Best coverage for auto insurance for...

[BimmerRookie]

an....

1) under 25 year-old single male
2) no accidents or claims
3) first time buyer
4) preferably covered with OEM repairs

for my e93 M.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

I just moved to Texas...so I've gotta change my registration and all that jazz.

[bdaddylo]

Get a quote from Amica. I believe their coverage also covers DEs.

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by bdaddylo

Get a quote from Amica. I believe their coverage also covers DEs.

This. I moved to Austin from San Francisco and got Amica. They've been amazing in many different ways that I've already written about multiple times in various threads here. They were also somehow the cheapest out of the 12 or so companies I researched back in 2009, but people who have gotten quotes more recently have found Amica on the high end for them -- not sure why. They're fantastic though. Also keep in mind that if you're comparing monthly rates, Amica uses 10 monthly payments for 12 months of coverage (so you go 2 months with no payment), so their rate might seem higher than it actually is when viewed that way.

As for OEM parts, few if any insurers provide that as standard. Some allow you to purchase an OEM parts only amendment to the standard policy, but otherwise the way to go there is just to agree to pay the difference between the parts they'd use and the OEM parts you want.

Otherwise, State Farm and Liberty Mutual seem fairly popular here. The latter offers a discount for BMW CCA members. And of course when you turn 25 you'll get a healthy discount no matter who's covering you. Getting married helps too.

General advice though: Carry at least 100/300/100 liability limits. It's good protection from insane lawsuits (and insane medical bills) these days, and later on you'll get a discount for having a history of carrying high liability limits, especially if you switch insurers in the future. I have 250/500/200, fwiw. I've also found that a lower deductible isn't cost-effective unless you expect to have an accident every year or so. You can run the math yourself, but if you'll always have enough in the bank to cover any incidents, I'd go for a $1000 deductible. If on the other hand you don't have much in savings and might not be able to afford that, pay more per month for a lower deductible.

[BimmerRookie]

I have quite a beefy salary, but ultimately, nobody wants to spend more money than they have to. I'll take a look into it, thanks a bunch guys! It'll actually be awhile before I bring my M down here to Houston tho, I kinda wanna get used to driving the roads here and finding all the crappy potholes and such.

[Phiberoptik]

Originally Posted by BimmerRookie

I have quite a beefy salary, but ultimately, nobody wants to spend more money than they have to. I'll take a look into it, thanks a bunch guys! It'll actually be awhile before I bring my M down here to Houston tho, I kinda wanna get used to driving the roads here and finding all the crappy potholes and such.

Beefy as in $200,000/year?

[MikeD]

Best coverage or best price?

What is your FICO score?

[AUTiger13]

I am in the exact same boat as you OP. 24 years old, '11.75 e93 M3, and no accident/ticket history. I have Farmers with 100/300/100, OEM parts, etc and am paying out the ass. I just moved to Houston too but my insurance agent searched around to find the best deal while still having good coverage. I'm paying over $4k a year...

Not trying to thread jack, but on my insurance paperwork, they listed the full replacement cost of my car as the sticker price, not the actual price I paid for the vehicle a year ago (~ a $25k difference). Is this typical?

[Beemdog]

When I hit 25 the insurance cost on my then-owned 911 C2 went down by nearly half. Half! Your discount is coming, just need to grow older (ulp)...

[jimk]

If you are a BMW CCA member, Liberty Mutual offers a plan with OEM parts coverage:

https://www.bmwcca.org/membershipbenefits/discounts

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by AUTiger13

I am in the exact same boat as you OP. 24 years old, '11.75 e93 M3, and no accident/ticket history. I have Farmers with 100/300/100, OEM parts, etc and am paying out the ass. I just moved to Houston too but my insurance agent searched around to find the best deal while still having good coverage. I'm paying over $4k a year...

Not trying to thread jack, but on my insurance paperwork, they listed the full replacement cost of my car as the sticker price, not the actual price I paid for the vehicle a year ago (~ a $25k difference). Is this typical?

I think they always list the MSRP of the car there and then calculate depreciation based on various factors. The price you paid isn't technically relevant to market value, after all. For example, if someone had given you the car as a gift and you totaled it later, it wouldn't be reasonable for insurance to tell you, "Well you didn't pay anything to acquire it, so we don't owe you anything to make you whole again now that you've lost it."

As for what you're paying, look forward to turning 25. When I got a quote at 22 for the 08 Acura TL Type-S I had then, it would have cost me $430/month in San Francisco; fortunately my parents let me stay on their policy then and pay them the difference on their premiums, which was still about half that. I'm now 28, married, and living in Austin, and with an Amica policy including 2 cars and one apartment, the M3 with 250/500/200 coverage and a $1K deductible is costing me $64/month.

Meanwhile, my 22-year-old sister who just graduated is paying $85/month for a 99 Jeep Grand Cherokee in South Bend, IN with Liberty Mutual. But State Farm and Amica each wanted about $145. I'd love to see what in those companies' algorithms created such a huge discrepancy in quoted rate there....

[RR-NYC]

Good God, I forgot how expensive insurance is for younger drivers although these rates still look very high. I was 20 when I got my E30 M3 and my insurance was $1400 in 1988. I'm 45 now and my insurance for my 2011 M3 is $1116 yr through Geico.

As far as OEM replacement parts, I don't know if there are policies or riders to cover that. The best way around it is to always take it to a BMW body shop for repairs. They won't install aftermarket parts as far as I know.

I hit some road debris in my MB C32 that Geico estimated to be $9k I took it to MB Manhattan and it ended up to be $13k in damage - all OEM

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by RR-NYC

Good God, I forgot how expensive insurance is for younger drivers although these rates still look very high. I was 20 when I got my E30 M3 and my insurance was $1400 in 1988. I'm 45 now and my insurance for my 2011 M3 is $1116 yr through Geico.

As far as OEM replacement parts, I don't know if there are policies or riders to cover that. The best way around it is to always take it to a BMW body shop for repairs. They won't install aftermarket parts as far as I know.

I hit some road debris in my MB C32 that Geico estimated to be $9k I took it to MB Manhattan and it ended up to be $13k in damage - all OEM

Apparently Liberty Mutual has an OEM parts replacement program, with the only fine print being "Except where prohibited by state law." But just because you go to a shop that won't install non-OEM parts doesn't mean the insurance company will pay for it. But conversely, just because you might have an insurance policy that doesn't specify OEM parts replacement doesn't mean you can't demand it as long as you're willing to pay the difference over the non-OEM parts you'd have gotten otherwise.

[W///]

I can't say about the rest, but personally I would advise against Geico.

Was with them for 5 years, 0 accidents, not even a parking ticket. They ended up dropping my M3 for a very very silly excuse which I will go into detail here.

My friend also got in a small accident in his E39 M5. Even though it was the lady's fault, they only changed the bumper (don't know if it was OEM or not), only changed 1 bumper trim instead of both, and refused to paint the hood to blend it in with the rest of the front end.

So to hell with them. I've heard of plenty of other horror stories from guys that work at a body shop I trust (like them refusing to use OEM paint).

[AUTiger13]

I sure am looking forward to 25, too bad I still have one year of rediculousness until then. I did, however, just receive a safe driving discount of $112 a month though. I used to pay over $5k/yr when I first got my own insurance.

[RR-NYC]

True but as the car owner, I choose the repair shop and not them. Insurance companies have an obligation to act in good faith. If they refuse to pay for the work because the shop only installs OEM, what's their argument going to be if it goes to litigation? That the parts are too genuine?

I've had a handful of claims in my years of driving all nice cars. Not once was I or the dealer forced to use aftermarket parts. That's why the insurance companies push "recommended" or "preferred" shops, because those are the guys who will put whatever is cheapest

[Rggity]

Just to add some more data:

Age: 25
Single
Houston
zip code inside of 610
One accident ever, happened last December, got rear ended on 183 in Austin while driving my Father's 5 series
First time insurance buyer (don't know if that factors into algorithms)
2011 e92 m3

Shopped around, cheapest quote was Geico at $170/month at state min (comprehensive and collision of course). After entering accident information, went up to a little over $200 a month, I lump summed for $1301 for 6 months.

[sgrinavi]

Originally Posted by BimmerRookie

I have quite a beefy salary....

Who say's that?

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by RR-NYC

True but as the car owner, I choose the repair shop and not them. Insurance companies have an obligation to act in good faith. If they refuse to pay for the work because the shop only installs OEM, what's their argument going to be if it goes to litigation? That the parts are too genuine?

I've had a handful of claims in my years of driving all nice cars. Not once was I or the dealer forced to use aftermarket parts. That's why the insurance companies push "recommended" or "preferred" shops, because those are the guys who will put whatever is cheapest

They won't refuse to pay for the work. They'll pay for the labor at whatever rate they negotiate with the shop, and they'll also pay the cost of the aftermarket parts, whether you use those parts or not -- but if you want something better than that, the difference would come out of your pocket. The insurance company's argument would simply be, "Our policy with you states that we pay for parts that we deem equivalent, not necessarily OEM. If aftermarket parts that we consider suitable are available at a lower cost, that's the amount we'll pay. The shop you chose is not willing to work within that policy, so while it's true that you are not obligated to use only certain shops, we are also not obligated to play by the rules of whatever shop you choose. Therefore you can either choose a new shop or pay the difference." Frankly I see that argument holding up perfectly fine under litigation. But at the same time, I have a hard time imagining a situation where there isn't enough damage for the car to be totaled but still enough that the difference between what insurance will pay and what the shop wants makes litigation potentially cost-effective. I'm thinking that another way a lot of this becomes academic is that many of the really expensive parts on a car don't have aftermarket alternatives because it only makes sense for aftermarket companies to offer parts that get replaced often, like bumpers and glass and such.

But the bottom line is that the fact that you get to choose your own shop doesn't mean that the insurance company will pay whatever that shop wants (for either parts or labor) just because the shop says, "Hey, that's our policy." Good faith does not mean paying for whatever the customer wants even if it's over and above the terms of the policy. If you've never had a problem getting OEM parts by using certain shops, then you're fortunate. My point is simply that going to a shop that only does OEM does not guarantee that your insurance company will pay the full cost of those parts.

[BimmerRookie]

Beefy as in 100K+ (for a very recent college grad), I said that to avoid all the comments like "if you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Thanks for the info guys, I'm really a first time insurance buyer and like I said above, I don't meet the criteria for the best rate, so I'm trying to weigh my options.

I'm looking for the best coverage I can get without paying out of the a$$

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by sgrinavi

Who say's that?

In my experience, it's almost always somebody in the financial sector. But it sounds like the OP should fit into Houston culture just fine, even if Dallas might be an even better fit.

[AUTiger13]

Originally Posted by BimmerRookie

Beefy as in 100K+ (for a very recent college grad), I said that to avoid all the comments like "if you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Thanks for the info guys, I'm really a first time insurance buyer and like I said above, I don't meet the criteria for the best rate, so I'm trying to weigh my options.

I'm looking for the best coverage I can get without paying out of the a$$

Congrats on the job and car.

If you want good coverage, your going to get shafted. Houston isn't know to having the best drivers either. Also, make sure you opt for uninsured driver protection. I have it for a peace of mind factor.

[BimmerRookie]

Not financial sector, but Oil and Gas.

yeah i've been noticing that Houston drivers aren't too careful, which isn't settling by any means