Age of a vehicle works for and against you: Yeah, sure, it seems like cost less to replace your vehicle, but it also lowers the threshold where they actually total your vehicle vs repairing it. Totaling a vehicle is based on a percentage of cash value (changes from company to company, but let's pretend it's 80% for sake of discussion). Your car is worth $10k, means you have to do $8k worth of damage before they total it out and send you a $10k check. If it drops to $9k value, you only need $7,200 in damage to trigger them totaling it out and sending a full value check.
The law in nevada is 65% of the actual cash value, not including paint and paterials. As well as statutory total losses being roll overs and any part of the floor that the seat belts mount to that needs to be replaced. The one thing people don't usually think about is salvage value. Vehicles with higher salvage values total easier. For example, let's say your vehicle has a $10,000 actual cash value (acv) and the estimate for repairs is $5000. The total loss breakeven threshold would be $6500, Which at that point the vehicle would be a fixer. Now the salvage value lowers the breakeven point. So if your vehicle has a 1500 salvage value your vehicle now will be a total.
Plus, older cars become more likely to get into a claim through sheer ownership data. They rate cars as groups, so if everyone else who owns your make and model end up getting into wrecks, it ends up looking like those cars are higher risk. Kind of like the turbo charged Dodge SRT4 Neons that 20 year old kids kept speeding and wrecking in. High number of tickets and accidents associated with those vehicles drove them up as an entire class. Your history alone doesn't dictate insurance pricing, unfortunately.
Yes absolutely, just like anyone that own a subaru. You can thank all the people that own wrx's and sti's that constanly think they are invincible in the snow and rain. Or just like anyone with a 1999-2008 ford super duty becuase that are extremely easy to break into and steal.
It seems to me that insurance companies play a game where they will have the lowest rates for a while and later the highest, meaning if we don't keep on shopping for insurance every few years, we get screwed.
-Don- Reno
Generally the longer you are with one particular conpany without having claims and nothing changes on your policy, the lower your rate will be.
If anyone has progressive I would highly suggest the snapshot program. It's a device that plugs into your OBDII port and you drive around with it plugged in for a month or so. It will monitor your driving and if you a good driver it can lower your rate pretty significantly. I suggested it to my freind and it lowered his rates about 25%
Keep in mind that car insurance is like everything else. You get what you pay for. I wouldnt want the cheapest insurnace company out there, just like I would not be carrying the cheapest gun I could find and just like I don't buy the cheapest car parts I can find.