When my P.Prime finally comes in, I'll be buying it on cash, and as such a curious insurance question came to mind: Should I include collision coverage? I ask from the perspective that: First, I've never in 40 years of driving had an accident of any significance and therefore haven't invoked my Collision coverage (meaning coverage to repair *my* vehicle on accidents that are *my* fault). Second, with all of the P.Prime's ADAS features to prevent accidents - automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, etc., what are the chances of that record changing for the worse? Anybody have any thoughts on that? iPhone ? Pro
Comparing how much the car is and how much collision insurance is, the Premium is a drop in a bucket compared to covering the cost of the car. Also, accidents are accidents. Nobody plans on getting into one, but if you do, it will come in handy. Also, if cost is an issue, you can always have a high deductible. From my experiences, it doesn't take much, on a Prius, to rack up a hefty bill. Prius body repairs are expensive. Doesn't take much to consider them totalled. #1 in Easley,SC
Yeah, so far that's what I've concluded as well: The majority of the cost -- true to the American Dream -- is Liability. iPhone ? Pro
I've never thought twice about it, always get collision and comprehensive. With highish deductibles: $500/$300. Suspect it's worked out "in favour of the house", but hey. And when something happens, never hesitate to use it. Especially with a near-new vehicle. Doubly so with fragile/expensive "bumpers" fore and aft.
Also, although I've never had an accident more than a handful of slight bumps (most of which were not me doing the bumping!) in 40 years of driving, my eyesight isn't exactly improving with age, if you catch my drift... On to of that, my Allstate coverage has been grandfathered in at a surprisingly low rate. I compared rates a year or two back and it was hard to find anything less than 50% more than I'm currently paying. iPhone ? Pro
A friend had a 2012 Prius C, bought in Dec 2012, rear-ended a larger SUV in Jan 2014, very low speed. No damage to SUV. Over $6500 damage to the Prius C and 6 weeks to fix it. Repair order was 10 pages long.
Insurance or not probably wouldn't help (much at least) with the repair time, but yes, the costs are ... far from trivial. Truthfully though, there's a very-clear reason in our specific case to keep Collision: Part of the reason we're getting a P.Prime now is that my wife is working on getting her driver's license, so ... yeah, 'nuf said there (no proven track record). Actually, she'll mostly be driving the 2009 Gen-2 and I'll mostly drive the Prime, since I drive >40 miles/day, and it's pretty unlikely she'll average more than 5-10 miles/day, and most of that will probably be low-speed, neighborhood stuff. iPhone ? Pro
I've been driving for 22 years now and never was in any type of wreck. Then late last year, I had a .5 second moment where my attention wasn't 100% and I bumped into someone at low speed <5 mph in my Plug in Prius. It ended up being over $3500 to fix my front bumper. I guess no matter how careful we are, these are called accidents for a reason. My accident cost me the $500 deductible plus my insurance has nearly doubled now.
The crux of the issue is - If you have an accident, how much out-of-pocket are you prepared to pay to restore or replace your vehicle?
Consider that the Prime is a low production model at this point with parts made in Asia, said parts will be pricey. Then the various sensors for the safety suite could end up damaged in even a minor collision. Further driving up a repair bill. Collision insurance will probably be worth it on a new Prime.
This sort of thing gets me spitting mad. And to rub in salt: they continue to be called "bumpers"; someone has to bell this cat. Ralph Nader? What the hell does it take, to get bumpers back to being bumpers? I'm starting to look longingly at Jeep Wranglers...
I'd get comp and collision and see what the highest deductible they offer is. Most bank-owned cars do not allow more than either $500 or $1000 as a deductible, since most new car owners are underwater on their cars but you don't have that problem obviously. Insurance companies love high deductible policies because it not only alleviates them the admin burden of paying out nuisance claims, but drivers of cars who are willing to fix small things on their own dime are generally lower liability risks as well. A $1,000 deductible also seems to be an industry ceiling, and you'll probably not derive a benefit for looking for a higher value. The purpose for insurance is to cover a loss that you are unwilling or unable to pay for out of pocket. (Many people forget this and think that insurance ought to cover wiper blades, gas, washing and waxing, etc....) In your case, I think that having an incident beyond your control (hail, being run off the road, deer, just plain old bad luck) wreck your $25,000 car is worth paying a little extra for each month to cover. As pointed out above, most of your insurance cost is for liability anyway. Welcome to America. Highest Lawyer-per-Capita nation on the planet.....
My old Subaru was hit by hail just 7 months into my ownership while I was at work. $10k in repairs. A few months ago, I hit a semi truck tire tread on the road at night. There was no time to react. But $1000 later it was fixed as well. All I had to pay was the $500 deductible on both claims. I've never had an at-fault accident either but some things are out of your control.
