Miata Mailing List: November 1993, Message #73
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   From: Jeff Maurer 
Subject: Re: insurance
   Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1993 13:35:56 -0500

Forwarded message:
> From: bruce@lurch.Data-IO.COM
> To: Multiple recipients of list 
> Subject: Re: mx5 brakes and more power (fwd) 
> Date: 	Thu, 4 Nov 1993 13:11:27 -0500
> 
> 
> Anything you lie about that would affect your insurance company's
> computation of your risk rating is going to cause problems.  How they
> compute their risk is their business, but if they access a $5 surcharge to
> everyone who has a supercharger, and you have one and lie about it, don't
> expect to ante up $5 after the accident. That's not how insurance works. 
> Expect to get cancelled, or sued, or charged.

Perhaps I'm cynical regarding these things, but let's face it, insurance
companies are not out to protect us, they're out to make a profit.  I
think the negative attitude regarding insurance comes from real world
experience based on: settling claims and feeling screwed, paying premiums
for years and then either being dropped or having your premiums skyrocket
after an accident, getting hit by an uninsured motorist and then finding
out that your "uninsured motorist" premium only covers limited medical
expenses for you and your passengers - not your car, etc.

While what Bruce says is ethical, and probably legally true, I'm not
surprised to hear that people are resentful of the industry.


Speaking of which, I know this thread went around recently, but I'll ask
anyway since I just got a statement:

Here's my insurance bill for the '92 mx5 (6 months):

	$111 for: 100K/300K Liability, 50K Property damage, 10K Personal 
		injury, income loss of $1300/mo (woo hoo! doh!)
	$40 for: $50 deduct comp
	$78 for: $250 deduct collision
	$3 for: emergency road service
	$22 for: uninsured motor vehicle

total: ~$250 for 6 months

No accidents, no violations, over 25, low annual mileage (under 10K miles/yr)
Through State Farm

Does this seem excessive?  It strikes me as a bit on the high side...
As I look at it, most of these numbers are kind of a joke.  I
doubt any liability suit goes to court for much less than $1 mil these
days.
            _
            /        Jeff Maurer, Staff Analyst
     _  ___/ _ __   Service & Quality Apps, Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
     / /  / / / /  Uucp: ...!uunet!sequent!jdm
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