Honda Car Forum

"Why an older driver who buys a Civic should be penalized, I don't know"

because statistics are evil!

I never understood why, when I was 10 miles outside od DC my insurance
was less than when I moved to EBF (that's East Bum F*ck), NY... Should
have dropped in my mind (plus I passed one of those imaginary milestones
by turning 25).

Andrew wrote:

> Sir Lointip <me@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>>Sean D wrote:
>>
>>>Well its a combination of things. First, insurance companies set their
>>>rates based on the accident rates of the vehicles. Since Hondas are
>>>frequently the best sellers in their class, it stands to reason that more of
>>>them will be involved in collisions. The insurance companies use this as an
>>>excuse to charge more by arguing that they are a higher risk vehicle due to
>>>the number of accidents. (Gotta love how stats can be twisted to say just
>>>about anything.) Another reason is that Hondas (mostly Civics and older
>>>Accords) are always on top of the list for stolen cars.
>
>
>>Also, Civics and Preludes in particular are very popular among the younger
>>crowd. Many of these younger kids like to "rice" them out with excessive
>>body add-ons and drive the hell out of them.
>
>
> When I was recently getting insurance quotes for cars that I was thinking
> about buying, the representative from my insurance company told me that
> they charge more to insure Civics than Accords or TL's because the claim
> rate is higher for Civics. The claim rate is higher because younger, less-
> experienced drivers are more likely to buy Civics.
>
> Why an older driver who buys a Civic should be penalized, I don't know.
>
> Andrew
>

On Sat, 15 May 2004 08:16:17 -0400, "TWW" <twaugh5@cox.net> wrote:

>
>"Sean D" <nospam@nospam.ca> wrote in message
>news:0Jxnc.37521$Np3.1450919@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
>> Well its a combination of things. First, insurance companies set their
>> rates based on the accident rates of the vehicles. Since Hondas are
>> frequently the best sellers in their class, it stands to reason that more
>of
>> them will be involved in collisions. The insurance companies use this as
>an
>> excuse to charge more by arguing that they are a higher risk vehicle due
>to
>> the number of accidents. (Gotta love how stats can be twisted to say just
>> about anything.) Another reason is that Hondas (mostly Civics and older
>> Accords) are always on top of the list for stolen cars.
>>
>> "froglewis" <froglewis@btinternet.com> wrote in message
>> news:c7lsoe$39m$1@titan.btinternet.com...
>> > insurance groups are so high compared to others in their class - why?
>> >
>> > cheers
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>Interesting comment. I am 63 with a clean driving record and no accidents
>(yet). My 01 Prelude insurance is over $1600 per year, more than twice that
>for my wife's Pilot. The problem is that I have a 24 year old on my policy
>with a shaky record, even though he does not drive the Prelude -- has a
>$3,000 10 year old 4 door sedan. BTW liabilty on his car (which is all we
>carry) is almost $800.00 per year. The insurance company figures that if he
>borrows the Prelude he will undoubtedly try to race someone -- and they are
>absolutely correct.

I think that's a *BIG* presumption on the part of the insurance company:
"if this happens and that occurs, something else *might* happen". When our
kids started to drive, it was explained to me that if a car was assigned to
them it would not affect the insurance on other cars... but if a car was
not assigned to the youthful drivers, I'd have to pay insurance for them on
the most expensive car we owned.

I'm not sure whether that rule was a legal state(NJ) mandated one or if the
insurance companies could set their own rules. In your situation, I'd look
for a different insurance company to see if there are more favorable rules.
I'll add that, when the kids finished college and moved out, I got really
pissed when the insurance company asked for their new addresses - bloody
nerve!

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??