Buy The Right Make And Model

By Author: Norris Rios
Total Articles: 572
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The world of insurance is ruled by the actuaries. These are the statistical wizards who collect every last piece of information there's to be found on every traffic accident since man first invented the wheel. They know which makes and models are most likely to crash in different road and weather conditions. They also know which are most attractive to thieves. Some are easy to steal. Others are for the joyriders to be seen in. When you put all these statistics together, the insurers have a head start, but the government has been trying to catch up in its own way. There's now an independent agency with the mission of testing the vehicles on the road. This is the ultimate game for boys who liked to break toys. Now they have the chance to do it with real vehicles, replacing driver and passengers with crash-test dummies and recording everything in slo-mo. This parallels the statistics by providing a detailed critique of the design and engineering of the vehicles. In collaboration with the manufacturers, the aim is to produce the safest possible vehicle consistent with affordability.

When you go out to buy, whether new or ...
... secondhand, it's as well to know how your possible purchases did in the tests. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety publishes crashworthiness ratings for all the makes and models available from conventional showrooms. You should then tie this information to the rates charged by the insurers. Needless to say, the lowest rates are always given to the safest vehicles where the statistical loss evidence shows the lowest repair costs. Armed with this information, you can start talking to the dealers and see what package deal you can put together that finances the vehicle you are comfortable with and can afford to insure.

As to secondhand, it used to be possible to pick up real bargains but these vehicles are getting harder to find. With the recession, more people are holding on to their cars. In the days when credit was cheap, drivers would trade in at the end of each year. Similarly, fleet and leased cars used to flow on to the market. Now everyone is economizing, finding it less costly to maintain and repair their aging vehicles than to buy new. With a shortage of supply, secondhand prices are stubbornly higher than before the recession. This complicates the buying process because it now depends on the accident of what you can find offered for sale plus your negotiating skills to get a good deal. The best place to start your research is with Kiplinger's rankings which put together the numbers on performance and safety to show what represents good value. Edmunds also gives good guidelines of prices. Among the best to look out for are the 2008 Honda CR-V LX and the 2009 Ford Fusion SE.

Since it's free to use sites like this, you can get sample car insurance quotes before you set out to shop around. Alternatively, if you have internet access from the car showrooms and lots, you can do a search for car insurance quotes on each make and model as you go. That way, you can find out whether you can afford to put each set of wheels on the road.