Have your question or comment appear below!

Insuring an Older Car

The below assumes your car is not a rare, collector, or vintage automobile. You have a beater. Older cars have many redeeming qualities includes those laughs as you drive past. Easier to work on, cheap parts, much lower insurance cost.

Used cars are "deceptively simple, yet elegant" as Danny McBride put it in Land of the Lost. The beauty is in the savings.

With an older, higher mileage, lower value car, don't get optional coverage and raise your deductible. An old car could be totaled by even a minor collision, so consider choosing liability only with a high deductible.

Uninsured coverage can make sense if you are in a bad accident. And it's pretty cheap.

Get medical payments coverage esp. if you don't have health insurance.

You are better off self insuring for theft coverage by keeping your car locked, installing a $5 kill switch and using the club.

Comprehensive coverage pays for repairs when your car is damaged by unexpected entities, such as theft, vandalism, inclement weather, and falling trees. When insuring an older car, paying more for this coverage each month is likely not worth the cost, as upon a claim, the payout will be minor, and only issued when damages exceed about 70% of the value of the deductible.

Collision coverage pays for damages (that are not covered by another driver's liability insurance) when a car is involved in a crash. If a car of low value gets damaged and requires repairs, the insurance agency covering it will usually issue a maximum payout of up to the value of the car, depending on the specifics of the policy, and that is not going to be much

In review or insuring older, used cars:

• Get medical payments coverage or PIP coverage;
• Get uninsured / underinsured motorist; and
• Theft, comprehensive, and collision coverage may not be worth it.

Written by Craig J. Casey

Financial Writer helping people with their insurance problems on the net since 1998.

blog comments powered by Disqus