Auto Insurance

[supradjza80]

Guys,

I am finally graduating from college and therefore no longer a dependent on my parents and going to be purchasing my own car insurance. I have always paid for the car insurance but it was always under my parents plan (homeowners, multiple cars, umbrella etc). Therefore I received a lot of discounts on the insurance I got with their company, American Family.

Looking for insurance for just myself (0 accidents or tickets since getting my license at 16), I have found that American Family, State Farm and Allstate are all about 200$ more expensive than Geico or Progressive (about $280-320 every 6 months).

That said I am wondering if anyone has had any claims with Geico or Progressive and how they were handled. I am pretty anal about my car and if something were to happen to the body work I would like OEM parts instead of knock off stuff. I have heard that these companies don't allow you to use OEM parts in the situation of an accident.

I would appreciate it if anybody with claim experience with these two companies could give an overview of the experience and let me know what kind of replacement part options you were given.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[CTsupra]

State Farm was always the cheapest for me. Then again, I only had liability+theft because I don't drive like an asshole. I was paying $120 every six months and that was for the supra and my daily.

edit: Also, you should have posted this in off-topic.

 

[deabionni]

I'm an insurance agent at an independent agency, and Progressive just happens to be one of the companies that we represent. With Progressive, when it comes time to pay out a claim, they usually are very quick and efficient; and have a claims representative on his way to you the same day you file a claim.

Geico, on the other hand, I know nothing about; as you can only purchase Geico insurance form Geico. (Personally, I wouldn't trust them with MY vehicles, as I haven't heard may good things about the way they handle and process their claims).

Also, keep in mind that your Supra is about 17+ years old, so to most insurance companies a 17+ year old vehicle isn't worth a whole lot. Full coverage policies are written at "fair market value", and may not be enough coverage to fully cover your vehicle in the event of a loss. Especially if you have a lot of work into your vehicle. On a specialty vehcile (like a MKIII Supra), I highly recommend getting an appraisal, then insure the vehicle under a "stated value" or an "agreed value" policy. That way, you and your insurance company are agreeing BEFORE any loss occurs as to what your vehicle is actually worth; and you're sure to get the full value of your vechile if or when a loss occurs.

Check out my post in ZoomZoomZoom's thread for more information about agreed value policies.

 

[ZoomZoomZoom]

I've had Geico, Progressive and State Farm. Both Geico and Progressive started out real cheap, then they raised the rates so much that in a matter of 2 years I had to shop around again. State Farm raised their rates just marginally, I kept them for 5 years. When I bought my house, I put the house and both vehicles under Grange and got a great deal on all three.

Don't have any claims experiences. And thats a good thing