car insurance for older car- what do you have?

[sware2cod]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Agree, Florida insurance is insane. Did just the extreme minimum for years and paid too much. 1995 Astrovan conversion here in way rural Alabama, two of us, full coverage and joy, about $600/yr through traveler's.

I am in FL and pay $300/yr for full coverage (incl high liability option) for an old car. My spouse pay close to that for a brand new SUV. GEICO.

Maybe FL is high in certain areas...I am on the Gulf side.

[Gandalara]

IF you have a fully-funded emergency fund (or rainy day fund or whatever you want to call it) ...

Raise your deductible up to the highest allowable.

That's what emergency funds are for

[M3 Mitch]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

I am in FL and pay $300/yr for full coverage (incl high liability option) for an old car. My spouse pay close to that for a brand new SUV. GEICO.

Maybe FL is high in certain areas...I am on the Gulf side.

You have to keep in mind that collision on an older car will not pay out more than blue book value, give or take a few hundred. In general if you have a well-kept older car, and it gets wrecked, "your fault, my fault, or nobody's fault" - you won't get enough money out of insurance to actually buy a similar car.

If you have a good but old car, it can be worthwhile to have an appraisal done, that would help you document the value of the car beyond make, model, year, and miles.

IMHO GEICO is more worthless than most for covering an older car.

[Febtober]

I pay about $1350 a year for full coverage on a 2006 Accord. I checked the blue book value and it says $15,400, although I don't really believe that.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Febtober

I pay about $1350 a year for full coverage on a 2006 Accord. I checked the blue book value and it says $15,400, although I don't really believe that.

Depending on the mileage, it would not really surprise me. I would NOT pay that much personally, but some of those vehicles get stupid money.

==========================

Back to the topic at hand.

We own ONE car and have two company cars. I kept the full coverage on the beater (worth $1,500) at a cost of $125/yr to keep coverage on the rental cars that I frequently rented. No collision/comprehensive insurance, you need to get the coverage.

[Febtober]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Depending on the mileage, it would not really surprise me. I would NOT pay that much personally, but some of those vehicles get stupid money.

Well I certainly wouldn't turn it down if someone wanted to pay that much. I paid $14,900 for it in 2009 with 45k miles on it, so to sell it several years later a profit is a pretty good deal

And I live in New York, so no matter what, insurance is going to be on the high side.

[Woof]

I pay less than 25 per month for an old van, after having added roadside and vandalism recently. Seems like a good deal to me, there's no way I'd be able to afford another vehicle if it were totaled otherwise. I'm in California and use Geico. Don't remember, but I don't think there's much of any deductible on any part of it.

[debtmonger]

Duster1979 is right on the mark. There is no way to answer this one for everybody. Each person is in a different situation.

Anytime you can self insure yourself by having cash in a safe place that would easily cover your loss, then definitely go ahead and save on your insurance premiums. It is a measure between risk vs. reward and can you sleep at night.

Originally Posted by duster1979

Formulae are worthless here. The question you have to ask yourself is, if my car were totaled today, would I be able to replace it without causing myself financial hardship?

If the answer is "no," keep your full coverage.

If the answer is "yes," drop the full coverage and add the premium savings to what you have saved up for a replacement car someday.

To directly answer the question, my commuter car is a 1996 caravan with 158K miles, blue book is around $2200 but here in the real world it would probably sell for half that. I've got liability only.

We carry full coverage with deductibles of $250/$50 on the "family car" (2004 Grand Caravan) because we still owe the bank a little money on it. I've hit 3 deer with it in less than 3 years causing a grand total of over $10K in damage, so the comprehensive side of the policy has certainly paid for itself. That being said, being 8 years old with 180K miles we will probably drop the full coverage when we pay it off in a few months as it will be time to start looking for the replacement anyway.

[StealthRabbit]

I carry ONLY liabilty and medical for uninsured (passengers / other parties)

~$200 / yr w/ 300k/$500k liability (must carry high coverage due to personal umbrella policy)

I add 'rental car coverage' for about ~$6/month (when traveling / renting)

My agent is very nice to avail me the option of insuring only a couple cars, yet calling in with VIN to change to another vehicle (I have 28 cars and several trucks). Nothing worth over $2000, most were bought for under $100.

[leftmyheartintennessee]

2002 chevy venture van 150K miles. Liability, Personal Injury Protection, and Uninsured/underinsured coversge. No deductible, monthly payments are 35.50 mo.
Took me over a year to accumulate enough money to buy this vehicle. Other car was totaled in a major wreck that put me in the hospital for almost 5 months. Neither driver sighted for the accident but couldn't file claim with other parties insurance...they said the accident was my fault... So I got some lost wages from my insurance and nothing else. If I hadn't have had the PIP I would have really been screwed. No vehicle at all.