It’s been forever since I’ve been on the site. I have a ‘93 Delica Super Exceed, and while it’s my primary vehicle, I spend most of my time driving city busses in my home town, and it barely gets used.
I’ve owned this van for almost 11 years now. The person I bought it from, Craig Pollock from Bonsai Rides in London Ontario, initially hooked me up with the insurance. This guy is rock solid!! When I started with this company, they had a guy who wrote all the RHD policies. But a little over a year later, I learned that they fired this guy, and are no longer insuring any new RHD Customers.
So I just played it cool. I decided that I would go out of my way not to speak to anyone at this company, and I would quietly pay my bill online every year, and never ever make a claim. Well this worked for almost 9 years. But last year the van turned 30, and I’m guessing it raised a red flag on their computers, and I got a call. The underwriters wanted to know what they were insuring, and requested 4 photos of each corner of the vehicle. Yikes
. So I took 4 photos deliberately not showing the orientation of the steering wheel. Well this bought me another 2 weeks until another call came in. Now they want to know, is this in fact a RHD vehicle. The jig was up, and I finally had to confess to what they were insuring. I have to laugh at how long I went going under the radar, but now I’m in a pickle. They said I will no longer be covered after September of this year as they simply no longer insure RHD vehicles anymore. My drivers record is flawless, I have never made a single claim with this company, and I currently have a commercial bus license. Heck, I even have another van ( an 84 Westfalia) insured with this company starting this past spring.
But none of this seems to matter. So now I’m working with a new company to see what they can do. Right now it’s down to 2 underwriters, The Nordic Company of Canada, and Aviva. The Nordic Company quoted $2200 for the year, and Aviva wants a current safety certificate and a full professional appraisal before they’ll even give a quote. This just seems ridiculous to me. I was paying $850 with my current provider, and a female friend of mine is Paying $950 with Nordic for her 98 Delica.
So long story short, can anyone offer any advice on this? I refuse to pay $2K for insurance just on the principle. Those are Facility rates, and I have an absolute perfect commercial driving record. I’m worried that if I can’t find reasonable insurance, I may have to quit the Delica, and I really don’t want to do that. My van is awesome, and I really don’t want to give it up. I see other RHD vehicles in my home town, so what gives?? Who’s everyone else using? I had this new company I’m working with look into insurance for my Volkswagen Camper, and they got an excellent quote from Hagerty’s. But they said Hagerty’s only likes to insure cars that are only driven part of the year, mainly in the summer.
Anyway, any advice is appreciated. This whole thing just seems ridiculous to me. Thank goodness for vodka. And on that note, cheers everyone
. Phil
