Value of motorcycle for insurance: sale vs regular price

83Virago

83Virago

Active member
When an insurance company asks for the value of a motorcycle and you purchased it on sale, do you tell them the regular price or the sale price you paid?

Thanks.
 
Tell them the amount you want to get paid out if the motorcycle is declared totalled.

If you buy a $20,000 bike and tell them it's worth $5,000, that's what they will give you if they write the bike off.

My insurance company pushed back on my declared value saying it was too high based on MSRP. I had to send them my bill of sale showing all the add-on parts and only then did they acquiese.
 
Ask your insurer to clarify and what that means to a potential payout, because each one may handle it differently. Some companies ask what you PAID, others ask you for the VALUE. Very different answers, especially if you bought a project to fix up. One of my cars is insured with Hagerty, and is insured for stated value, so it doesn't matter what I paid or what fair market value is at the time of a claim, that's the amount I'll get paid on a total loss. I'm responsible for tracking and updating that value as it goes up.
 
Declared value is how all car insurance should work, but because it makes it harder for them to play the shell game that defines actual coverage vs sales claims, insurance companies hate it.
 
My general rule of thumb is: its okay to cheat on declared value when paying taxes (I think it's absolutely criminal that the government charges sales tax every time a vehicle changes hands), but don't cheat when dealing with the insurance companies. Don't give the fockers any reason to short-change you when it comes time to make a claim.

IMO, too many people focus on the wrong thing when asking about the "best" insurance company.

To me, the best insurance company isn't one with the lowest premiums, it's the one that processes your claim with the least amount of push-back or hassle. Those two things aren't the same, and in most cases are actually mutually exclusive....
 
Yeah but how do you figure that out, which insurance company will do the payout, as we all have hear the horror stories of delay, delay, delay meanwhile you rack up expenses and wasted time.
 
sburns said:
Yeah but how do you figure that out, which insurance company will do the payout, as we all have hear the horror stories of delay, delay, delay meanwhile you rack up expenses and wasted time.
Click to expand...

J.D. Powers and Consumer Reports rank insurance companies based on the results of their customer satisfaction surveys.

Part of the ranking is the price of premiums, so you have to dive in and look specifically at customer sat marks for claims payout. Different rankings for each province too.
 
Great info and tips, thanks everyone!

Yes, I was debating between "how much did I spend on the bike" vs "how much would it cost to buy another one if totalled," I guess, while also trying to keep payments down. I ended up going with the first approach.
 
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