Call Your Porsche a Farm Vehicle and Save Big on Insurance Costs
Those sneaky, sneaky bastards. Owners of super-expensive cars list them on insurance as farm vehicles, gaining a discount on their premiums as high as 20%.
According to a survey of 80,000 vehicles, owners of Porsche 911s, Mercedes SL550s, and BMW Z4s label their cars alongside John Deeres and Caterpillars for use exclusively on a farm, regardless of their address or any actual agriculture work. About 8%, or 6,382 cars, live in zip codes where farming is practically nonexistent—such as Brooklyn, where a tree may grow but not much else. An Audi A4 classified there as an agricultural implement saves its owner $389 per year.
To be fair, many insurance companies research the owner’s zip codes to survey their sorghum crops, and adjust premiums accordingly. But since there’s no punishment for lying on your insurance quotes, about $150 million in unpaid premiums slides through the dirt. Farm use isn’t easily verified, either: owners can drive a Porsche 911 for years without attaching a spike harrow to the back. The one possible risk is that in case of an accident, the fraudster might get his coverage denied.
And to be fair again, anyone who has filled out an online quote without mentioning a few speeding tickets or fender benders can relate. But for those enterprising folks who know the value of a good deal, they know that their cars will slip through the cracks of the millions of policies out there. After all, those Hummer H2 buyers who classified their trucks as a tax write-off knows how the game works.
[Source: Los Angeles Times]
More by Blake Z. Rong
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Getting a quote or premium through deception may seem clever but those Porsche owners will get a nasty surprise when they have a claim denied for misrepresentation.