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Originally Posted by Shinigami
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Originally Posted by RC45
Paying insurance on the "New Price" of a 20 year old car seems a little daft?
Afterall, the car is no longer worth that - seems a little excessive.
Oh well, such are the prices of living in europe...  -- did we mention gasoline dropped in price by about 20c a gallon this last week?  |
Yup, paying full price is stupid and nobody can quite explain why it's done... Meanwhile, the insurance companies profit. But it means a lot of people who could otherwise own a very expensive car as second hand, don't, because the rest of the stuff of ownership is out of their hands... (keeps a lot of kids off the streets with powerful cars, which some consider a good thing).
The insurance companies are usually not that fussy if something goes wrong, such as an accident. You're paid quite upfront for your car. However, over here it's also "obligatory" to have car insurance. Without it, you can't have license plates, and without license plates, you can't drive a car.
I hear many sad situations (on American automotive forums) where the users have ended up in being hit by other people who have no form of insurance... Thus the person with insurance bares the grunt. IMO, insurance should be obligatory because situations like that totally suck... And too many people get away with it too (at least according to the forums).
Gas also dropped here, although not as much as in the states, oh well :p |
Insuarance is supposed to be mandatory here as well, but the police won't know untill they pull you over and ask for your proof of insurance. If you get caught without it, it's at the officers discretion as to what will be done. If you play dumb and can't find the card, you might get lucky and they'll believe you. You'll probably still get a ticket though. Or, the cop can arrest you. If they find out you don't have insurance, you'll lose your license for 6 months or so.
Crappy story, this just happened here. A guy who has been pulled over many times for all kinds of things and has been caught driving with no insurance. He was driving his friends car and was pulled over and had no proof. Doesn't matter than it wasn't his car, he should have checked the police say. Anyway, gets hauled off to jail. Is put in a cell with an inmate being transferred to another prison. The guy was beaten to death by the inmate being transferred!!!!!!!!
As for people being hit by others with no insurance, It happens all the time. My boss's old 911 was written off by a guy with no insurance. It was a Red Slant Nose 911 that was very highly modified. He sued the guy who hit him and the guy is still paying for it 5 years later. Which is a better choice: $100 a month for insurance or a judgement to pay $80,000 for a car you wrecked? LOL My boss replaced it with a 996TT.
A friend of mine was rear ended by a 14 year old girl who stole her moms car, that had no insurance. He sued for the replacement of his car and medical costs. Of course, he won.
Sound slike we should adopt the no insurance = no license plate here. I had to replace my plates a few weeks ago as some nob stole the front plate. All I needed was my drivers license and they handed me new plates.