Insurance World

For any driver, finding the best car insurance company is an important task. While the insurance we take out for our automobiles is, much like the health insurance we choose for our families, a service we hope to have very little need to avail of, there is little doubt that should the worst happen, we hope that we will have chosen our car insurance company wisely. For any individual, however, or even the group of individuals we might know, like our family and friends, exposure to insurance companies will have been limited. But thankfully, there are people who deal with car repairs on a regular basis, making them ideally placed to help us select the best car insurance company for our needs.

Who on earth are these experts, you might ask, and how on earth can we find them? The answer is simple, and you will be able to locate them in your own area more easily than you might think. Simple take a quick trip down to your local auto body repair shop, and you will find yourself in the midst of several car experts, who will each have amassed, through their years of experience in dealing with them, an essential insight into the workings of your local car insurance companies.

There are two groups of people that we call if we are unfortunate enough to find ourselves in an auto accident – the car insurance company with whom we took out our personal policy and the local body repair shop. Because these are our two ports of call when dealing with this kind of event, they necessarily have quite a bit of interaction with one another, making them ideally placed to determine the reliability and professionalism of the other’s operations. So if you are trying to find the best auto insurance company in your area, why not give them a call, or better yet, pay them a quick visit?

Body shop managers and other personnel deal with insurance adjusters from several companies as a natural part of the course of their day. They will be able to tell you which car insurance companies are most professional, which are speedy in their response. Car repair shop workers will have the hands on experience of car insurance companies that allows them to determine which carriers offer the most user-friendly claims procedures, and which offer customers a more time-consuming and complicated service. They are ideally placed to offer you an unbiased opinion on which companies they would assign the best overall ratings in terms of the quality of the product they provide, and the quality of the customer service.

When you are unfortunate enough to experience an accident in your vehicle, you will want to deal with people who are both speedy and professional, and no one can offer you a better insight to this end than the body shop workers who deal with car insurance companies every day. So if you are looking for reliable and unbiased ratings of the best companies around, then don’t forget to give the body shop a call.

When buying insurance, most people ask for “full coverage” without knowing what they’re asking for. What’s the problem? There is no such thing as “full coverage”. While understanding your coverage is important for everyone, it is vitally important if you’re driving a Mercedes, BMW, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Viper, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, or Aston Martin.

If you’re driving an expensive, exotic or high-performance car, you will want to make sure that after an accident you receive OEM parts, OEM paint, the ability to repair your vehicle at the auto body shop of your choice, and the amount of money needed for the repair.

Repairing an expensive car with non-OEM parts and/or improper workmanship will result in substantial diminished value. With expensive cars, even a proper repair will result in diminished value. What is diminished value? It is the lowered market value of a vehicle subsequent to repair. For instance, a Porsche or Ferrari will be worth less after an accident, even after it has been properly repaired. For research on diminished value, see http://www.hurt911.org/accident/car-accident-car-value.html

You do not want to get into an argument with your insurance company as to whether or not your vehicle can be repaired or should be totaled. Often, insurance companies will want to repair your car, when you think it should be totaled. If the insurance company agrees to total your car, most insurance policies only provide “actual cash value” insurance coverage which would only give you with a payment based on the current replacement cost of your vehicle, less depreciation (the decrease in the value of your car due to use, deterioration and the passage of time).

In the event that an exotic or high-priced car is totaled, the best replacement coverage is “agreed value” or “stated value”. The only insurance companies I have found to offer agreed value insurance are Chubb and MetLife.

Chubb’s web site states: “You and Chubb can agree on a value and lock it in for a full year. That’s the exact amount you’ll receive if your car is stolen or totaled in a covered loss. Never mind the “book” value. We even waive the deductible. No haggling, no depreciation, no deductible, no problem.”

MetLife’s web site states: Equivalent New Automobile Replacement for Total Loss is offered for vehicles within the first year of purchase or the first 15,000 miles, whichever comes first.

What’s the difference between Chubb’s “Agreed Value Option” and MetLife’s “Equivalent New Automobile Replacement” coverage? For high-value cars, Chubb is definitely the better choice. Chubb offers its agreed value coverage every year and readjusts the agreed value upon policy renewal. From what I have seen, the adjusted agreed value even years and over 100,000 miles later is substantially higher than actual value. Additionally, on a different topic, Chubb also offers up to $1 million of underinsured coverage, which is also vitally important. Make sure you ask your Chubb agent for the maximum underinsured coverage.

For average value new cars, MetLife is a good choice. MetLife does not offer its Equivalent New Automobile Replacement coverage after the first year or first 15,000 miles. For drivers of most new cars, this is still a good value because it is not uncommon for someone to total their new car soon after purchasing it. Usually, just driving a car out of the showroom can result in as much as $10,000 depreciation.