If you have a spotless driving record with some decent history (i.e. you're not 21 years old) then you should be able to insure a Z for under $100/month. If you feel confident you wont be involved in any accidents then just strip your plan to the bone. Insurance companies love to tack on things like road side assistance, rental car coverage, etc etc, things you may already have with the dealer or AAA. They also always put you at $500 deductible when you could push it to $1000. Then theres the bodily/property damage values which they tend to put at the absolute maximum of 100k/300k. You can usually request as low as 25k. Finally there are things like UNDERinsured motorist coverage. Do not confuse this with UNinsured coverage which is required. Underinsured just means your insurance company will help pay for any damages that their insurance company doesnt, but good luck getting them to actually do it.

I had really stressed to my last insurance rep that I wanted a 100% barebones plan, the absolute minimum legally required for me to drive this car. They lied and left a lot of those things in there. What you need to do is ask them 1 by 1, what exactly you are paying for, and then before they go to the next item, ask them "WHAT IS THE MINIMUM I CAN PAY FOR THAT OPTION, AND IS IT EVEN REQUIRED????". The items I listed above are probably all you need to concern yourself with, but you never know what other garbage they might tack on there. My bill instantly dropped $45/month after making those adjustments.

^ that's a really dangerous idea if you have any assets besides the car.

Very.

Insurance cost depends on the person. With the Z under my dad's name, it costs $75/month. If I were to put it under my name, it would have been $200/month

Could you elaborate?

I think they are referring to any potential liability claims, IE you are taking your girlfriend for a ride, run a red light, get t-boned, she gets injured significantly. Most medical on car insurance would be about 25k, but then the girlfriends medical bills would be 200k, which her family could sue your insurance to cover. If you get that liability too low, then when they run out of insurance coverage, your personal assets will be sold to cover the difference. The insurance company won't start paying out of the bodily/property portion without a lawsuit, once the lawsuit is started then you are liable for the judgement whatever it is. If the judgement is 500000, and you only had 50,000 in coverage, then you owe 450,000 out of pocket.

Thats the basic idea of what they are saying I believe.

Not going to read the long posts :icon17:

OP you should shop around, you can find a better rate

Ah ok that makes sense. I guess the way I see it, even the 100k coverage could still be a drop in the bucket for any kind of damage, and being on the hook for half a million or a quarter million would still leave me screwed, so I might as well declare bankruptcy if someone sues me for everything I've got, which is pretty much the Z and a flat screen TV :)

I had to agree to a higher rate to get them not to carry any negative equity from my trade in. What this does is keeps my actual financed amount closer to what the car's worth. As a result, I can then simply refinance and get a loan to cover the car at a respectable rate. At least I hope it works out this way, unless they had me sign some sort of non-refinance clause or something heh.

Bankruptcy laws were changed 1-2 years ago, which most changes will carry over most debt even after bankruptcy is declared.

I think if you file Chapter 7 they will not be discharged, but Chapter 13 will discharge them. Could be wrong though.

Yeah, I am still not 100% on all the changes and what does what now.

Regardless, declaring bankruptcy is not a good strategy.

RunNGun: If you don't carry high liability limits, you put your other assets at risk. Guys that don't have much are "collection proof", and it's hard to find a lawyer to go after them on a contingency basis.


With current liability laws, 300k is a pretty safe limit. It's rare that you are found fully at fault for anything, and you can only be ordered to pay a percentage of the judgement value based on how much was your fault (ie, 500k judgement, 50% your fault, you pay 250k). I play it a little extra safe by adding a 1M umbrella on top--because the world is a crazy place, and you never know what may happen...and it's not worth mortgaging your future to save $25 a month.

:iagree:

Thanks for the insight, I'll have to consider it. I think a million is a bit extreme, just because I cant really imagine causing that kind of medical/physical damage to anything whatsoever, and even if a judgement was allotted for 1M dollars I'm not too confident any car insurance company would pay that much anyway, so it kinda seems like money wasted on my part.