What your policy actually pays.

Your build is worth more than the policy will pay for it

Comprehensive and collision commonly cover aftermarket parts to somewhere between $1,000 and $3,000. A dedicated custom parts and equipment endorsement usually tops out near $10,000. Those limits were drawn up for alloy wheels and a stereo.

A $13,000 exhaust pays out $1,000. A carbon aero package at $22,400 clears the endorsement ceiling on its own. The difference isn't a deductible — it is simply uninsured, and you pay it twice: once to build the car, again when the car is destroyed.

Stated value is not agreed value

A stated amount policy settles at the actual cash value or the figure you stated — whichever is less. The lower of the two wins, and which one that is gets decided after the loss, by someone else.

An agreed value policy settles at the figure written into the schedule, agreed before anything happens. A stated amount is a ceiling the insurer may settle beneath. An agreed value is the number itself.

The track is excluded, and it is excluded in writing

Policies increasingly carry the language explicitly: track, high-performance driving event, racing or speed contest, while on a racing surface. A lapping day is not a grey area to be argued afterwards — it is named and removed in advance.

Cover for a track weekend does exist. It is arranged separately, and it is arranged before you load the trailer.

A carbon panel is not repaired

A cracked carbon fender is remade — if it can be remade at all, and often only by the shop that laid it. Book value does not fund a remould. A schedule written at the real cost of fabrication does.

The film is invisible to your policy, too

Full paint protection film runs $5,000 to $10,000 on a car of this kind, and a standard policy generally treats it as an aftermarket addition rather than part of the car — which means it is not covered at all unless someone has deliberately scheduled it.

Declared properly, it behaves the way it should: when a panel is replaced, the film is reapplied as part of the repair, the way paint is. Undeclared, it is simply absent from the schedule — and a full re-wrap after a significant repair is paid out of your own pocket.

How to check your own, in about five minutes

Open your declarations page and the policy booklet, and look for five things by name:

• Custom Parts and Equipment — find the limit, in dollars. If no line appears, assume the default, which is often $1,000.
• Stated Amount or Agreed Value — find which of the two phrases appears. If it reads stated amount, ask your agent in writing what happens when actual cash value comes in lower.
• Racing or Speed Contest — in the exclusions. Read whether it names high-performance driving events and racing surfaces, not just competition.
• Parts of like kind and quality — this is the phrase that lets an insurer specify non-original parts in a repair. Look for whether original-manufacturer parts are guaranteed.
• Your film, by name — search the schedule for paint protection film. If it is not written there, it is not covered, however much it cost.

If all five read the way you'd want, your car is properly covered and you need nothing from us. That happens less often than it should.