Reader question:
How much car insurance should I have on my car? It’s a 1985 Ford, really reliable and a great car, even though it’s old. I’m just not sure if it needs so much coverage.
Sophia
Give it up.
Not the car, but the coverage. I’m sure that the car is great. I’ve always had the theory that if a car can last that long, it can last a little longer for me. So far I’ve been consistently wrong, but it’s good to see that you struck the gold mine with as reliable older car. However, considering your cars age, it probably isn’t worth a whole lot. It may be worth quite a bit to you, but that doesn’t count when it comes to car insurance. If you could sale your car for less than your premium, you probably don’t need to have that kind of car insurance policy.
So what do you do? Give up your comprehensive and collision coverage. Your car insurance company knows even more than you just what your car is worth, and given that it’s so old, that’s probably somewhere in the negatives by now. If you get in an accident, do you really think they’re going to give you enough to get yourself another car, even a cash car? It’s unlikely. And you don’t really need comprehensive either, as that coverage is typically meant for things like theft. You’re car will not be stolen unless it is the last car in the world. I can guarantee you that.
Stick with the minimum amount of coverage required by your state. This means you’ll need some liability insurance and, depending on your state, maybe some uninsured motorist insurance. If you want to make sure that you’re not making a mistake insuring your used car, you can look up its value on autotrader.com to check.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.