The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. Please improve the article or discuss the issue on the talk page. Auto insurance (or car insurance, motor insurance) is insurance consumers can purchase for cars, trucks, and other vehicles. Its primary use is to provide protection against losses incurred as a result of car accidents. An insurance company may declare a vehicle totally destroyed ('totaled' or 'a write-off') if it appears replacement would be cheaper than repair. Contents 1 Coverage levels 2 Public policy 3 Pricing plans 3.1 Factors that Affect Your Car Insurance Rates 4 Uninsured drivers 4.1 Exposure bases 4.1.1 Flat rate 4.1.2 Reasonable estimation 4.1.3 Odometer-based systems 4.1.4 GPS-based system 4.1.5 OBDII-based system 5 Sources 6 External links Coverage levels By buying auto insurance, depending on the type of coverage purchased, the consumer may be protected against: Comprehensive coverage (Comp) - insures against the cost of purchasing a new vehicle if it is stolen or destroyed in a fire Collision coverage(Coll) - insures against the cost of repairing the vehicle following an accident or the cost of purchasing a new vehicle if it is damaged in an accident beyond economic repair Personal Injury Protection (PIP) - insures against the cost of medical expenses and lost wages related to the use, ownership or maintenance of a motor vehicle (mandatory in some U.S. states) Medical Payments (MP) - insures against the cost of medical expenses for bodily injury sustained in an accident beyond any expenses that may be covered by PIP Legal liability claims against the driver or owner of the vehicle following the vehicle causing damage or injury to a third party. Liability insurance covers only the last point, while comprehensive insurance covers all three. Even comprehensive insurance, however, doesn't fully cover the risk associated with buying a new car. Due to the sharp decline in value immediately following purchase, there is generally a period in which the remaining car payments exceed the compensation the insurer will pay for a "totaled" (destroyed, or written-off) vehicle. So-called GAP insurance was established in the early 1980's to provide protection to consumers based upon buying and market trends. The escalating price of cars, extended term auto loans, and the increasing popularity of leasing gave birth to GAP protection. GAP waivers provide protection for consumers when a "gap" exists between the actual value of their vehicle and the amount of money owed to the bank or leasing company. In some countries including New Zealand and Australia market structures mean that people are more likely to buy a nearly new car than a new car so this is less of a problem. In the United States, liability insurance covers claims against the policy holder and generally, any other operator of the insured’s vehicle, provided they do not live at the same address as the policy holder and are not specifically excluded on the policy. In the case of those living at the same address, they must specifically be covered on the policy. Thus it is necessary for example, when a family member comes of driving age they must be added on to the policy. Liability insurance generally does not protect the policy holder if they operate any vehicles other than their own. When you drive a vehicle owned by another party, you are covered under that party’s policy. Non-owners policies may be offered that would cover an insured on any vehicle they drive. This coverage is available only to those who do not own their own vehicle and is sometimes required by the government for drivers who have previously been found at fault in an accident. Generally, liability coverage does extend when you rent a car. However, in most cases only liability applies. Any additional coverage, such as comprehensive policies, i.e. “full coverage” may not apply. Full coverage premiums are based on, among other factors, the value of the insured’s vehicle. This coverage may not apply to rental cars because the insurance company does not want to assume responsibility for a claim greater than the value of the insured’s vehicle, assuming that a rental car may be worth more than the insured’s vehicle. Most rental car companies offer insurance to cover damage to the rental vehicle. These policies may be unnecessary for many customers as credit card companies, such as Visa and Mastercard, now provide supplemental collision damage coverage to rental cars if the transaction is processed using one of their cards. These benefits are restrictive in terms of the types of vehicles covered.[1] In some regions, the costs associated with not having access to the vehicle ("Loss of Use") is also covered. This is usually an optional coverage. Public policy In many countries it is compulsory to purchase auto insurance before driving on public roads. This is to protect third parties against the financial consequences of loss, damage or injury caused by a vehicle. Typically, coverage against loss of or damage to the driver's own vehicle is optional - one notable exception to this is in Saskatchewan, where SGI provides collision coverage (less a $700 deductible) as part of its basic insurance policy. In South Australia Third Party Personal insurance from the State Government Insurance Corporation (SGIC) is included in the license registration fee. Most countries relate insurance to both the car and the driver, however the degree of each varies greatly. Pricing plans Except for government-mandated liability insurance, most car insurance plans charge a premium based on several risk factors that are likely to have an impact on the frequency of occurrence or on the expected cost of future claims. The premium usually depends on the car characteristics, the coverage selected (deductible, limit, covered perils), the usage of the car (commute to work or not, predicted annual distance driven), driving history, credit rating, as well as the age and, for youth rates, sex of the driver. Adult rates are generally unisex. For mandatory liability insurance, in some countries risk factors are taken into account (giving varying prices) and in others a fixed rate is charged regardless of the individual circumstances. Factors that Affect Your Car Insurance Rates When it comes to auto insurance rates, who you are determines what you pay. Automobile insurance premiums are based on a large number of factors, some of which you can control, and some of which, alas, are incontrovertible facts of life. Statistically, a sixteen-year old boy with a 300 horsepower sports car in a big city is far more likely to hit something than a 35 year-old married guy driving a minivan around the suburbs. While you can’t change your age and some other factors, there are things that you can do to keep insurance premiums as low as possible.[2] Uninsured drivers An uninsured driver is a person who chooses not to insure his or her car. Such a person is responsible for any damage he or she causes in an accident and is usually in violation of the law. Exposure bases Flat rate Car insurance plans routinely charge a flat per-car/per-year price regardless of how much the car is used. Since a time unit provides no actual measurement of the actual miles of driving exposure each car consumes during the insured year, insurers have no credible statistical basis for the cost comparisons used to support price classifications. Reasonable estimation As a sales enhancement, many car insurers offer a “low estimated future mileage” discount to customers who predict that the car’s mileage will be below some stated limit during the next premium period. There is no verification involved and no additional charge if the car is subsequently driven more than the stated amount. This arbitrary discount tends to foster customer belief in the mistaken idea that “miles” are just one of many classification factors used to raise or lower prices from the territorial base rate. In fact, odometer miles (which insurers do not use) are not a factor but a metric - the only valid basis for measuring each car’s consumption of insurance protection in on-the-road use. Odometer-based systems Cents Per Mile Now(1986) advocates classified odometer-mile rates. After the company's risk factors have been applied and the customer has accepted the per-mile rate offered, customers buy prepaid miles of insurance protection as needed, like buying gallons of gasoline. Insurance automatically ends when the odometer limit (recorded on the car’s insurance ID card) is reached unless more miles are bought. Customers keep track of miles on their own odometer to know when to buy more. The company does no after-the-fact billing of the customer, and the customer doesn't have to estimate a "future annual mileage" figure for the company to obtain a discount. In the event of a traffic stop, an officer could easily verify that the insurance is current by comparing the figure on the insurance card to that on the odometer. Critics point out the possibility of cheating the system by odometer tampering. Although the newer electronic odometers are difficult to roll back, they can still be defeated by disconnecting the odometer wires and reconnecting them later. However, as the Cents Per Mile Now website points out: "As a practical matter, resetting odometers requires equipment plus expertise that makes stealing insurance risky and uneconomical. For example, in order to steal 20,000 miles of continuous protection while paying for only the 2,000 miles from 35,000 miles to 37,000 miles on the odometer, the resetting would have to be done at least nine times to keep the odometer reading within the narrow 2,000-mile covered range. There are also powerful legal deterrents to this way of stealing insurance protection. Odometers have always served as the measuring device for resale value, rental and leasing charges, warranty limits, mechanical breakdown insurance, and cents-per-mile tax deductions or reimbursements for business or government travel. Odometer tampering—detected during claim processing—voids the insurance and, under decades-old state and federal law, is punishable by heavy fines and jail." Under the cents-per-mile system, rewards for driving less are delivered automatically without need for administratively cumbersome and costly technology. Uniform per-mile exposure measurement for the first time provides the basis for statistically valid rate classes. Insurer premium income automatically keeps pace with increases or decreases in driving activity, cutting back on resulting insurer demand for rate increases and preventing today's windfalls to insurers when decreased driving activity lowers costs but not premiums. GPS-based system In 1998, Progressive Insurance started a pilot program in Texas in which volunteers installed a GPS-based technology called Autograph in exchange for a discount. The device tracked their driving behavior and reported the results via cellular phone to the company[3]. Policyholders were reportedly more upset about having to pay for the expensive device than they were over privacy concerns [4]. In 1996, Progressive filed for and obtained a US patent (US patent 5,797134) on their process. Progressive has also filed corresponding patent applications in Europe and Japan. UK auto insurer, Norwich Union, has obtained an exclusive license to Progressive's European patent application. They have recently completed a successful pilot test of the technology and it is now available commercially under the tradename "Pay As You Drive"(tm). OBDII-based system In 2004, the company launched another pilot program to allow policyholders to earn a discount on their premiums by consenting to use its TripSense device. TripSense connects to a car's OnBoard Diagnostic(OBD-II) port, which exists in all cars built after 1996. The discount is forfeited if the device is disconnected for a significant amount of time[5]. Sources Texas Gives Green Light to Cents-Per-Mile Auto Insurance, Michelle Keller, National Organization for Women. Pay as You Drive Now, Oregon Environmental Council, 2003. Cents Per Mile Now, 2004. Progressive's "pay-as-you-drive" auto insurance poised for wide rollout, Joe Frey, Insure.com, July 18, 2000. Insurance program rewards drivers who drive less and slower, Chris Miller, Aftermarket Business, Sep. 24, 2004. New technology provides detailed info on driving habits, by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio, August 23, 2004. The smartest way to buy auto insurance, by Jeanine Steele Factors that Affect Auto Insurance Rates, 2005 alcohol exclusion laws Photo credit: car-accidents.com. Used with permission. External links Car Insurance Auto Insurance Companies Department of Motor Vehicles Drivers License Guide Auto Insurance Quotesde:Autoversicherung Search Term: "Auto_insurance" Categories: Limited geographic scope | Insurance

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