Why you Shouldn't Skimp on Auto Insurance

By Compuquotes Team on March 27th, 2008

Auto Insurance

It may be tempting to lower your auto insurance payments by getting the least coverage for your cash, but this is a method that can quickly backfire should something happen to your car. In case of an accident, your car will not be covered at all if you are dealing with minimal coverage. This means that while the other driver's car will get repaired or replaced, you are out of luck on your car unless the other driver was at fault.

This is what Debbie learned when she dozed off and drove through a red light during a peak commute hour. She snapped awake just as she was passing the limit line, and managed to dodge two cars before hitting the third as the driver tried to pass through the intersection. The other car was mangled on the driver's side, but ran fine despite the damage and would be repaired or replaced by the insurance company. Debbie's car, however, was as good as totaled. The air bag had deployed, and she was leaking antifreeze and several other fluids from under the crumpled engine compartment despite the low speed at impact.

While no one was injured in the above crash, Debbie was stuck paying for the towing of her mangled car to an impound lot, the impounding itself, and even had to pay the impound lot to dispose of the car before signing the title over to them. The cost of a new car would have been less than the cost to fix her old car, so she cut her losses and moved on. "Paying off the used car I ended up with was hard, especially with no trade in or anything. It was like buying your first car all over again," she told us.

What if I am careful?
Driving carefully is always the best option, however how carefully can you always drive? There will always be some lax moment when you are talking on the phone, half asleep, or otherwise distracted just as traffic stops. If you are lucky, you will do nothing more than bump into another car, and your own repair expenses will be minimal, but it is possible that you could wind up needing some costly repairs for even a relatively low impact collision. This would leave you liable for the same frustratingly high costs as Debbie, with towing and other damages to pay for. In the worst case, you will be signing your car over to a scrap yard before buying a new car with no trade to show for it. You could even be stuck paying your own medical bills.

Auto insurance may seem like an annoyance when you have never been in a collision, however it becomes a blessing should an accident happen. At the very least, repair or replacement costs on your auto insurance are well worth the money spent when you are standing on the side of the road staring at the smoking wreck that used to be your car.

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