Enthusiast Motor Insurance

What is a Vintage Car & Getting Insurance – Enthusiast

No one alive today will have owned a vintage-era car from brand new and very few would remember even riding in a new car built before 1930. That’s the internationally acknowledged cut-off year for a vehicle to be designated ‘Vintage’. Even more exclusive are Veteran models which need to have been built before 1 January […]

Importing a Car From Overseas & Getting Insurance – Enthusiast

One of the loneliest places on Earth is a Customs compound at the far end of a windswept wharf where the Personal Import cars sit in cages like lost dogs awaiting collection by their owners, As a valuer of vehicles that first turned a wheel in disparate parts of the planet I have seen all […]

Insuring Modified Cars & What you need to know – Enthusiast

You can hear it in the voices of car owners whose attempts to complete an on-line quote have been foiled by an ominous message popping onto the screen. Usually it will read something like; ‘Vehicle Does Not Meet Underwriting Requirements, Please Contact Insurer’ and translate into ‘We Don’t Want Your Hot-Rod Here’. If the company […]

Laid Up Car Insurance For Cars That Are Not Roadworthy – Enthusiast

At Enthusiast Insurance it is common to hear from car owners wanting to insure their partially restored vehicle ‘once it’s finished’. Some are quite shocked to learn they can insure practically any vehicle, even dismantled and unpainted, so long as it’s properly stored and protected against storm or malicious damage. Enthusiast’s ‘Laid Up’ cover is […]

Insuring a Hot Rod or Street machine – Enthusiast

What do you do when older brothers or neighbours return from fighting a war in Europe and bring with them a nifty sports machine that makes your hand-me-down Model A look very old and sad? If you lived in late-1940s USA you lowered your Ford as far as the ancient chassis would allow, acquired a […]

Insuring an Imported (Grey Import) Car – Enthusiast

During the 1990s you couldn’t pick up a specialist motor magazine or the classifieds section of your weekend paper without being peppered by advertisements featuring Toyotas, Nissans, Mazdas and other Japanese models with quite unusual names. If you wanted a Gloria, Silvia, Soarer or Starlet somebody with an import quota would sell you one. Imported […]

Tips to Entering Your Car Into a Car Show – Car Insurance From Enthusiast

OK, that’s a bit unkind. Car shows can be enjoyable and build camaraderie. Like State of Origin football though, everyone’s your mate until the whistle blows and an authoritarian voice says; “Step away from your cars please, judging is about to commence.” As a judge of ‘Concours d’Elegance’ cars and ‘Daily Drivers’ for around 20 […]

What is a Muscle Car – Car Insurance From Enthusiast

In Classic Vehicle terms a ‘muscle’ car was most likely built in the United States between 1964 and 1972. It would have been clad in a mid-size or even ‘compact’ body with the biggest V8 engine under its ‘hood’ that its manufacturer could sneak past the regulators. As a hint of what rumbled beneath, most […]