by Jim Bassett
The availability of low cost automobile insurance should be one of your first consideration when you are buying a car. It rarely is though. Who wants to consider such mundane matters when they are just about to acquire their dream car!
The Highway Loss Data Institute, or HLDI as they are understandably referred to as, is a number crunching agency funded by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is in tern supported by the auto insurers. They keep statistics on the ways losses affect each of the makes and models of automobiles.
It doesn't take much imagination therefore to appreciate how your choice of car will impact upon the cost of your auto insurance. Some of their findings make for interesting reading.
Did you know, for example, that your average four-door car has a 93% smaller likelihood of being the subject of a theft claim than does your average 2-door model?
A Buick LeSabre has more chance of being swallowed by an earthquake than it does of being stolen, whereas a soft-top Corvette has about 5 times the average chance of being stolen. This probably isn't news to you though! On the other hand you probably didn't realise that a Toyota Celica has a 67% great likelihood of disappearing than does a Toyota Camry.
The likely size of insurance claim, and therefore the probable size of the insurance premium, is really governed by two factors.
The first of these is how much it is actually going to cost to repair the vehicle. Quite often with modern cars it works out more cost effective to simply write the car off as a total loss and give you a new one. This always seems really wasteful but when one considers the cost of the original manufacturers replacement parts for all of the glass-fibre panels, the cost of airbags and retrimming the interior when they have blown, and so on, it is easy to see how the costs escalate.
The second factor is the real clincher. This is related to the amount of safety features that the car has, that are likely to reduce the size of any bodily injury claims. On this point, you can check with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety yourself to fid out what their top ten safety choices are.
The IIHS top safety choices reflect the cars that best protect vehicle occupants and pedestrians in front, side, and rear impacts. These are all based on destructive crash tests. Winners must also feature Electronic Stability Control, which has been proven time and time again to significantly reduce the chances of a loss of vehicular control resulting in a crash.
If you have the inclination to do the necessary leg-work in researching all of the various factors that contribute to overall insurance costs then you should be settle upon a vehicle that is the best compromise between your needs and acceptable costs.
When you have narrowed the field to a definite shortlist then simply get on line and get as many quotes as you can.
Make sure that you get the right cover for your needs, and don't ignore the small, local insurance firms. Their relatively small overheads can mean that they are surprisingly competitive.
With just a little bit of preparation and effort, low cost automobile insurance can be yours.
About the Author
The availability of low cost automobile insurance should be one of your first consideration when you are buying a car. Get the inside scoop on how buy automobile insurance online, now!
