Classic & Antique Car Insurance in Santa Rosa, CA

CAL FIRE puts the 2017 Tubbs Fire, which started near Calistoga, at 36,807 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties, with 5,636 structures destroyed, 317 damaged and 22 civilian deaths. The Glass Fire, which began on September 27, 2020, burned 67,484 acres and damaged another 282 structures; its unified command included the Santa Rosa Fire Department and the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Fire damage to a parked car is a comprehensive (other-than-collision) claim; liability pays nothing toward your own car. Whether a classic policy follows the car to an evacuation site, a friend’s garage or a storage unit, and how it settles a fire loss, is written into each company’s form — worth asking about before fire season rather than during an evacuation.

The DMV suspends a registration when no proof of insurance is on file, and a suspended car may not be driven or parked on a public road. Before cancelling coverage on a car that is not being driven and is not parked on a California roadway, file an Affidavit of Non-Use; when renewal comes due and the car is still idle, pay the renewal or move it to planned non-operation.

The DMV also says comprehensive or collision coverage does not meet the financial-responsibility requirement. Keeping only fire-and-theft protection on a stored car is therefore a decision about the car, not about the registration — the affidavit is what lets the liability coverage lapse, and liability has to be back in place before the car returns to the street.

BAR treats a car as a collector car only if it is insured as one and is at least 35 model years old, at least 25 with Historical Vehicle plates, or a special-interest vehicle. Gasoline cars from 1975 and earlier need no Smog Check; later collector cars test with a state Referee. Owners of 1980-or-older cars may also run original model-year California plates under Vehicle Code 5004.1.

Senate Bill 1392, signed in September 2026, removes the smog certificate altogether from January 1, 2028 for collector cars built before the 1981 model year once proof of collector insurance is on file with BAR; the cutoff rises one model year each January through 2033.