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Example 1.
Youngest stepdaughter is backing out of a parking spot at the apartment complex where she lived. A Ford truck with a camper shell is blocking her view and the parking lot was 54 feet wide, not including the part where cars were parked. A woman with no insurance hits her so hard she totals my daughters $10k Sentra, with 5 of her realtives children in the car. The impact smashes my stepdaughters face into the driver door glass and it leaves an imprint of her face makup in the glass and bends out the door frame. Stepdaughters uninsured motorist coverage pays her $9300 for the car which she keeps. I took a weeks vacation, bought a rear clip for $1200 and welded it on her car. She pocketed the difference, $8100. She also won $2000 in a wet t-shirt contest at Hooters, where she worked at the time. While everyone is supposed to carry insurance by law a significant number here in Va do not, and the last time I was stopped at a roadside license and registration check, the cop refused to even look at my proof of insurance.
Example 2.
Comprehensive insurance, here in Va again pays for "acts of nature". My brother's Cadillac got caught in a hail storm, which did $3000 in damage to the car which he owned free and clear. He kept the car and later sold it with the damage, but basically he got the car for free and the claim they paid was equal to 30 years of comprehensive premiums. He lives in a flood zone and during a hurricane his $34 k truck was in salt water the never got in the passengers floor. No water in the tranny or diff. They totalled the truck which he kept (for $7k) and he did nothing more than pressure wash the undercarriage and bought his wife an Eldorado with the money he recieved, comprehensive again. 340 years of comprehensive premiums in that single claim.
Example 3.
The day I am supposed to sell My 98 230 SLK a rock flies up on the Interstate and breaks the windshield. State Farm informs me that since my car is less than 10 years old they will pay to have an original MB replacement glass installed in the car, which the glass shop picks up 55 miles from my home and installs in the car in my front yard less than 6 hours after the time when it was broken. Cost to replace over $600, or 6 years of comprehensive premiums.
For much less than $100 a year considering what can happen here, I consider comprehensive insurance a bargain.
I don't carry collision. The wife carries $1000 deductible, which we saved in the only collision claim she has made in 25 years by not replacing the ac condenser and repairing instead or replacing the hood. She later traded in the car and got $14.3k for it. We paid $18.1 kfor the car new, 3 years and 31k miles earlier. Half of what a lease would have cost.
But the bottom line is if you think of these two things you might truly understand defensive driving. One of my freinds father was still driving when he was so blind he could not see the traffic lights. The only way he knew to slow down was IF the brake lights on the car in front of him worked! I bought a truck from an individual who had lost his license and been driving for 11 years without insurance or a drivers license.
Just think about those two things the next time you believe any driver around you is even remotely responsible. I would guess 33% of them around here think they are entitled to drive, without a license, or insurance and even with a car that is so rusted out the engine crossmember which also holds the steering rack in place, is hanging two inches below its orignal mounting point, completely detached from the unibody. One car I refused to test drive.
regards
mech
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