The Hindu Business Line : Have vintage cars? Pay more for cover

A priceless vintage car will now come at a much higher premium. The third-party motor insurance premium for a vintage Buick or Cadillac has now zoomed from Rs 700 to Rs 2,500, a jump of 257 per cent.

The Vintage and Classic Car Club of India has now appealed to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India to reconsider the hike.

Cubic capacity

With the free price regime coming into to effect from Monday, the third-party motor insurance premium is based on the cubic capacity of the engine. Most vintage and classic cars such as the current crop of high end vehicles of Chevrolet, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra, Maruti, Mitsubishi, Skoda have engines with cubic capacity exceeding 1,500. Hence, the highest rates are applicable to such heritage cars.

"Vintage and Classic cars earlier enjoyed a discount of 25 per cent on the old tariff. These cars are hardly used and most of them appear only at rallies, which are held once in a year," said Mr Nitin Dossa, Chairman, The Vintage and Classic Car Club of India.

He said that the IRDA Chairman, Mr C.S. Rao, has assured the club that the matter would be looked into.

India currently boasts of around 1,500 to 1,700 vintage and classic cars. Notable owners of heritage cars include Mr Pranlal Bhogilal (250 cars), Mr Sharad Shanghi (around 100 cars) and the UB Group Chairman, Mr Vijay Mallya, (around 50 cars) for whom the insurance premium will jump by a couple of lakhs.

But not all the owners of heritage cars may be able to afford the hike. According to Mr Dossa, there are a number of mechanics that own such cars and for them, the hike could be heavy on the purse.

Heritage cars have been classified based on when they were manufactured. They are divided as pre-war cars (1900-1920), vintage cars (1920-1940), classic cars (1940-1960) and the recent classic cars (post 1960).

"The hike will weigh us down as it will be tough to maintain such cars. It is difficult to secure spare parts (particularly tyres) for such vehicles as they have to be imported, paying a customs duty of 30 per cent," said the owner of a heritage car.

The Government has banned the export of such cars. As encouragement to this rare hobby, it has laid down a flat registration fee of Rs 500 for a heritage car.

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