Insurance 101 — Car Discounts

On Tuesday, we talked about discounts based on personal factors. Today, I want to delve deeper into vehicle discounts. These discounts could be for pre-installed features of your car, or they could be features you can add. Similarly, depending on what make, model, or year your car is, you might qualify for auto insurance discounts.

What If My Car Doesn’t Come With These Features?

Some of these features, such as anti-lock brakes, come pre-installed in cars. There are, however, a few options to adding features that can qualify you for discounts. For instance, while you cannot change what kind of fuel your car uses, you can add anti-theft features, such as a kill switch, which makes it nearly impossible to hot wire a car. Adding anti-theft features offers you the highest discount because it significantly decreases the probability that you will file a claim.

There Are Some Additional Costs With These Features

Before you determine what car to buy based solely on these discounts, let me warn you that some of these features pose additional costs that you might not want to incur. For instance, there is a 15% discount for purchasing a new car instead of a used car, but used cars are significantly cheaper than a new car. Similarly, buying a car that uses alternative fuel instead of a regular car comes with high repair costs due to the specialized nature of these cars.

How To Take Advantage Of These Discounts

Some of these discounts depend on pre-installed aspects of your car, while others are available as add-ons after you have purchased a car. It is important to shop around for many quotes to find an auto insurance company that offers you the best savings for your specific car.