Miata Mailing List: May 1993, Message #82
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   From: (none)
Subject: Re: Insurance panic
   Date: (none)

Al Jenab 
>Ahh, the world is packed with weasels....
And GEICO is one of the biggest.
 

>To give you an idea on what Miata rates _ought_ to be, I have a silver '91, a
>'90 Honda Civic EX, and an old Dodge van.  I have full coverage on the first 

>two with low deductibles.  I live in a high-density traffic area (McLean, VA) 

>and I pay $540 or so every six months for all three.  The company is GEICO.
>I've heard they're hard to deal with, hate sports cars, sports car drivers,  
etc.,
>but I couldn't find a better price anywhere.  BTW, I'm 35, my wife is 30, no 

>kids, no tickets, and no accidents (til Monday).  I'll find out about the true 

>GEICO soon; my wife was rear-ended while in the Civic on an I-66 entrance ramp 

>on Monday.  It's totalled, she walked away (WHEW!).  Completely the other guys 

>fault.  If GEICO behaves, they've got my money for the forseeable future, 

>despite all their anti-speed, anti-radar detector, anti-fun nonsense.

Back in '91 my Miata side-swiped when it was parked by a hit-and-run driver.  
When I went in for the estimate the GEICO guy insisted I meet him not at their  
office but at a local MAACO-like body shop. The shop was cheesey and the GEICO  
guy insisted that he would only pay what that shop said they would fix it for  
(And there was no way I was going to let that place touch my nice car). I  
insisted that I wanted to take it somewhere else and the GEICO estimator said I  
could but I woudn't get any more (depite the fact that Washington state law  
says I can get my car repaired where *I* want).  The other shop's estimate was  
about $300 ($750 vs $450) more. I called and talked to the GEICO adjuster for  
the area and he backed up the estimator and accused me of tryimg to take them  
(other shops had quoted me even higher prices than teh one I selected). It took  
a letter from the state insurance commisioner to GEICO's home office before  
they finally coughed up the money. As soon as my record was clear I jumped to  
State Farm and have been happy ever since. For the $14 a year GEICO would save  
me I don't think they're worth it. Stay away from them, they are bad news...

---
  ___   __   ___  Alan Dahl                    | alan.dahl@mccaw.com -or-
 /_ /   /   /     Analysts International Co.   | adahl@axysdev.krkdwa.mccaw.com
/  /  _/_  /___   10655 N.E. 4th St. Suite 804 | (NeXTMail OK)
                  Bellevue, WA 98004           |  PH:  (206) 828-1336
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