Car insurance (Rare imported car)

Cptn Pants

Short story: I'm going to be buying a rare import and am wondering what kind of insurance to go with, and if anyone has a company they like I'd be happy to hear about that too. The car itself is not all that valuable to be honest, I'm going to be picking it up for just under $5,000. It's a 1994 Mitsubishi FTO, it's a small sports car that never came out in the states. Basically I don't really plan on driving it to much, maybe a few days a month, and not very far at all. I want to get as much coverage as possible for as little as possible.

Insurance relevant info: I'm 26. I've been in 1 accident that has been reported to insurance but it wasn't my fault. I have 2 points on my license, my fault (I called the cops on myself, yea I'm smart :P) I live in NJ, I have a credit score of 722 (I heard some insurance places use your credit score as a basis of how well you drive). I'm a single male.

That's the baby.

P.S. I haven't bought the car yet because I'm still waiting to hear back from the DMV to see if this car can even be legally driven in the state of New Jersey. I emailed them and they said "more then likely however, we are researching the make and model of the car now to be sure" I should hear back from them in the next week or so, and once I hear back I'm buying the car.

wmelon

I'd suspect that getting that FTO registered is going to be an adventure unless you do it as a kit car and then getting insurance will be difficult. Otherwise, I'd suggest looking at Hagerty and Lloyds of London. They both have reasonable rates for collector's vehicles, though they do put some very strict limitations on what you can do with it.

Noquar

I don't know - he might be able to get it registered as a seasonal or recreational don't you think?

However it gets registered - it probably won't be cheap. You're single? Young, male, and it is a sports car. They are drooling to charge you a premium.

underdonk

I think the obvious answer is that you should let me buy it from you so it is no longer your problem.

Cptn Pants

Well the car is currently registered and driving in cali, also it's already been converted to a left hand drive car so it might be ok. I'm talking with the dmv right now about it. Since the car is already in the national dmv data base they can bring in the info for it and get back to me about it. So like I said I'm not buying it until I have complete assurance that I can drive it lol. Thanks ill try calling that company that's good info.

Centurion

the car

Sporked

The only thing I see being a problem maybe, is that since no dealer/shop will stock any repair parts for it, and since they probably won't be trained to fix it, any repairs to the car could quite easily go over the total cost. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if a regular insurance company would just JUMP on the chance to total out an irregular car like that, just to get it off the ledger.

Your driving record isn't terrible, You shouldn't get raped too hard on liability/PIP, but comprehensive might be more troubel than it's worth unless you can find a shop willing to quote/work on it for normal prices.

Daedalus

If the thing was never released in the US, it wasn't NHTSA collision certified or EPA emissions certified, so if you aren't buying it to put in a museum, make sure you have the NHTSA and EPA paperwork in order or they'll seize and destroy your car. This happened to a bunch of people who paid big money to import the Nissan Skyline GT-R back before Nissan brought over the new one themselves, and the importer didn't jump through the necessary hoops, the buyers all assumed everything was fine, and their cars were seized and destroyed.

Basically it's a giant hassle and you probably shouldn't bother. The US's regulations don't make grey market imports easy like they are in most European countries.

Cptn Pants

Well outside of the states the car is very common, I checked ebay and a lot of the body panels and things are pretty cheep so I don't really mind paying to repair it but your point is well taken. I'm fairly sure the motor is a general mivec v6 out of an eclipse of the same year so that shouldn't be bad to maintain.

Chalkbot

I don't have any knowledge of importing foreign vehicles. I just wanted to say that I drove this car exclusively in Gran Turismo 1 and 2 and it was awesome. You'll have no trouble on hair-pin turns. :P

Cptn Pants

Chalkbot wrote: »

I don't have any knowledge of importing foreign vehicles. I just wanted to say that I drove this car exclusively in Gran Turismo 1 and 2 and it was awesome. You'll have no trouble on hair-pin turns. :P

Lol, that's good to know thanks lol!

But yea, I don't mind doing a little work to get it registered, plus the dealership I'm working with is being really helpful about helping me get it registired and legal so I'm not that worried about it. Worse case senario is that I won't buy it and ill move onto another "dream car".