Yep as we all know it is always the tree’s fault. 
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I dropped collision, got rear ended I had to do a lot of time with the other insurance company. They halved the repair estimate by getting used parts. Collision no matter what the deductible my insurance company would have saved me a whole lot of time and trouble.
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That’s one component. The other is whether no having collision causes angst. For a couple hundreds bucks a year, it might be worth it to have one less thing to worry about. I’m sure it was stated above that it depends on what you can afford.
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If you do not feel like you can trust your insurance agent (or any agent for that matter…) perhaps it’s time to shop around for another insurance company.
I do not know your driving record (you may drive only a short distance but have racked up a boatload of violations…). There are many companies that offer savings to attract clients. Stay away from those companies that advertise to attract bad-drivers (those who will insure anyone-accidents or tickets…). Most cases, if you need them, even their accident assessors are sub-contractors who work out of parking lots.
I know, I have a nephew whose only experience with automobiles is a high-school auto class and the insurance company’s accident assessment class. When he examines your car, he has no equipment to perform any real examination and when he looks at a car, it’s in a parking lot, your driveway, or the wrecking yard…
There is also the theory that major insurance companies have a “Loyalty Penalty” It goes like this, when a client is with an insurance company for a long time, they do not need to do much to keep you. They even charge you more than you should because they know you’ll stick around even if your discounts are not as much as other folks are getting.
I had no accidents or tickets for decades and have an outstanding 800 plus FICO score. And I often see my rates increase most years. But State Farm did me good when our house got tornado damage (excess or $100K) and when I took an overhead awning off a gas station with the A/C unit on my RV 25-years ago.
As for the RV, they paid for all repairs, they paid for our hotel, they paid for our meals and they even paid for a rental car, even though we still had the use of the tow-car… What’s more, they paid $3k for the loss of the use of the RV while it was being repaired.
Let’s be totally honest, Insurance is a total Waste of Money, right up to the moment you need it…
Call me stupid, but I have written in the past that one of my vehicles is my wife’s '85 Toyota Corolla that she bought new, it has over 200K miles on it and we have often been asked if we are willing to sell it. My wife will never let it go and any repair it needs, it will get… We still carry Full Coverage on it… And as a side joke, we are often asked why we do not put Antique plates on it as it easily qualifies at 37 years old. The insurance would even be cheaper… But my wife say that since her Toyota is a she, my wife says a lady neve gives her age away; hence, no antique plates and no discount…
But as they say, Happy Wife, happy Life…
Drive Safe…
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In Minnesota the collector plates severely restrict the use of the vehicle. Can’t use it for normal driving, etc. So just not the thing to do if you like the car and drive it.
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It generally makes sense to keep comprehensive and collision coverage on a car as long as it’s worth at least $3000. Once it’s worth less than that, the insurance is useless, because even the most minor damage would result in the vehicle being declared a total loss, and (if you wanted to keep it) being branded with a salvage title.
I still have comprehensive and collision insurance on my 2004 Corolla, which I bought new for about $16k, and is still worth approximately $4k. My other vehicles were bought used for less than $3k each, and don’t have this coverage. Interestingly, with today’s crazy car prices, my truck which cost less than $2k to buy, and I put another $1200 worth of parts and new tires into is probably worth over $5k today.
Fortunately, here in Arizona, the “historic vehicle” registration has no such restrictions. Any model qualifies as long as it’s at least 25 years past the manufacture date. When I get my Sundance put back together and running, I plan to register it as a historic vehicle with the special license plate.
It’s now the same in NJ. There used to be a 3k miles per year limit, but they removed that restriction. And, although there is a fee for the initial historic vehicle registration, subsequent renewals are free.
Guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet don’t have insurance of any kind. Billionaires insure themselves. I’m not a Billionaire so I have insurance.
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One of my best reasons for dropping the collision on, let’s say, a $5000 car is that I know I can afford a $5000 loss. I also have driven for 60 years without an accident that is my fault. I had collision all the time I could not afford the loss. But, now I know if I have an accident, I have no need whatsoever to deal with an insurance company that is out to minimize its responsibility. I have the freedom to do whatever I want with the car. If I want to repair the car when the insurance company doesn’t, or if I want to total the car when the insurance company doesn’t, I get to make my own decisions. The responder who is paying for collision on a 1984 Corolla will find that the value of the car is less than the deductible. I recommend that he just lie to his wife about the coverage if she is working totally from an emotional position.
I was not specific enough, in Virginia there are several levels of “antique plating.” There is the Permanent Vintage Plate (Black in color) that the VA charges a one-time $50 fee for and the plates are valid for as long as you own the car and these plates have very severe restrictions on the use of the vehicle. No state safety inspection nor insurance is required…
Next, there is the Permanent Antique Plate (Yellow in color) and this also has severe restrictions. But you can also have Antique plates without restrictions (called Everyday Drivers…). To have these, you will still have to renew the plates each year, pass the yearly safety inspection, and maintain vehicle insurance, but the plates are the antique yellow plates with expirations stickers on the corners.
This third option is the one that I was writing about; as it turns out, apparently the insurance company has not yet caught on to the “unrestricted antique plate” option and if I were to plate the car with this type of antique plate, I would receive significate savings.
If you don’t trust your insurance agent, it’s time to find a new agent… We’ve been with the same insurance company for 20 years, and I’ve always felt I could trust his advice. We’ve got 5 vehicles, and three drivers (One teen). Soon to be adding another teen…
Two cars are summer weekend toys, and we drop insurance down to comprehensive over the winter (in case of tree falling on garage, or theft)
We also have stated value coverage on those “collector cars”
With no accidents or speeding tickets for either of us in the last 25 years, our car insurance (full coverage, even though our vehicles are long paid off) is actually very affordable.
In my opinion, I’d keep full coverage on a vehicle that I would have to clean out my bank account to replace if I did total it. Hence us having full coverage on our 20 year old vehicles. It would cost me 15k-20k to replace my truck with a comparable model. Same for my wifes SUV.
I checked and see that I can get collision coverage with a $2500 deductible for $180 a year.
So I’m rethinking my stance in my previous post, considering the current used car market.
My car is going for the same $20,000 I paid 4 years ago when it was 1 y.o.
Scrapyard-John and oldnotdeadyet have the best answer to your question:
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