Insurance Question.....

There was an article I was just reading recently about how the higher cost to insure the new cars has to do a lot with all the new safety features installed -- that even though they should technically lead to safer driving (and thus less accidents/claims), they also cost a lot to replace if damaged or the car is stolen, and instead of lowering insurance prices, the safety features are (at least for now) one of the major factors in the insurance being more expensive than on cars without them. Still, you could argue it's better to spend a couple extra dollars and be alive.

 

Ironic...isn't it?

 

It's all money driven.

Every time dot.gov or the marketplace mandates a new gizmo be added to the already dizzying array of standard new car features, it bloats out the price juuuuuuuust a little more.
New car prices are outstripping inflation, as are health care costs - a key component of automotive liability costs.

There's also school of thought that suggests that we've reached a point of diminishing or even negative returns on automotive safety gizzywhoppers.
Real-world data suggest that driving SHOULD be much more safe than it currently is, but that the already distracted driver is being further and further removed from the driving task by the entangling safety net of 'features.' which can and do fail.

All of this will probably be solved eventually when cars become self-driving at a level of competency that surpasses the human (NOT a heavy flit!) but that will add further to the cost of a machine that you're still going to have to protect against fire, famine, flooding, pestilence, and civil unrest, locusts, darkness, water truing to blood, etc....

You're gonna have to PAY for that to keep Flo the Insurance Lady supplied with bright red lipstick!

 

I think the diminishing returns are also due to the lack of usability designed into newer, especially touch screen interfaces. Physical buttons with raised identifiers can be used without looking at them. You cannot easily do that with a whiz-bang touch screen.

 

That "Name Your Price" tool is not going to pay for itself.

 

I agree with you very much -- but -- doing it the whiz bang sort of way makes it easier to have more controls available, real estate on the dash becomes irrelevant, so there is some benefit to it. They could however make it much easier to use than what we typically see.

 

Here's something unexpected: for some reason, the Prius Prime... is cheaper to insure than my older car.. by quite a bit.

I don't know if it's a mistake or not, but I was quoted the same rate TWICE by my insurance broker -- once before getting the Prime, and once I sold my old car and actually bought the Prime. I'll wait until the official bill arrives, but... if it's not a mistake, the Prime is WAY cheaper than an almost-12-year-old car, which makes no sense.

The old car it was replacing: a Honda Civic Hybrid, almost 12 years old.
Everything being the same (same driver, amount of miles driven, no "multi-car discounts" because I got rid of the old car and simply replaced it with the Prime)... I was expecting the Prime to be more.
Instead, as a brand new car, the Prime was over $100 less every 6 months.
I know it has safety features... yet as I posted a few posts back, I remember reading an article stating that the safety features were generally causing insurance rates to go UP not Down (because they're costly to replace if stolen).

Again, I'll wait until the bill comes.. it could be a mistake.. but the agent twice quoted (before I bought the car, and then after I bought it, gave the same numbers) lower rate with the Prime.

Is this an unexpected bonus with the car? (It's not that my old car was expensive -- it was about the same price as other family members with similar cars -- it's that the Prime price was really cheap!) I gave the VIN and everything, so there's no mistake of what I bought. Hm. How has it been with others? Especially if you've kept the number of cars you have the same, and just replaced an older car with the Prime?

 

What insurance company? Inquiring minds want to know.
My Gen 4 Prius is higher than my 2008 Corolla or 2000 Tundra.

 

You'd think that, liability being the biggest cost, it would far more than break even...


iPhone ? Pro

 

It is a good idea every few years to shop all your policies. I bundle all the family policies' declaration sheets and ask an agent or company to price the whole package (homeowners, earthquake, cars, motorcycle, rental house, umbrella). The difference in cost can be remarkable.

There is no definition of "full coverage." It can be enlightening to talk with different agents about what coverages one should buy for their particular situation.

I ski with a fellow who is a retired attorney who worked for insurance companies. He says he gets his insurance from Amica. I've been satisfied with Safeco. One time I was asking my agent about lower rates, and he moved my policies from Safeco of America to Safeco of Illinois. I saved money, the service remained satisfactory, and he retained a client although he made a bit less.

 

Yeah and just look it over, situations change. I noticed something about very cryptic about RBC on our home insurance, phoned up our agent, and they explained it was due to our having a mortgage. An extra we had to pay, something around $100 yearly. We'd been out of our mortgage for over a decade...

We got some compensation, mostly from the agency, who were actually just recently taking over from the previous bunch. The insurance company (Wawanesa) did next to squat.