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Insurance Trouble in Texas. I need help.

23K views 42 replies 31 participants last post by  Otter 
#1 ·
I am working on my 2016 build. I want to finalize it this week however I cannot find any company that will insure the Ford Transit Wagon as a personal vehicle. I spent about 2 hours on hold today getting transferred from department to department with many companies. I am a school teacher and do not have a LLC. It will be my everyday drive vehicle. Has anyone insured their wagon in Texas as a personal vehicle. Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
We ran into the same problems with insurance and financing. People still think it is strictly a Commercial vehicle. In the end my insurance company USAA did insure it. But USAA is limited to Active/Former Military and their Family.
 
#6 ·
I insured mine with USAA,...no problem. Although they'd like if it had running lights and a security system, which would have lowered my rate a few dollars per month.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Ilovehotshots

You will need to tell the insurance company that this is a passenger van and not a cargo van. In most cases, when you call for a quote, you already have a vehicle that is built and they use the VIN to confirm the vehicle. You may need to see if there is a similar 2015 Transit Wagon and give them that as a VIN for a quote. I have insurance with USAA and they already know about the Ford Transit.

I know in Florida and some other states that the cargo van is considered a commercial vehicle. That is why 2 of my friends in FL ordered the Wagon with the Builder Prep package (which deletes the seats but still have the windows) so they do not have to go through the problems with having a company venue and having it listed as a commercial vehicle.
 
#4 ·
Anyone in California having issues getting insurance for a cargo being used as a personal vehicle?
 
#5 ·
I don't know about Texas -- sounds strange. I lived in California, until 10 years ago. Every pickup, there, is considered a commercial vehicle, and, I never had any trouble getting insurance on mine, with 4 or more companies I had used over the years. I guess it's possible the rates were higher than I would have paid for non-commercial... I don't know.
 
#9 ·
I tried to compare cost between carriers, I called COSTCO and they would not even give me a price for a Transit. NO problem with State Farm.


Epps
 
#10 ·
We were also shocked when we went to pick up the T-150 Wagon from the dealer and were told we could not take if off the lot because the dealer called our current company, 21st Century, and they refused to insure the van...even with the vin showing it is a passenger wagon.


We ended up getting coverage through Progressive, but the cost was tw3ice what I was paying on a 2013 GMC Crew Cab valued at 47K when new! Then when we received the declaration of coverage pages it was listed as a Transit Connect although they had the correct vin. After our nice independent agent contacted Progressive we now have the proper listing on the dec pages along with the correct vin and a bill that is almost exactly twice of what we were paying.


Wish I would have known ahead of time, but the dealer, no fault of theirs had only sold cargo vans. We are going to ask for quotes from every company we can find to see what we can do.
 
#11 ·
The Transit seems to be a mysterious vehicle- I had no trouble adding it to my insurance but when I went to register it the DOT asked me what model Ford it was- when I said Transit they said NO it is a AXG4 or some such gibberish....OK said I.
And now that is what it says on my registration card, hope no cop ever questions why he can't find that on the vehicle!
 
#12 ·
I called my Farmer's insurance agent before I bought my T150 cargo. He told me no problem with personal use T150 cargo, but 250 or 350 we'd have to talk. When I went to purchase I took along California DMV online printouts describing the various classes of vehicles. Vans can be registered as an automobile or a commercial vehicle the former costs $80 a year less.

When I told the dealer salesman I wanted to register it as an automobile he told me I could not. I handed him the two printouts and he took off to see his boss. When he came back he said 'We all learned something new today, thanks. All vans we have sold up to now were registered commercial.'

Greg Hayden
Vista, CA
 
#13 ·
Perhaps someone at FORD would be smart enough to contact insurance companies, state insurance commissioners, and I guess DMVs to inform them that this is just a new version of the Ford E-150 Econoline that no one ever had a problem with? I find it hard to believe that a company as big as Ford wouldn't be able to inform folks.
 
#14 ·
It's not just the E-150, my 15-passenger E-350 Wagon is insured for personal use in Texas. Don't see why a Transit Wagon would be handled any differently, unless one considers that people today follow whatever a computer tells them whether it makes sense or not.
 
#17 ·
How did that happen? No comprehensive? I have USAA and am paying twice that (no tickets, no accidents, etc)

Let me know,...I might have some negotiating to do
 
#19 ·
Thanks for the heads up! Had never thought about any insurance problems. Will have to run the VIN from a close match through The Hartford/AARP insurance company super computer.

Reminded me of my 1st Econoline in NY back in the 70's. You had a choice to register as commercial or private passenger. Small difference in registration fee, don't recall insurance premium being an issue, but commercial plates allowed you to get a generous discount on bridge tolls I had to pay daily.
 
#21 ·
I double checked. $196.03 for six months. My 2016 Subaru Outback Limited is $192. They gave me "Premier Driver" discount and a low annual milage discount on the Transit. I think most of it boils down to I live in semi-rural Oregon and rates are low here. Also carrying $1000 deductible on collision. $50 on comprehensive.
JP
 
#24 ·
I do know that there's a separate section within USAA just for New Mexico,...so a State difference is likely. Think my deductible is lower,...I'll have to check,...but what you quoted may give me some bartering points to use. Thanks.
 
#23 ·
Yeah, I think for most of us older adults with good driving records it's all about location. Where I live there are no hurricanes, large hail, floods, or any real crime to speak of. I remember when I lived in Texas I was shocked at how many hail damaged cars there were. That's got to be hard on rates.
JP
 
#25 ·
Given equally good driving records, I guess it is all about location location and vehicle type. I certainly hear about the terrible rates down in SE FL (Miami) even versus Central FL. I played around with the quote calculator at USAA and I could not get a much better deal than the $393 / 6 months (not including end of year rebate), except by significantly increasing deductables. I do have high 300/500K Liability and $300 deductible. Uninsured motorist is one of the more expensive individual items. Looking at the list of discounts my T250 gets are Annual Mileage Discount, Anti-Lock Brake Discount, Anti-Theft Discount, Multi-car Discount, New Vehicle Discount, Passive Restraint Discount, and Premier Driver Discount. The web page states that, in addition to the vehicle specific discounts, to calculate savings, USAA may consider: Payment History, Multiple USAA Products (such as homeowners), Length of Membership, and Military Service. All this is immaterial if you do not qualify for USAA membership.
 
#26 ·
Owning nine vehicles that I ensure, moving from New Jersey to Texas last year has netted almost enough insurance savings to pay for the additional garages I built to keep them all.

I haven't yet investigated Transit rates and everything is state-specific, even with the same insurer. But even with my present E-350 SD XL cargo van registered in NJ as a commercial vehicle to avoid their ludicrous four-year registration requirement for new vehicles. The Econoline was neither particularly more nor less costly than any of my others, even when designated as my primary driver. I'll be placing a call to Liberty Mutual in the morning - with whom I've insured everything for as long as I can remember.

Considerations in TX I'd like to have answered is whether or not a DRW van automatically requires commercial registration, insurance, and special licensing to operate - which some states do. I'll gladly give up all those headaches and 450 of payload capacity to go with an F4X instead of an S4X SRW HR EL.
 
#30 ·
I just picked up a 2015 Ford Transit Connect XLT, while at the dealership I asked the salesman if I should call my insurance company to switch over my coverage from my Tacoma to the Connect, he said not to worry about, I left the dealership in Austin back to San Antonio. I get up today and go to my insurance agent and give him the VIN and it doesn't even show up in the database. He calls it in and it told they will not cover it cause it's a commercial vehicle, so now I'm stuck with a vehicle that I can't get insurance on. I feel the salesman purposely had me wait to switch over the insurance cause he knew I would run into the problem. What do I do!
 
#31 · (Edited)
Sheesh. Paranoid much?

Dealers may not have engendered stellar reputations for innate forthrightness, but why would you default to presuming the salesperson was out to deliberately mislead you for the sake of a $50 commission rather than your insurance company not expending the resources required to update its systems to split hairs between which versions of what remains a relatively niche model happen to be commercial, or that you may have spoken with an idiot representative?

Unless you now presume yourself to be the only Texan who has ever bought a Connect from any Texas dealer for non-commercial use, why would you go as far as to publicly speculate that you may have been deceived before say contacting a different insurer? I had no trouble ever registering or insuring any Transit, Econoline or Connect as a non-commercial vehicle. In the case of my own insurer, "commercial" is a designation of how I intend to use a vehicle, not what make or model it happens to be. My Shelby Mustang could be a commercial vehicle no less reasonably than I may own my T-350HD for personal, non-commercial use - something at least Liberty Mutual manages quite nicely. A VIN and three or four questions about airbags and lane keeping systems was all I needed to be insured less than five minutes later. And if ever a van that doesn't require a CDL were to qualify for arbitrary commercial designation, it would be the T-350HD.

What your salesman told you was perfectly reasonable. I know of no reputable insurer which doesn't automatically cover any existing customer's new vehicle for a token period from purchase whether or not you've actually added it to your policy - a provision I'm sure more than one state makes mandatory. It's one **** of a lot cheaper than operating live call centers on Saturdays and Sundays or telling prospective clients that they can't drive home their newly paid-for vehicles until Monday. He had no reason to believe differently. And no reason to suspect your particular insurer may consider Connect differently.

Based upon your post, you have absolutely no reason to presume the salesperson was acting in bad faith. It may be that your particular insurer isn't interested in insuring Connect, but that's your responsibility to have resolved long before putting on your car buying hat and heading off to your local Ford store, no less so than if a particular model requires special registration in your state or a CDL.

You may end up changing insurers or carrying a one-off policy with another insurer if you don't want to leave your present insurer and they aren't interested in insuring the same vehicle models you want to own.

None of this has anything to do with the salesperson who quite reasonably should be able to expect customers have investigated and satisfied any ownership requirements before walking into the dealership.
 
#32 ·
I started this post because my insurance carrier (Ameriprize) would not cover the Transit 350 as a personal vehicle. I am also in Texas. I now am with Progressive but Farmers and Statefarm also will insure a Transit. My salesman also said my insures transfers but I did not want to take the chance since I already knew they would not cover me. Other insurance companies also cover the Transit (like Safeco? and Amica? I think) but am not familiar with them and probably even misspelled their names. Good luck.
 
#35 ·
I have Liberty Mutual in TX with no problems on our T350 wagon


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