Maybe your insurance company calls the coverage by different names than mine. At Travelers:
Liability: Required by law. Covers any damage you do to other peoples property, and personal injury to yourself, occupants in your car, and anyone else in an accident you cause.
Comprehensive: Covers fire, theft, vanalism, broken windows… but not damage resulting from an accident that you cause.
Collision: Covers damage to your car in an accident that you caused.
Some companies wont give you comprehensive coverage unless you also have collision coverage. Over the years they have learned that people will wreck their own cars, then report them as stolen - so most require you to have both, unless maybe the car is off the road (a collectors item stored in a garage).
I talked to a boss of mine whos owned 7 Audis over the past 8-9 years (long story) but he said the average insurance for a mid 90s A4 is $150-$250, right around where I expected.
I’ve worked on computers on/off since I was 14, washed dishes (20 hours a week) under the table coming up 9 months now and just got back from a job interview at Staples (I got it!) for another 15-20 hours a week. I’m the person that when you go out with your friends, goes to the matinee cinema (unless its snakes on a plane, tonight!) to save money. I’ve wanted a nice car since I was like 8 and now that I have the money, I want to buy something nice.
It’ll also be paid off in full the day I buy it, but I’m still debating C&C coverage. I’ll have to see how much extra it would cost me.
Vespas are a good idea, I’m actually planning on getting a sport bike if I move somewhere with a nicer climate for college. The problem is the New England winters, if you don’t have 4 wheel drive (or quattro awd :D) don’t expect to go anywhere.
I was also considering a cheaper car, like the VW Jetta or GTI. However the awd, leather seats, moonroof and overall luxury of Audi switched me over. They also aren’t tooo expensive. A '98 A4 Quattro with a V6 2.8l (174hp) and about 100k miles on it can be had for around the $8,000 mark.
I got my license in the fall of 1999 and was very careful about driving. Winter of '99 was a whole different story, at the time I was driving a 1991 Dodge Spirit and I had a heck of a time in the winter from my lack of experience.
It’s nice your going and buying a nice Audi, but even with AWD your not invincible in the snow (as much as Audi claims to be). So just be careful, and think about your choice of car at this point in time, maybe like previously posted, a beater to get used to driving for ~ a year or so and continue saving your money up for an even better car (or newer A4).
Thanks, I am getting my license in November but am not totally sure when I’m getting the car. A part of me says “now!” but another is telling me to wait until February, when the snow gets lighter. I also think waiting will help me get a lower price, since it is now seen as another year older (2007 instead of 2006).
I want to add something that I forgot to mention and no one else did either.
If you increase your deductible it will lower your rates.
If you can afford it (if you ever need to make a claim) go for a $500 or $1000 deductible instead of $100 or no deductible at all.
How’s this work? If you have a $100 deductible and then you have $750 in damages then you pay the first $100 and then the insurance covers the rest, $650. If you can afford to pay more out of your pocket in case of incident, the less your carrier has to pay, the less you will pay for coverage.
Body style of the vehicle will also affect the rates. You pay less for 4 drs and wagons than you do for 2 drs.
Some insurance companys also ask about the registration type. Here in CT some companies charge more for a “Combination” registration/plates than a regular one. You don’t have to worry about this with an Audi but here in CT it has to be taken into account with most pick-ups and some full size vans that CT won’t allow to be registered without ‘stepping’ up the registration to “Combination” even though the vehicle will NEVER be used for work purposes.
Maybe, maybe not. Some places have embraced gender equity in law, and insurance companies cannot charge different rates for males and females. I also suspect that the accident rates between teen girls and guys has converged.
why do you think that now, after people have been driving for approximately 100 years, that teenage boys no longer like to hot-rod and show off once they get behind the wheel?
or is there some other reason behind your suspicions?
LOL! I think the shrinking difference between teen girl and guy rates may be because the girls have finally realized how cool it is to “hot-rod and show off once they get behind the wheel.”
I was basing this on the disparity between my son’s initial rates for driving one of the family cars, vs my daughter’s rate two years later. His rate was about 30% higher.
My sister just got her insurance yesterday. I think she might be a guy because she now pays more than I do with the same plan. She drives a '97 Hyundai Elantra. 4 door whatnot. $750 every 6 months. Mine’s only about $500 every 6 months. I would check my bill but I just threw it out.
but thats what insurance is - spreading the misery out over a large group of people, so that no one person has to spend the rest of his life paying millions of dollars
because he blacked out behind the wheel and ran into a microbus full of Nuns carrying boxes of kittens to the disabled children at the outreach center!
At the end of the year the insurance companies add up how much they have paid out in claims, and divide it between their customers, based on their best assestment of the risks each group represents.
They dont pull those numbers out of the air (or anywhere else) - its based on what actually happens on the roadways during the previous year.
If all of a sudden *everyone * stopped having accidents, insurance rates would plummet!
Talked to my insurance company and got some quotes. A 1990 F150 would cost me $171 a month to insure, while the Audi would only be $184. This is now sitting in my driveway:
1998 A4 4cyl 1.8T Quattro 5 speed
Sport package (different suspension setup/rims/some other little things)
Cold weather package (heated seats/steering wheel/driver side lock)
Convenience package (Keyless entry, power everything)
Luxury package (leather)
With the marginal difference in insurance costs you might as well get the vehicle you wanted.
How many miles? I see you got it from a dealer so it sounds like you have a warranty of some sort.
The only thing I’d worry about is see how it is in the snow. Having all wheel drive is one thing but some of the performance tires don’t do well in snow. You might have to get different tires or if you like the current tires get a second set of rims and mount other tires for the winter. Before you do anything you’ll have to see how it is in the first few storms.
I guess I’ll get to see it at one of the meetings coming up.
