Insurance with a Supercharger

[NewTekBuzz]

my wife works in insurance and told me I better check with our insurance company to see if adding a Supercharger voids policy. We don’t have insurance through where she works.
Sure enough, they won’t cover the vehicle if one is added.
What has everyone done, as far as insurance, after adding a SC?

T.I.A.

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[HoosierDaddy]

my wife works in insurance and told me I better check with our insurance company to see if adding a Supercharger voids policy. We don’t have insurance through where she works.
Sure enough, they won’t cover the vehicle if one is added.
What has everyone done, as far as insurance, after adding a SC?

T.I.A.

It's perfectly reasonable for an insurance company to expect higher premiums for a car with more power. But I suspect there are some companies that either don't protect themselves by wording in the policy or who let the insured pay extra for the increased risks.

There are lots of supercharged cars in these forums and there are a fair number of accidents reported. I would expect to hear if members were getting denied coverage because of their supercharger which makes me think there are insurers who don't forbid it or who just raise premiums to cover that.

In your case did they say which coverage gets cancelled? If its liability it would be crazy to drive without. If its just that the supercharger itself isn't covered in comprehensive if you wreck the car, that's not a very big risk. Of course if someone else hits you and is at fault, they have to pay damages regardless of what's been done to the car. If you run a supercharger or cut crystal fenders they are on the hook.

 

[NewTekBuzz]

Here is the response.
“if you add the supercharger to the policy that it makes the vehicle ineligible under their auto program.”
Sounds to me like the car is not covered at all....

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Here is the response.
“if you add the supercharger to the policy that it makes the vehicle ineligible under their auto program.”
Sounds to me like the car is not covered at all....

Hope its not hard to find an insurer that doesn't do that. And hope its not a trend that spreads to all insurers.

 

[PoppinJ]

Wow. Never heard of this. Kinda stupid though. What about a turbo. You telling me its ok for them to all come from the factory that way but not if you add it after the fact. All these 2.0 liter turbos are to dangerous to insure. Get out of here.

 

[NewTekBuzz]

yeah, good times! we'll see how bad the cost goes up.
i have also found this other link that i need to go through
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/insurance-quote-for-a-supercharger.90365/

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Wow. Never heard of this. Kinda stupid though. What about a turbo. You telling me its ok for them to all come from the factory that way but not if you add it after the fact. All these 2.0 liter turbos are to dangerous to insure. Get out of here.

Putting on insurance company hat......

There is no question that more horsepower means higher speeds and faster acceleration and therefor more likely to cause an accident and increase the severity of accidents. Speed potential is factored into the premiums for cars, so premiums will be a higher percent of purchase price for a car with high horsepower whether from FI, more cubic inches, etc. compared to the same model car with a much lower HP engine. More speed capability means higher collision and comprehensive premiums.

In addition to increased risks from HP alone, added HP means the original brakes will not be adequate in the most extreme situations they were engineered for with the factory power levels.

There are other factors from adding power that will or might increase claims.

So its perfectly reasonable for an insurer to charge more for cars with power adders. Or they might not feel its worth messing with cars with power adders. Not hard to get statistics for factory cars where there are thousands identical ones running around. Every add-on job could be unique in its risk factor.

And since there are such a low percent of cars with power adders, big insurance companies might decide its not worth the effort trying to set appropriate premiums or over-complicate setting up new policies or the bad press and fighting with customers who "misunderstood" or otherwise failed to tell the insurer. So they may not care until they notice significant losses due to power adders that were not offset by higher premiums.

 

[NewTekBuzz]

Putting on insurance company hat......

There is no question that more horsepower means higher speeds and faster acceleration and therefor more likely to cause an accident and increase the severity of accidents. Speed potential is factored into the premiums for cars, so premiums will be a higher percent of purchase price for a car with high horsepower whether from FI, more cubic inches, etc. compared to the same model car with a much lower HP engine. More speed capability means higher collision and comprehensive premiums.

In addition to increased risks from HP alone, added HP means the original brakes will not be adequate in the most extreme situations they were engineered for with the factory power levels.

There are other factors from adding power that will or might increase claims.

So its perfectly reasonable for an insurer to charge more for cars with power adders. Or they might not feel its worth messing with cars with power adders. Not hard to get statistics for factory cars where there are thousands identical ones running around. Every add-on job could be unique in its risk factor.

And since there are such a low percent of cars with power adders, big insurance companies might decide its not worth the effort trying to set appropriate premiums or over-complicate setting up new policies or the bad press and fighting with customers who "misunderstood" or otherwise failed to tell the insurer. So they may not care until they notice significant losses due to power adders that were not offset by higher premiums.

yep, I understand all of that. I wouldnt have even thought about checking with the ins. company if my wife didnt work for one. just makes me wonder how many people are driving around with extreme power adders and do not have them list on their policy. its a possibility that your claim could be denied if something were to happen?
Thanks for all the info HoosierDaddy!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

yep, I understand all of that. I wouldnt have even thought about checking with the ins. company if my wife didnt work for one. just makes me wonder how many people are driving around with extreme power adders and do not have them list on their policy. its a possibility that your claim could be denied if something were to happen?
Thanks for all the info HoosierDaddy!

Scares me to think about it. If I was (and if I become) supercharged, I would check every line of the policy and if I still had doubt would call to ask what paragraph(s) cover that.

 

[TripleB]

Scares me to think about it. If I was (and if I become) supercharged, I would check every line of the policy and if I still had doubt would call to ask what paragraph(s) cover that.

Even if you wrecked... how would any of these insurance monkeys know your stuff is supercharged?

 

[205.0]

Scares me to think about it. If I was (and if I become) supercharged, I would check every line of the policy and if I still had doubt would call to ask what paragraph(s) cover that.

Do you guys actually tell the insurance about your modifications? As far as I see it, almost half of the production cars today have forced induction, and it really shouldn't matter much. If you wreck it, you probably won't be compensated for the mods, but that's all that happened on mine

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Do you guys actually tell the insurance about your modifications? As far as I see it, almost half of the production cars today have forced induction, and it really shouldn't matter much. If you wreck it, you probably won't be compensated for the mods, but that's all that happened on mine

Not that simple. The factory cars with FI or any source for high power have premiums that reflect that. More power regardless of factory or aftermarket means more accidents. Mismatched power of aftermarket vs factory suspension/brakes/etc means more accidents. If an insurance company thinks there are so few aftermarket that they don't care, count the blessings. But nobody should be surprised if any company wants higher premiums or decides they don't want to insure them. Free enterprise means someone will insure them, hopefully for a decent premium.

As to telling the insurance of your mods, all that matters is what the policy says. If there is fine print that says FI voids coverage it won't be fun when you have a claim.

 

[205.0]

Not that simple. The factory cars with FI or any source for high power have premiums that reflect that. More power regardless of factory or aftermarket means more accidents. Mismatched power of aftermarket vs factory suspension/brakes/etc means more accidents. If an insurance company thinks there are so few aftermarket that they don't care, count the blessings. But nobody should be surprised if any company wants higher premiums or decides they don't want to insure them. Free enterprise means someone will insure them, hopefully for a decent premium.

As to telling the insurance of your mods, all that matters is what the policy says. If there is fine print that says FI voids coverage it won't be fun when you have a claim.

Nobody really seemed to notice on the last car that was totaled, but I guess some could catch it.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Even if you wrecked... how would any of these insurance monkeys know your stuff is supercharged?

Better to ask the monkeys that question. Its not like a supercharger or turbo is invisible. If a policy says FI voids the coverage, they will want the post-wreck monkeys to take a few seconds to look. Maybe the monkey will; maybe they won't. Not sure the point of paying for insurance if you may lose everything you own because you were sure they wouldn't notice.

If the policy doesn't say mods voids the policy, who cares if they notice?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Nobody really seemed to notice on the last car that was totaled, but I guess some could catch it.

OR maybe they did notice but the policy didn't forbid it.

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