Petition calls on SGI to reverse classic car decision

The late 1980s and early 1990s may not be known for their sexy-looking cars.

But that’s not stopping Saskatoon’s Steven Bondy from fighting for the possibility of designating vehicles from those years as vintage.

“The cars that are nostalgic to me are from the ’80s. The next generation of millenials, their cars will be from the ’90s,” he told 650 CKOM.

Bondy is leading an online petition to get SGI to reconsider a move to cut off antique car designations at models from 1987.

Until this year, the provincial insurer had allowed any vehicle more than 30 years old to be designated as an antique, which allowed owners to purchase  discounted insurance.

The organization said last week the move to restrict eligible model years  was designed to prevent exploitation of the cheaper rates. It noted use of the program had expanded greatly in recent years, with claims from vehicles bearing vintage plates now exceeding the money paid for the policies.

However, Bondy said in an interview Tuesday he doesn’t think a cap on the model year is the right solution.

“They didn’t solve any problems, because the people who have been exploiting the program still are,” he said.

Bondy’s Change.org petition had collected over 1,000 signatures in five days as of time of publication.

It calls on SGI to reverse their rule change, which Bondy said could jeopardize tradition and history.

“A lot of times those vehicles end up being passed down to (the owner’s) kids,” he said.

Bondy said he’d prefer to see  SGI adjust its program to only insure antique vehicles during the summer driving months.

He said such a change would prevent people from plating winter beaters as antiques.

Bondy said a representative from SGI called him to discuss his petition, but there was no indication the company would consider reversing course.

“They never tried to develop a solution,” he said.

Asked why anyone would pine for the boxy chassis of most cars built in the late 1980s, Bondy suggested people may have had the same question about cars from previous decades.

“At one point in time a 1967 Thunderbird was considered a new vehicle to people, and they’d never think of it as vintage. Now it is,” he said.

Bondy said he worried that the cap set at 1987 could eventually exclude the next generation’s classics.

“Time doesn’t stop … I want to preserve history.”