Hot car? Insurance will burn
Look no further for something to blame for high auto insurance payments.
You’ll find one of them staring back at you from any mirror. You’ll find the other sitting in your driveway.
Even good drivers with good records can go directly to high-premium purgatory if they buy a car with a bad reputation. Or a lot of horsepower. Or even high repair bills.
And if you happen to buy something that tends to make car thieves drool, get ready to pay.
As fair-weather car shopping season gets under way, it pays to remember the costs that go far beyond the sticker price, and to factor in the actuarial impacts of that supercharged dream machine.
This year, Insure.com’s annual ranking of average car premiums predictably found a lot of muscle and high-priced metal at the upper end, and a slew of vans, wagons and utility vehicles at the low end. That Porsche 911 Carrera GT2 — get ready to shell out about $2,300 a year in Delaware, still well under the national average of $2,900 a year for a GT2.
Drive away in a two-wheel-drive Mazda Tribute I, and it’ll be just $1,131 in Delaware.
The average U.S. driver pays about $850 a year, Insurance.com says.
The study based its average on a single 40-year-old male driver who commutes 12 miles to work, with a good driving record. Policy limits were set at $100,000 for injury liability for one person, $300,000 for all injuries and $50,000 for property damage in an accident. The deductible on collision and comprehensive coverage was $500.
Within vehicle categories, the insurance bargains were the Dodge Caliber (passenger car); the GMC Canyon WT (pickup); and the Honda Odyssey LX (minivan).
Of course, location can have a big impact on those rates, depending on each state’s court system and even its judges. The survey found that Louisiana has the highest average rates in the nation, followed by Michigan. Maine has some of the lowest rates.
Delaware ranked about in the middle of the pack — 27th — with an average premium of $1,405.80.
Louisiana’s rates are so high, the study said, because of the way the courts handle accident lawsuits. Because only suits with claims in excess of $50,000 receive a jury trial, many are settled out of court for close to that amount, leading to pricey accident settlements and high insurance costs. Maine is so low because the rural state’s highways are not crowded, cutting back on crashes.
Just as with the other costs of owning a car, insurance premiums in general have been rising. A study this year by the American Automobile Association found that the average cost
Source: The News Journal