Auto insurance for inexperienced drivers

The good news for parents is that getting a license to drive at 16 is no longer the automatic rite of passage it used to be. If we go back to the 1980's, about half all sixteen-year olds applied for licenses on their birthdays. That reduced to less than 30% in 2010. Ignoring the cost problems, the popularity of the internet and hand-held technology means teens can get together virtually. There's not the same pressure to actually meet each other face to face. At a national level, there's also a significant reduction in the number of miles we drive. This is not a recent phenomenon arising from the recession. The vehicle miles traveled has been falling over the last ten years. That's a welcome relief for parents because the death and injury statistics for teens in vehicles is alarming. When you put beginners into situations where there's a high element of danger, it's hardly surprising they make mistakes and injure each other.

To calculate the auto insurance rates, every newly licensed driver is given inexperience points. Should they pick up a ticket or make a claim, there's an increasing chance they will be forced out of the voluntary and into the assigned risk market. This will almost certainly occur if they are caught drunk or affected by drugs. The only way to loose these points is to go through years without a claim.

When a teen has a driving license, the parents must decide whether to add the name to their family policy. If there's any chance the inexperienced driver may drive a family vehicle, failure to insure will be counted as a form of fraud and the policy will be cancelled. But if the teen buys a vehicle in his or her name, a separate policy can be issued. Naturally, it will be more expensive than adding the name to the family policy, but it does teach responsibility to a young driver when the auto insurance rates react so precisely to the way the vehicle is driven.

Cheap Car Rental on the Rise

More people are turning to cheap car rental to meet their transportation needs. Even local residents are using rentals instead of their own cars. Myriad reasons for this have resulted in an increase in car rentals. This trend is expected to continue for a while because of the following factors.

Sluggish Economy

When the economy becomes sluggish people look for cost-saving measures. And one way to achieve those is to give up driving person vehicles and use rentals instead. You can save on repair costs and general maintenance by going this route. Depending on the car, monthly car payments can equal the cost of rent. When you consider that most cars are not in use the majority of the time, this is an expensive proposition. Public transportation is not always an option because it is not available everywhere. However, you can get a rental car practically anywhere.

Fuel Prices

Gas prices continue to rise making it prohibitive for many drivers to use their vehicles beyond required driving. Carpooling is always an option but if everyone involved has larger vehicles or cars that are not fuel-efficient, this may not be a viable cost-saving option. However, if you carpool using a rental car, you have a great opportunity to save money. Everyone can pitch in with the gas and rental fees for savings all around.

Concern for Environment

There is a movement taking place in several countries where people are giving up their cars to protect the environment. The fewer cars on the road, the less carbon emissions will be expelled in the air. While they can walk or bike a certain distance, these individuals still need a vehicle at times to go further distances. Rental cars are ideal in this situation.

Car Enthusiasts

Rental companies that offer sports cars and high-end luxury vehicles offer the perfect solution for car enthusiasts who want to drive different vehicles on a regular basis. Leasing contracts require too much commitment whereas you can rent a car for the weekend. Cheap car rental has many benefits that more people are taking advantage of for a variety of reasons. As people look at different ways to use rental vehicles, it is anticipated that cheap car rental will continue to increase. It is an excellent chance for a rental company to grow its customer base as they meet this new demand for cheap car rental.

How to pay less for insurance: the insurance groups

The theory of buying a new car is always straightforward. You watch Top Gear, see something spectacular, toddle off to the nearest dealer's showroom, plonk down cash and drive away contented. Well, if that's your approach, you're either a company director who gets one of these eye-watering bonuses, or you've never tried to buy and insure a car before. Let's go back to Jeremy Clarkson and his happy band of cartoon-like presenters who often sacrifice intelligent comment for humour. Many of the cars shown are expensive to own and repair. Before you even begin dreaming of buying one of these often sleek speedsters, check which insurance group it belongs to. Remember, you're looking for cheap car insurance.

Until 2010, there were only 20 insurance groups. This reflected a general feeling that insurers could predict the costs of repair with enough accuracy to set premiums. However, following work done by Thatcham, the motor insurance repair research centre, the groupings were expanded to 50. This is now adopted as standard by the Association of British Insurers and Lloyds Market Association. For each group, there's now an estimate of the cost of parts and labour following a crash test at 15 mph. The other factor influenced by Thatcham is vehicle security. This takes account of the locks and any other security features fitted as standard. So the car you would like to buy may be allocated to Group 18 and have an A for an adequate level of security (E shows the security provided exceeds the group expectation, i.e. the car would be shown as a 17E). For obvious reasons, it's unwise to buy a vehicle which has a D or U security classification.

You can benefit from cheap car insurance when the car is in a low group, as a rule. The majority of newly manufactured cars intended for the mass market are within the range 1-20. But do not assume that small underpowered cars will belong to a low group. Some of the Fiat Bravo range are in Group 17, the HGT is in Group 29.

Some news on driverless autos and auto insurance

In the movie Minority Report, Stephen Spielberg has an extended sequence showing cars of the future being assembled and how they drive themselves. It's pleasing how well a film made some ten years ago has been predicting the future. The multitouch computer interfaces are here as are the retina scanners. Facial recognition software is routinely used at airports and other safety-critical locations, and we are now carrying pads around on which we can read the latest newspapers and books. Strangely enough, the driverless vehicles are also on our streets being tested. That might surprise you. Except the states of California and Nevada have already passed laws making it legal to have these vehicles drive you. So what's the problem?

In a sense, we have most of the technology already available off-the-shelf. Cameras can be fitted to give 360 degree vision. Radar can tell the vehicle when anything else is moving nearby. GPS transponders tell the vehicle exactly where it is. Computers can easily be configured to talk to each other so that each vehicle can be told when there's something else nearby on the road. We have voice recognition software which will allow owners to input the desired destination and route preferences. Many of the standard vehicles are already drive-by-wire, i.e. electronic rather than mechanical links to the accelerator, brakes, and so on. All we need are the software packages to interpret all this data and translate it into instructions for the vehicle. For the record, in March, Google announced that its driverless car has traveled over 200,000 miles on roads in all types of traffic conditions. There has not yet been an accident. Indeed, so confident is Google that it has begun discussions both with government and the insurance industry.

The theoretical advantages are enormous. A computer never takes its "eyes" off the road to answer a cell phone or comb its hair. It never drives too close to the vehicle in front. There's no reckless overtaking or speeding. If this technology was adopted across all our roads, the number and seriousness of traffic accidents would be significantly reduced. Given that more than 30,000 people are killed on our roads every year, this would be a major improvement. With the number of accidents falling, insurance costs would fall and premium rates could be reduced. Except we all know technology can break down. There's a world of difference between trusting the PC on your table at home to keep your personal information safe and allowing the same PC to drive you at 70 mph down a busy interstate.

Auto insurance cost reduction in the industry

It seems the discussions with the auto insurance industry have been going well because Google recently announced a more positive testing program for the software. Instead of this being ten or more years in the future, it has lost its speculative nature and could be approved in the next two or three years. The question for you as individual drivers is whether you will surrender your hands-on control to a computer in return for significant reductions in auto insurance rates . It's actually a very good deal and only dangerous if a few reckless people insist on continuing to drive themselves or it amuses hackers to take over vehicles and stage crashes.

How to rent a car and get good service?

Everyone knows the potential advantages of renting a vehicle. You get the freedom of the road and, in those parts of the world where the public transport system is not so hot, it's the only way to get where you want to go in a timely fashion. Yet we all have friends with horror stories about the poor service they received when collecting and returning their vehicles. Allowing for cultural differences and language problems, the first and best step to getting the best service is to write to the renter explaining your needs. Sadly, mental telepathy is still very limited and, unless you tell people what you need, they can only guess. When they guess wrong, you get upset and that's where the problems grow bigger. So a simple list of your needs - trying not to make them sound like a list of demands - will smooth the way. If you arrive and find things still not ready, show the email. This usually produces apologies and more urgent attention to those needs.

How to get the most out of car rental companies

Let's start by thinking about your choice of vehicle. If you have children or a lot of stuff to carry around, remember some countries prefer smaller cars. Telling the renter what size of vehicle you need is essential. Put the other way round, if you want to make the biggest savings, you're going to want the smallest, most fuel-efficient vehicle on the lot. Now come to the driving itself. In the US, we're used to automatic transmissions. In other countries, stick shift is the norm. If you can't drive a stick shift or you're worried about a stick shift using the "wrong" hand (yes, some of these pesky foreigners drive on the other side of the road), tell the renter you want an automatic transmission. Now start thinking about all that stuff. How big is it? For example, if you're off to a ski resort, do you want a rack on the roof to carry your skis and poles? Is one of your children young enough to need a special seat? Better still, if you don't know exactly where you're going, do you want a GPS system?

Now think about where you're proposing to drive. This is not something that needs to be cared in stone, but if you think you may go into different countries, remember to ensure you are carrying all the equipment required under local laws. For example, as of July 1, 2012, the French Government has decided you must carry a breathalyzer. If you fail to produce one when asked by the nice police officer with a gun strapped to his waist, there's an instant fine. It's about $15 a time and these police officers have radios so can ensure you get stopped every mile if you don't smile when asked to pay up. So ask your friendly car rental company to stock up your vehicle with all the mandatory equipment for the countries in which you propose to drive. Ask for a list and know exactly where it is. If you tell a car rental company what you actually need you can receive really good service.

Car insurance and winter driving

For example, did you prepare your vehicle for facing bad weather conditions? After all, it's predictable there will be snow and ice in winter. So did you fit new tires so you would have the maximum possible traction in slippery conditions? Or did you remember to put chains in the trunk so that, when the snow gets deeper, you can still drive reasonably safely? We all know the risk of sliding or skidding out of control. Why then do we fail to take action to protect ourselves and other road users? There are probably several reasons, not the least of which are that this means spending money on buying the chains, some think it inconvenient to fit them, and you cannot drive fast when you have them fitted. The fact local governments may require chains to be fitted as a condition to using the roads in some areas is not considered a reason for action (curiously, there are no chain laws in Florida and Missouri - strange oversight).

Then we come to all those routine maintenance tasks like adding antifreeze and retuning the engine so it's more likely to start when the temperature drops. Did you fit new blades on the windshield to give you better visibility when there's snow fall or a blizzard? And then we come to all the steps to protect you should your vehicle break down or be involved in an accident. Do you have an emergency bag packed with warm clothing and blankets should you need to keep warm while rescue comes? You did remember to charge your cell so you could call for help? If you are making a trip cross-country where signal strength may be low, did you tell people when you were expected so they could send out search and rescue teams?

All these things are basic common sense yet, when the first snows hit, we seem to have forgotten to prepare. If accidents are more likely because of this failure and it's shown to be a regular failure, your car insurance rates will rise. If you have been making claims, the car insurance quotes coming in from other insurers will not be welcoming. No insurer wants to take on someone who fails to prepare in the face of obvious dangers. That's why insurers in the states where the weather is worst offer discounts for drivers who go on defensive driving courses and learn how to drive more safely. Your choice!

Top 10 Stolen Cars in the U.S.

Looking for car insurance quotes? Having a number of car insurance quotes in your possession will give you an insight on what type of insurance you should get and where to get it from but aside from your insurance policy, another thing to consider when you are buying a new car is to ensure that it has all the features you want. Your premium is based on a number of factors - the type and model of car you have, your records at the DMV, and your profile. If you want lower premiums, getting a car that is not in car thieves' hot wheels list is a good idea. Sure you'd be insured with it and you can easily replace your car but filing a claim is a very long process so if you do not want to be inconvenienced by your insurer's processes or protocols, better not get any of these top 10 hot wheels. Here is the list of top 10 stolen cars in the United States in 2011 alone:

• No 10. 2002 Ford Explorer 11, 783 stolen
• No. 9 1999 Ford Taurus 12, 000 stolen
• No. 8 1994 Acura Integra Over 12, 000 stolen
• No. 7 1996 Jeep Cherokee 14, 350 stolen
• No. 6 2000 Dodge Caravan Over 15, 000
• No. 5 2004 Dodge Ram 17, 405 stolen
• No. 4 1997 Ford F-1 About 17, 500 stolen
• No. 3 1989 Toyota Camry Almost 27, 000 stolen
• No. 2 1995 Honda Civic Almost 50, 000 stolen
• No. 1 1994 Honda Accord 55, 170 stolen

As found in Forbes magazine, thieves have been stealing American-made cars since 2002 - preferring these cars over European ones. According to a report by CNBC, supporting what Forbes magazine has published, thieves steal cars that do not draw much attention that is why you didn't see BMWs on this list.

The good news is, if you get a car that is technologically more advanced than the ones in this list, thieves won't try to steal them. This is because of the security these cars provide. Now that you know which models are the favorites of thieves, you can concentrate on getting a car that is not on this list and then look at car insurance quotes afterwards. If you do not have an idea where to get your coverage yet, go to a car insurance quotes comparison site asap.