Do you carry full coverage insurance on your older, high mileage vehicle?

[traces7]

We have a 13 year old Dodge Dakota pickup truck that DH drives. We still have full coverage auto insurance on it. I have heard that some people just carry liability on older vehicles. Should we do this? I just get nervous, because DH drives pretty far to work in the dark and has almost hit a deer several times, which wouldn't be covered under liabilty. We may buy another vehicle within the next 2 years.
Thanks for any advice! Oh I forgot to mention that it has over 200,000 miles on it.

 

[delmar411]

yes, we carry full coverage on both cars. If we got into a crash we'd still need it fixed or replaced so I don't see the benefit of lowering our coverage.

Our oldest car is a 97 Dodge minivan and has less than 100k miles on it so there is value left in the car. I guess if I had a car that would be totalled out at a few hundred in repairs then I would reconsider having full coverage.

 

[DawnM]

We do, but only because:

1. It is a 3rd car and only costs $20/mo. to fully insure, liability only is only $8 less.
2. We want to be able to replace it.

 

[midwestdee]

Yes, we still have full coverage on our Toyota Sienna, 11 years old next month. I would say that if you have enough in savings right now that you could replace the car with no problem - you would probably be fine lowering your coverage - if not, don't. If you have a good insurance agent, they could go over the pros and cons, etc.. We are lucky - we have a great agent with an incredible staff - also, one thing to check is if your medical coverage for your family would change from going from full coverage to basic liability. I don't know if it would - just make sure to ask. One thing - although you save money by paying premiums annually or bi annually if you are at a place in your life that you need to budget insurance in smaller increments - it can be worth the small extra to get billed monthly. We did that when we had a third car for the kids when they were in college and I didn't want 3 huge payments coming up every 6 months.

 

[bettymae1121]

Yes, I fully insure my '98 Saturn. I think I pay $50 a month (could be less, it's rolled into my life insurance payments) so it's cheap, and I figure the month I drop it down to liability only is the month I get creamed by some big SUV. Murphy's Law and all!

 

[kydisneyfans]

No-beacuse the deductible is higher than I could sell the car for, wrecked or not.

 

[TxRabbit]

We had full coverage on our own Dodge Dakota right up until we traded it in this year. It was a 2001 with over 150K miles on it. Whenever I looked at the difference between full coverage and liability only, it was still a positive return.

That really is how you make your decision. You need to find out what a likely reimbursement for your vehicle would be in the event that it was totalled (complete loss). It's possible that an older vehicle could be totalled by a deer, seriously, we lived in Kansas and the incidence of deer getting hit is one of the highest in the country. If the cost of repair exceeds the value of the vehicle, they will total it, but I digress. Then you compare the reimbursement money to your deductible plus the cost of insurance. If the reimbursement is higher than the other, it's still a good investment to have full coverage.

It gets more tricky when you start talking about how many years you are likely to own the vehicle, but the above comparision will help with your decision.

 

[DisneyNutMic]

2001 Chrysler Town and County with 174,000 on it. Book value is $2000. Yes I carry full coverage on it because I don't have enough cash to replace it at the moment. Plus it still drives like it did when it was new. It's still in GREAT shape inside and out. I'm driving it until it can't drive anymore.

 

[VAN]

I think the rule-of-thumb is ... if your vehicle is worth less than $3k then drop the full coverage.

 

[sharbear]

We have a older 3rd car which our college age S drives. We do not carry full coverage on it, as someone else says, the deductable is higher than what the car is worth. This coverage does cover being hit by a deer. I would call your insurance agent and see if liability covers being hit by a deer.

 

[Jill2150]

I think on a 13 year old vehicle you probably should. I work auto claims and most people with older vehicles(older then 2000) have liability only. One option is to keep comprehensive only (deer hits, hail) which are common losses, and drop collision. Trucks do hold their value more then vehicles, but I would say if it's worth less then $5000 and has a lot of miles, I would go to liability only.

 

[becky1960]

If you get in a accident the Ins co will only pay you the total value per Book Value, we just traded in a 1995 van and dealer said it was worth less than $500.00 (119,000) and this was a Custom van. The full coverage was about $95.00 per month, it didnt make since to pay that much. Liability was still about $69.00 per month.

Check your value thru NADA and then decide what your difference is...

 

[punkin]

Only liability on my 2000 Mazda with 140K miles on it. If it was totaled, I would probably get about $3K for it (if I was lucky), so why pay?

 

[3boymthr]

When the cost of replacing the car (to get exactly the same age/make/model that is) is less than $3,000 the deductible then no, I don't.

You have to remember all they are going to do if you get in an accident - even a minor one - is total the car and not give even replacement value for it - this happened to my DB - he got into an accident with his 10 yo SAAB - it needed about $1,500 in repairs and they totalled it and gave him less than $1,000 toward replacment.

Instead take the amount that you'd pay for the insurance each month into a savings account specifically for repairs for the vehicle then if you need it great, if you don't well then you've got a small savings to put toward the cost of a new vehicle.

 

[AndreaDM]

We do now because I drive almost an hour to work each way with deer and icy roads in the winter. I have an interview on Monday (fingers crossed) for a position ONE MILE from my house! If I get that, we will probably drop the full coverage on my car.

 

[Kellydelly]

We had full coverage on our 1997 Dodge Avenger (133,000 miles) and I was rear-ended last October (actually I was pushed into the car in front of me too, so had front end damage as well). The insurance company was going to pay $3,000 to fix the damage, and the Avenger was only worth about $1500! So we ended up argueing with the insurance company about wasting the money on fixing it (not to mention it would have taken weeks to get replacement parts for a 13 yr old car), and they came to their senses and offered to give us the $$$ they were going to put into fixing the car, minus our $500 deductible if we dropped the car down to PLPD coverage (the basic, no collision). We ended up with a check for $2500 and my husband banged out the car so it looked almost as good as before the crash (there was just a small crimp on both sides of the hood where he bent it back down, the rear end had the 2 of the "bumps" crushed up and he heated up the plastic and was able to push them back down in place, almost like new). I would say we came out ahead in that deal . The car doesn't look bad for all the miles and the recent accident. We just traded in this vehicle on a new one and got a whopping $500 out of it. I didn't want to sell it to some stranger and have guilt about what was or wasn't wrong with it, so we let the dealership take it off our hands.

 

[r&kmommy]

Once I paid off my (now dead, RIP) car I dropped coverage to bare minimum required by state but kept my windshield coverage because my car seemed to be a magnet for cracks in the windshield LOL!

 

[CowboyCO]

Only drop full coverage if you can afford to self-insure. If the car is worth $6,000, then you need $6,000 in the bank to cover the loss. Then, put the difference between the liability and full coverage premiums into your car fund.

Just like people can be their own bank in some cases, you can be your own insurance company.

Then, when you are ready to buy a newer vehicle and need full coverage for the loan, you can put a very large chunk down and get the vehicle paid off quicker...

 

[traces7]

Can anyone direct me to the website for bluebook values on vehicles. I'm having a hard time finding it. The one I found only has newer vehicles. We have a 1997 Dodge Dakota pickup truck
Thanks!

 

[natenapril]

Did you try NADA or KBB to check the value of your vehicle?