On my way to work one day I was traveling west bound up until I reached a road I needed to make a left turn on. Once the green arrow was given to me I preceded left started traveling south-bound. As I finished my left turn a few short moments passed and a small car pulled its way out in front of me. I tagged it’s back drivers side door. Even though my car still ran it appeared the crash caused about $2000 worth of work. This was about 5 years ago. I was driving a 1995 Nissan Maxima with a pearl white paint job. When the police got there, they measured my tread marks for the report. I then made the claim and some time later got a call from the other drivers insurance company. The Insurance Company then stated they would only pay 80% of the damage done to the car. The reason for this was because they decided my skid marks measured too long for a my car to be traveling the speed limit. I asked, “now how do you figure that?” The insurance company then decided to read me out this bull-snot formula that figures what the speed of a vehicle is with the measurement of skid-marks.

Speed = the quare root of (30) X (Skid distance) X (Drag Factor of .75).

They figured I was going a whole 5 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. I mentioned back to them, “Look, I am not about to pay 20% of the damage to my car because your not so good driver pulled out in front me. Throughout the next couple days I did some research on this skid formula and found proof it wasn’t 100% accurate. I then went onto Pima County’s Map Guide and printed an above view of the crash scene with contours (lines of elevation) turned on showing the slope of the road. I then went to the crash site and took some pictures. Once I got this all together I sent them all the information I had which showed their case to be a poor one..Below is a photo of the map with some of the information I mentioned posted on the photo. I faxed this along with photos, other arguments and my overall “not so polite attitude”..

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If you could not read, on the photo, some of the listed reasons I felt the guy’s Auto Insurance Company had no case I reslisted them below:

.1. I BARELY TURNED ON TO THAT ROAD FROM A STOP. NOT ENOUGH TIME TO START SPEEDING.


2. ROAD HAS A SLOPE WORKING AGAINST YOUR INACCURATE FORMULA.


3. THE CAR ISN’T BRAND NEW WHICH IS ALSO WORKING AGAINST YOUR FORMULA (USED TIRES AND EQUIPMENT).

4. LAST BUT NOT LEAST LAWYERS WHO SPECIALIZE IN THIS TYPE OF CASE HAVE BEEN CONTACTED. THEY STATE THE FORMULA IS NOT 100% EXACT, IF THIS IS TAKEN TO COURT I WILL COUNTER-SUE FOR 100% OF THE DAMAGES, MY TIME AND THEIR SERVICES.

After a couple days I received a call from the insurance company. They decided to go ahead and award me 100% of the money I needed to fix my car. They probably figured If I went to this much trouble to prove them wrong, I probably would not stop there. If you find yourself in a situation where you believe an insurance company is trying to take advantage of you, don’t give in. A little research can go a long way and save you from any undeserved debts and penalties.

I recently did a research study on auto insurance for the Chevrolet Impala.  I decided to get a good feel for how insurance companies work with new cars compared to classics.  For each quote I researched, I decided to use the profile of a 27 year old single male.  When the 2008  Impala Supersport was quoted, the recommended coverage held a rate of $240.22 per month or 1,208. in full.  I then decided to review a quote for the infamous 1964 Impala.  During the quote process I was asked to give the value of the car.  I used 20,000 for the value and continued the quote.  For the insurance coverage to paid in full, the 1964 Impala would run approximately $1,988, when paid in full, or $402 monthly.  My conclusion for this study is to show customers the importance of shopping around when looking to insure a classic car.  In this case, the insurance for the classic was nearly double that of the 2008 Impala.  In general, shopping around can save shoppers up to 40%.  If your interested in comparing auto insurance quotes with only having to only fill out one form, click here to begin quote.

One question I’ve heard was from a person by the name of Shawn wondering if his own auto insurance would cover another family members car which he happened to borrow and bump into a wall with.  The answer to this question is no…  When it comes to auto insurance, the coverage is only for the car on the policy, not every car the policyholder happens to drive.  Now with that in mind, hopefully the family member’s car is covered on a separate policy for one.  If so everything should be able to get repaired once the deductible is paid.  If Shawn is a good guy, he’ll probably take it upon himself to pay the deductible for this mistake.  If he is a great guy, he’ll pay any increase in the insurance rate on that car for the next couple years.  Depending on the cost of the repair, Shawn may want to pay for all the damages himself without having his relative, the car owner, make a claim.

What is an SR-22?

It is basically a certificate mandated by the state to verify that a driver is maintaining auto insurance liability coverage. If you need an SR-22, they will usually be notified by their state’s Motor Vehicle Department.

At one time I was driving a small Isuzu Amigo. It broke down and I stopped payment on the insurance for about 3 months. Forgetting to notify and bring in the plates for the vehicle to the DMV, I got a notice in the mail stating I needed to come in to set up the registration on this vehicle. Once I fixed the problems I had with the car, I went ahead and insured the vehicle and made a visit to the DMV. They couldn’t help me anymore since the insurance was previously dropped, If I had proof of repair, which I didnt because it was a backyard mechanic, I could have completed the steps to getting the vehicle registered. However, I didnt so now the DMV required I have SR-22 insurance for this vehicle. Always hearing “SR-22″ and “DUI” in the same sentence I started to worry if this would affect my rates. Thankfully it did not. Like I mentioned above, it’s simply a form notifying the MVD that the vehicle is now insured. I easily added the SR-22 onto the policy I previously purchased for the vehicle, took in the new insurance card and finished getting the registration setup.