Insurance options for storing a car relative long term.

Yeah, fire and theft is your best bet. But that rate does seem a bit high. I paid around $20/mo for fire and theft on my car in storage. But your car might be worth a lot more, hence the higher rate.

As for the battery, it will probably die somewhere within a couple of months to a year. It's normal due to the combination of the car drawing power while it's turned off (also normal) and the battery chemistry simply loosing charge as it's not in use.

Since the car is in the garage, I wouldn't worry about the battery freezing. Otherwise, I would bring it inside. So my two suggestions would be:

1) Put it on a battery tender to keep it charged while in storage

2) Just leave the battery in the car (connected), and just give it a full charge the day or week before you want to start driving it again

renhui wrote: ↑
Currently parked in the garage, and have the insurance policy suspended. (with only fire and theft I think, no third party etc. ).

I see that you are in Alberta. If your coverage is actually suspended, you will have the S.E.F. No. 16 SUSPENSION OF COVERAGE ENDORSEMENT. The endorsement states in part: "2.3 We may choose to refund a portion of the premium when you sign this endorsement or when coverage is reinstated." Having inquired on this myself from TD MM, I believe that there are two ways of doing this. If you are suspending coverage for more than 45 days but less than a year, suspension would be the way to go but if it is longer than one year, you should just delete the liability coverage and any other coverage except Comprehensive.

renhui wrote: ↑TD Moleche Monnex

TD Meloche Monnex

renhui wrote: ↑Also it has a brand new battery from Costco, and seems the battery would die after a few days sitting in the garage, is this normal?
I am thinking of disconnecting the negative pole, will that help?

You need one of these:

I'm in the same situation, the rate OP is paying seems kind of high. I just put one of my cars on fire and theft last month (will be parked for 1-2yrs) insured by TD Moleche Monnex also, I'm paying $49 for the whole year. Bonus is I'm still getting the multi-vehicle discount for having another vehicle under the policy.

As for the battery, it shouldn't die after a few days. Definitely need to find what is causing the drain. I have a couple of muscle cars that sometimes sit for 2-3 weeks with no battery tender on them and they start up without an issue.

Except that muscle cars typically don’t have electronic crap parasitically drawing on the battery. Best bet would be to pull the battery out and stick it on a tender (like the picture above) while the car is stored.

You're getting ripped off by TDMM.
I pay $80/year for each of my sumner cars with Coseco.

Unplug the battery.

vkizzle wrote: ↑ You're getting ripped off by TDMM.
I pay $80/year for each of my sumner cars with Coseco.

Not everyone lives in centre of the universe!

peteryorkuca wrote: ↑ Not everyone lives in centre of the universe!

Fire and theft only.
What other ratings would they use?

vkizzle wrote: ↑ Fire and theft only.
What other ratings would they use?

Ops, read your msg wrong. Thought you said u pay $80/m for full coverage and I am sure u pay close that. Lol

Hey OP,

When I park my BMW over the winter I pay approximately $20/month for only comprehensive coverage (fire and theft), additionally I connect a battery tender to my battery to keep it charging. I got mine from princess auto on sale for around $40 I believe and it stops charging once the battery is at an acceptable level and recharges whenever it drops. Another thing you should look into is jacking your vehicle up onto axle stands, this will prevent the tires from flat spotting as it seems you intend on leaving it parked for a while. What kind of vehicle is this?

mrweather wrote: ↑ Except that muscle cars typically don’t have electronic crap parasitically drawing on the battery.

As I said earlier, I'm in the same situation as OP. The vehicle I parked last month is only 6 years old and still has the original battery. I went to turn it over this past weekend after it's been sitting for almost 2 weeks, it started up no problem. My point is a vehicle sitting for a few days with a new battery shouldn't drain completely dead. Something is not right.

Sorry, I should have clarified that my definition of muscle car is late 60’s to early 70’s Detroit iron. They didn’t have computers.

renhui wrote: ↑ Hi Guys, would like your input here.
I am not driving my old car right now but would like to keep it. (had it since brand new). Likely I won't be driving it for the next year or two.
Currently parked in the garage, and have the insurance policy suspended. (with only fire and theft I think, no third party etc. ). I think I am still paying 40-50 a month for this. I have the newer car insured by the same company (TD Moleche Monnex) and getting the bundle discount (together with home insurance).
Is this the best way to deal with it?
The car is 10 years old with 16k km on it.

Also it has a brand new battery from Costco, and seems the battery would die after a few days sitting in the garage, is this normal?
I am thinking of disconnecting the negative pole, will that help?

Thanks.

Sounds expensive for fire and theft, I was paying like $10-15 when I stored my car last year over the winter.

Thanks for all the replies, guys, really appreciate that.
The car is nothing fancy (2009 sonata, bought brand new), like the car a lot plus not worth much to sell, so I decided to keep it.
Turns out I have the suspension of policy instead of Comprehensive only(fire+theft) which is what I wanted and would cost significantly less (less than 10 dollar/month).

About the battery, I jumped started it and disconnect the positive and negative. will see if that helps.

Beamerguy28 wrote: ↑ Hey OP,

When I park my BMW over the winter I pay approximately $20/month for only comprehensive coverage (fire and theft), additionally I connect a battery tender to my battery to keep it charging. I got mine from princess auto on sale for around $40 I believe and it stops charging once the battery is at an acceptable level and recharges whenever it drops. Another thing you should look into is jacking your vehicle up onto axle stands, this will prevent the tires from flat spotting as it seems you intend on leaving it parked for a while. What kind of vehicle is this?

There is no need to jack up the car to prevent flat spotting, in fact that’s a bad idea for the suspension as it was never designed to be left dangling in the air. All you have to do is inflate the tires to max PSI. I’ve been doing this for years with a M3 and now a GT3 and zero issues on high performance tires.

EP32k2 wrote: ↑ There is no need to jack up the car to prevent flat spotting, in fact that’s a bad idea for the suspension as it was never designed to be left dangling in the air. All you have to do is inflate the tires to max PSI. I’ve been doing this for years with a M3 and now a GT3 and zero issues on high performance tires.

I had no idea, mechanics and service advisors always told me it’s best to jack it up. I’ll definitely try that though next winter, thanks for the advice! That GT3 must be phenomenal.

Beamerguy28 wrote: ↑ I had no idea, mechanics and service advisors always told me it’s best to jack it up. I’ll definitely try that though next winter, thanks for the advice! That GT3 must be phenomenal.

Just look at all the major car collectors and none of them jack up their cars when not driven and also modern tires are not prone to flat spotting, but inflating to max is a good precaution. Thanks the GT3 has been an absolute dream to own.

Beamerguy28 wrote: ↑ I had no idea, mechanics and service advisors always told me it’s best to jack it up. I’ll definitely try that though next winter, thanks for the advice! That GT3 must be phenomenal.

X2 to what EP32k2 said. I always air up the tires too, plus I place 1.5"-2" thick pieces of styrofoam under the tires for a cushion. No issues, been doing this for years.

EP32k2 wrote: ↑ All you have to do is inflate the tires to max PSI.

Yep!

I've been doing this for 9 winters now with my summer car, no issues!