Investment Info

When it comes to paying the premiums vehicle insurance can give you a bunch of unpleasant problems, especially if you have a costly car to insure. And “costly” doesn’t necessarily mean “expensive”. You may ride a cheap car that will cost you hundreds of dollars more to insure than a large SUV. It may seem illogic at first, but you will have to understand the way insurance companies asses risk in order to find the perfect car to lower your insurance costs with.

Insurance companies analyze a set of elements regarding each car make and model before giving you a quote. It’s not that insurance providers have prejudice against certain makes. Each car is analyzed and evaluated by how risky it is to insure. The factors that will influence a car’s insurance rating include: passenger safety; damage and injury scores; theft rates; repair costs. These factors vary significantly between car types and within types as well.

Passenger safety. It’s evident that if a car has low passenger safety it will be costlier to insure. Why? Because the insurance company is more likely to pay for the injuries a passenger will sustain in this car and they want to cover their risks respectively. So before you buy a new or used car, take some time to analyze its crash test scores and if they are low don’t even bother buying it, no matter how cheap it may be. Besides saving your life you will also free yourself from high premiums with such a ride. Read the rest of this entry »

Wherever you look, the news about recalls is headlining with Toyota leading the pack with the highest profile problems. Indeed, the US lawmakers have begun a formal investigation into the problem of the sticking accelerator pedal. This is not a simple issue of a manufacturer with a faulty vehicle. The problem is the US is supposed to have a formal system in place to ensure that only safe vehicles are allowed on the roads. To this end, the Department of Transport established the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as its agent to collect information about traffic accidents. If patterns emerge, the NHTSA is supposed to liaise with the manufacturer to get prompt action to repair the problem. The insurance industry is also supposed to send data to the agency. Because insurers are handling claims on a daily basis, they should be the first to know whether there are design faults causing accidents. Indeed, State Farm is on record as saying it notified the NHTSA of unintended acceleration problems in Toyotas in 2007. If that is confirmed and other insurance companies also sent in reports of the same problem, the lawmakers will want to know why the NHTSA failed to take any action. When Toyota learnt of the problems is also going to be a key issue.

Ignoring the obvious damage to the brand, the other question for all of us is what will happen to the premium rates on the models recalled. There is a simple answer: nothing in the short term. There is also a more complicated answer. The premium rates for any given make and model of vehicle are set by looking at the accident statistics over the years the vehicles have been on the road. These are already set and will not change significantly. The other factors include the cost of replacement parts which will also not change significantly. So, in principle, there is no reason for premium rates to change. Except there are two important left to discuss. The first is good news and bad news. The good news is that premiums are likely to fall. The bad news is that premiums will fall because resale values will fall as the brand is damaged. When you total your vehicle, you get the value at the time of the accident. If the motor trade mark down the resale value, you will get less. If the payout by the insurers falls, the premiums will be reduced to reflect this saving. The second issue affects your liability if you are involved in an accident. You now know of several problems with different makes and models. If your vehicle is called in for modification or repair, go immediately. If you neglect to go and are then involved in an accident because of the problem, you are partially at fault and your payout from the insurance company will be reduced. Your only remedy will be to claim from Toyota itself. This will be expensive and may only recover a part of your losses. Read the rest of this entry »