alternatives to Hagerty Classic Insurance?

["Dean W. Cains" <dwc@domain.elided>]

Hi Group:

I had a rather disheartening conversation yesterday with an underwriter at 
Hagerty Classic Insurance, of course, regarding my 2 Alfa Spider's.  I'm in 
my second year of coverage for my '74 Spider and wanted to add the '87 
(purchased by me in November) to the policy.  Before I bought the '87 I 
called Hagerty and asked about coverage and was initially turned down, on 
the basis of its being newer than an '83, which is their cutoff.  My point 
then was that just about any year Spider is a Spider, and they're almost 
identical cars, except for the obvious intake/exhaust/bumper/trim 
differences.  The agent agreed, and asked me to send pictures of the two 
cars side by side, to support my argument for the underwriter, who would 
then allow the exception.  Long story short, they won't take the '87 
Spider, and made some additional disparaging comments about Spider's in 
general.  In their opinion, Spider's are, and will continue to be, 
depreciating assets, because of the large numbers of them sold here in the 
US (WHAT?).  Now, even my '74 is on their chopping block, and unless my 
daily driver is less than 3 years old, they don't want to cover either of 
my Spider's.  The underwriter said that cars more than 3 years old are 
deemed unreliable as daily drivers (WHAT?), so I might be tempted to use 
one of the Spider's as a backup car to drive to work (I'm a retired, 44 
year old pre-med student).  My daily driver is a mint '94 Volvo 850 Turbo 
with less than 100K; so I'm supposed to replace a $35K -$40K car every 3 
years now?  Don't Volvo's last forever?  That's what the dealer told my 
wife ;>)

Anyway, it seems there are other companies out there that will be more than 
happy to insure both my '74 and '87 as pleasure cars, with premiums ranging 
from $156 - 209/year for the pair.  Has anyone used any of these 
companies:  Great American Classic Collector's, American Collector's, 
Leland West, Grundy, or Parish Heacock?   Please share your experiences 
with the Digest, and I'll need coverage in the next few weeks, so I'll be 
watching, too.

Regards,

Dean
Lutz, FL
'74 & '87 Spiders (losing value as I write this)
'94 Volvo 850 Turbo (6+ years past being reliable daily transportation)
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