 2004 5:23 AM]

[J.P.]

When i bought my Mazda 323 GTX, I did not plan on putting it on the road right away. I needed a temporary licence to drive it from Toronto to Kingston, and , of course, I needed proof of insurance to get the 10 day permit. When I called my insurance company (Direct Protect - sp. Neglect? at the time) I made the mistake of telling them that I was just licencing it to drive it to Kingston where I was going to do the work on it. The young hot-shot on the other end of the phone immediately cut me off and said repeatedly "ARE YOU DISCLOSING TO ME THAT YOU ARE MODIFYING THIS CAR?!!!". Each time I tried to explain that this was a relatively rare car that I was buying with the intention of RESTORING it, he would cut me off and ask me the same question as if I would change my story. Long story short, by the time I got finished with his supervisor I think he was either fired or sent back to the mail room where he belonged.

We changed to RBC insurance, and although I have not bought additional coverage, I was told that I could have the car appraised and buy additional insurance for any "street legal" additions. How they define "street legal" is the tricky part! The list form Quebec looks pretty reasonable though.

- JP.

[Edited by J.P. on Mar 25, 2004 8:22 AM]

[Jed118]

Yeah im not telling them SHIT about the 4G63T...