Insurance: how much are you paying for your PIP?

allstate tad over 1200 / 6 months
had accident last year feb.

 

Insurance in LA is going to be WAY more than most smaller, less crime and accident ridden, towns.

 

What in the world is mechanical breakdown insurance?

 

Its sometimes described as similar to an extended warranty, but cheaper and with more coverage.

 

Isn't that a waste of money for the first three years?

 

+1...

I'm at around $65.00/mo here in So Cal. I think the premium is normal for a $40,000 car.

 

When I moved from So Cal to SC 10 years ago, my auto premium went UP. I had an Infiniti and Mercedes back then, and now have the Prius and a Chev Avalanche. My insurances are up for renewal for both home and auto so I shopped around. To save the most you typically have to keep home and auto through same company so while my new auto premium will be going up $100/yr, my home premium will go down $1200/yr - for same or better coverage! Can't figure it out - some insurance premiums seem reasonable while others feel like a rip-off.

 

I would strongly recommend upgrading your rental to $50/day. You can't really rent a good car for $25, and your premium will barely increase.

 

Max coverage (so I"m told) in all areas, 500 deductible...$665 for entire year. Safeco (sub. of Liberty Mutual._ )

 

meh i pay the nyc premium (nassau county is pretty close to nyc rate)

 

I don't see any mention of total annual mileage, which figures in the rates. I put between 10k and 15k a year on my PiP, and it costs a little more than double what my Lexus does at 2500k or less. Comparing insurance premiums is a bit of "apples to oranges" due to the way different companies rate pertinent data.
Here's the breakdown with Auto Club of So Calif:
BI $500/500k $240
PD $100k $ 162
Med $5k each person $15
ACV Comp w/ $100 ded $ 50
ACV Collision/$500 ded $ 730
Rental and Mech. Breakdown n/a
Unins Motor/ded waiver 30/60 $ 27
Total before annual premium rebate $1224 (rebate is usually close to $300 including all policies)
Three cars plus H/O and Liability Umbrella Policies, so those discounts affect the total along with a bunch of other discounts. No accidents or citations to affect rates.

 

Note that your garaging location also plays a role. Sometimes significantly so.
Here are my numbers. The car is rated for 2500 miles annually, which apparently is off-the-wall incorrect since I already have over 4k miles on it.
There are three cars on the policy, but the discount only applies to my parents' cars.
We're also getting a $340 discount across the entire policy ($1268) due to my mom's professional affiliation.
Rates are for 6 months.
So, here goes:

BI 50k/100k $79
PD $100k $96
Medical $25k $40
Uninsured/underinsured (imho mandatory in CA) 25k/50k $15 (seriously! $15 every 6 months so that if some donkey gets into an accident with you without insurance, you actually have some sort of coverage! why anyone would decline this…beyond me)
Comp $500d $56
Coll $500d $216
Roadside assistance $5
Rental $50/day $21

Total $527/6 months or $87.83/mo

Oh, and this is with GEICO. Includes New car, anti-theft, 5% hybrid, CA good driver, CA persistency, passive restraint, and GEICO Safe driver discounts. btw, make sure after adding the car that you check the box saying it's a hybrid! I randomly discovered this while perusing my policy…while they had the car correctly set as a Prius (from the VIN), it was NOT designated as a hybrid by default…

 

Used to be that Uninsured Motorist coverage was solely for cost of bodily injuries to occupants of YOUR car. You had to pay the deductible to get your car fixed. Now my policy has a waiver of that deductible for situations where an uninsured motorist causes an accident. Worth having at the low premium they charge, given all the uninsured, unlicensed drivers we have on the roads in California.

 

Too lazy to list all the details, but we have multiple cars and the usual other discounts. My coverages are very similar to the original poster, except my comp ded is set at $250. My 6 month premium with Mercury is $397.00. The biggest piece is my collision ded at $500. The cost for this is $196.00.

 

My insurance for the PiP is roughly a little more than half of OP. But it's not directly comparably. Our coverage is the state allowed limits. Deductibles are as high as possible. There is no rental, mechanical breakdowns or medical coverage. I do have uninsured motorist. We don't need the other things with a fleet of 4 vehicles and everyone has a health plan or no money so it doesn't matter. We do musical cars when one is out of commission.

What I do notice is this:
1. Moving 5 miles from San Jose (big city) to Milpitas (little city) decreased premiums by 5-10%
2. The myth of turning from 24 to 25 years old lowers your insurance by a lot is a myth. My costs went progressively lower every year. My relatives that immigrated had to pay teenager rates when they got here. It's number of years of safe driving that lowers your premium. Depending on the company, it may take up to 15 years of history to qualify for the top tier safe driver discount.
3. My comprehensive and collision premium went down 40% from an 06 civic. My guess is that bad teenage drivers own Civics. Responsible adults drive slow hybrid hatchbacks. I'm paying just a little more for full coverage on my PiP vs liability only on the Civic. Same thing happened when my sister traded in her 03 Camry for a 09 Mazda 5.
4. My anecdotal experience is that people pay on average $100 a month for full coverage car insurance. There are way too many variables for direct comparisons. I'm way below average because I dance with Lady Luck. Which bit me in the nice person last month. I'll make a post about it later when I stop feeling like a sucker. You're above average because you have all the bells and whistles of full coverage. What doesn't make sense is that you paid some $200 less for insurance on your BMW.

 

State allowed limits are usually so low they don't pay enough if you cause damages, and you potentially expose yourself to civil lawsuits, especially in CA. If you don't have assets or money, that's one thing, but if you do, it could be taken away.

 

case in point: my parents were basically unable to even consider looking at buying real estate because coverage limits were tiny on their old insurance and they were waiting to hear whether the other person was going to file a lawsuit. statute of limitations was three years i believe, that's a mighty long time to be held hostage to someone else's actions.
this is why my PD coverage is $100k. if you have the misfortune of running into any car that's not a 10-year-old beater, $5k PD isn't going to get you very far.

 

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and haven't played one on tv. But when I had injuries caused by a teenager who was driving-while-gawking-at-girls, my lawyer said I had one year from the date of the accident to start court proceedings. He filed the preliminary papers as an inducement to get the other party's insurance to settle, which they did. BTW, as mentioned somewhere earlier in this discussion, I had to reimburse my employer-provided medical insurance out of my settlement for most, but not all, of their costs for my treatment.

 

this says two years: Statute of Limitations on a Car Accident Claim in California | eHow.com
it's possible your lawyer was being extra-cautious
the other issue is – even after the suit has been filed – it might not go before the judge for months – so you still have to wait for it to play out.
btw, good point about the medical payments, and one of the reasons why i carry medical insurance even though it seems to duplicate coverage. pretty much all personal medical insurance will deny claims arising out of an accident.