Car insurance- how much coverage ?

[Quack]

We have three vehicles. 2007 Chevy pickup 4 door with almost 200,000 miles. 2011 Chevy Equinox with about 190,000. Drivers are Me, my wife, and sometimes her sister when she’s nannying for us.

How much coverage should I have on these two?Is it dumb to have more than just liability? Is it dumb to have liability only? Used car prices are nuts so if one got totaled I wouldn’t want to be car shopping right now.

[maplelakeduckslayer]

Gonna depend on your situation

Even if totaled i mean you'd get some money but not that much imo...plus take off the deductible...

I bumped up my liability coverage to max on my truck but took off full coverage last year. Meant to do it sooner

For me I'm already planning to replace it as it's got 332k miles and is rusting out...2011 f150.

I just kinda figured what's the point...if totaled what would they give me for it a couple k?

But mines got even more miles that yours by quite a bit.

I think you gotta put the pen to the paper and see what comparable vehicles are selling for...then get a quote for liability only and compare it to your current coverage. If it's several hundred more a month and they only give you 5k for the vehicles totaled out...less the deductible...you are probably even at 1 yrs mark...

For me it no longer made sense to pay full coverage.

[maplelakeduckslayer]

I actually messed that up was thinking monthly but my premium for full coverage was on 6 months...the full coverage wasn't really that much more a year. So you probably wouldn't be at a wash at a year it'd take longer

But regardless of it gets hit by hail or a repairable accident I'm not gonna fix a truck with over 300k miles

[Fish Felon]

Get a million dollar personal liability umbrella if you don't have one....best value in all of insurance. It extends a million in coverage to any liability......home, auto, boat, etc. You'll never see the type of claim you'll make.....it'll always be something totally fukced and out of the blue you never could've anticipated.

My dad wanted to cancel the $2 million umbrella (PUP/PLUP) policy my parents had but my mom said it was worth the $200-$300 a year they were paying for it at the time. Three months later my little brother shot my dad's first cousin while pheasant hunting. Our cousin Joe is like an uncle....we grew up going down to his place in North Central Iowa duck hunting, pheasant hunting, deer hunting you name it. Joe is a lifelong bachelor, couple illebemite kids that he found out when they were already adults, had twenty some DWI's, hasn't had a driver's license in probably thirty years, spent part of fifteen years up in Alaska guiding at a fishing/moose camp....one of those types of dudes. He did not....surprise, surprise.....have health insurance. So when he took a load of #5 lead to the dome and upper torso (totally his fault, sent my 15yo brother down in a drainage ditch, then walked up to the edge silent, rooster flushed right at him, my brother was basically shooting up at a 75 degree angle, when he climbed up to get the bird he shot he found my cousin on the ground next to it....pheasant took enough pellets to save his life).....

It cost $1.15 million to have my cousin Joe airlifted to Mayo from NW IA....and spend the next 11mos there recovering from it and doing rehab. He got paid out paid out the remaining $850K as part of a settlement...and is what he has lived off since.

When shit like this happens....litigation happens on it's own. My cousin never would've sued my parents, but the hospital wants to collect....and they're good at it. Once the domino's pertaining to liability start falling.....like my brother being a minor and thus the financial liability extending back to my parents......who would've lost their home, lake home, farmland, and retirement savings.....it would've literally wiped them out financially. A lifetime of hard work and financial frugality gone...."Poof!"

Always have an umbrella policy. Especially if you're a dude who does stuff. You pay the same exact rate as the losers who never leave their house....and who do you think is a bigger exposure? Us or them?

You'll need 250/500/100 underlying liability limits on the autos to qualify for an umbrella.

The two most common auto claims are glass and emergency road services.....I'd do a high comp deductible....the highest they'll allow....in order to qualify for the glass coverage. I refer to this as "liability plus." You've got liability, but are still covered for the two most common claims...by far. It'll almost certainly save you money.....I want to say on mine....if I make a windshield claim in the next six years it pays for itself....odds of that happening are pretty good imo.

Collision is the more expensive of the two coverages, but comp isn't usually too bad. If you live in an area where you hit deer.....smoking a deer is covered under comp and since it's an "act of God" most companies don't ding you for a claim under that coverage. My brother dropped Collision coverage on a commuter car he had to save money, but I talked him into not only keeping comp but lowering the deductible to $100. Two months later he totaled it out after hitting a deer on 94 in WI...air bag went off....car he thought was only worth a couple grand (mercury grand marquis he bought from an old lady in a small town and had really low miles) netted him a check for $4500.

Just some food for thought.....insurance claims out typically significantly higher than what vehicles are worth imo.

[Nershi]

Look up KBB and see what it’s worth. Insurance companies don’t use that to cut the check for a total, they use real world comparables, but KBB should be close. Then find out what comp and collision cost. Then analyze and make your decision. Insurance is risk transfer. Removing some or all physical damage coverage, raising deductibles or going with no insurance is risk retention. I think those decisions are up to an individuals risk tolerance which vary greatly depending on the person and their situation. I don’t think there is a right or wrong decision as long as you got a good melon between your shoulders to be smart enough to make the decision that works for you, which you do.

[Quack]

Thanks for the feedback fellas. I do have an umbrella so that’s good- also appreciate the story of how something like that could come into play completely unexpectedly.