My current car insurance company doesn't cover this type of vehicle for personal use, so my helpful house insurance agent is looking into it. I was planning to inquire about switching the car to her agency anyway, in March when the current policy runs out. I have not been able to reach the seller by phone yet, but plan to keep trying. I don't think I can get a mechanic to look at it, I don't know any mechanics who travel and don't trust the ones I don't know, (nor the majority of the ones I do know, actually).
I perhaps shouldn't admit this, but last fall I carried 6 16' and 2 12' 2x10 KD joists about 6 miles on the roof rack without incident. I have 3,000 and 10,000# rated straps, and drove cautiously. In years past I carried one of those palletized 275 gallon plastic tanks 7 miles on an Outback roof rack, and also a 12" x20' plastic culvert 35 miles or so. Both of them were light, but too big to go inside the car, and I didn't have a trailer when I bought the tank. I just carried a 30x84 solid oak interior door about 40 miles on the roof, and it didn't move at all. I used a 3,000# strap on that. Even once I'm through with all of this house repair craziness I'll want a roof rack to carry canoes on the occasions when I don't want to pull them with my bicycle, so I wouldn't want to be without one on my daily driver.