Wednesday, Feb 27 2008 | 17:59:04
Insurance Dilemmas
It's been a while since I've made a blog post. Almost a full year. Geez. Oh well.
As a lot of my friends and family know, last November I bought an SUV. Pictures are in the gallery if you're interested. However, some recent debate over on Fane's blog led me to dig deeper into facts and figures. Mostly, gas mileage and insurance premiums. To a lesser degree, environmentalism, but I'm not overly concerned about that.
To the point: I have two vehicles. The first is a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder (aka "Pathy"), a mid-sized SUV, which I currently drive. The second is my 1995 Chevy Lumina, a mid-sized sedan, which has been sitting in my parent's front yard ever since I bought the Pathfinder. The milage on the Pathy is 15/19MPG city/hwy, with an average of 17 in mixed driving. The Lumina gets 21/30MPG, averaging 24MPG.
Some quick number crunching and an insurance quote later, I've found that if I added liability insurance on my Lumina, it'd cost me an extra $45 a month. However, if I used my Lumina to drive to work instead of my Pathy, that's a savings of $51 a month. Note that this:
(a) assumes I will drive my Pathy everywhere else,
(b) reflects that my Pathy takes premium gas, the Lumina doesn't,
(c) only includes liability insurance on the Lumina, not collision or comprehensive, and
(d) assumes gas prices will remain stable (ha!).
The more I drive my Lumina, the more I save. Driving the Lumina to my parents every weekend instead of the Pathy will save an extra $20/month, for example, and I rarely need my Pathy out there.
Two things go against my plan, though. For one, the engine and transmission in the Lumina is fine, but in the last two years I've done a lot of "reactive maintenance" (my fancy phrase for fixing or replacing parts as they break). That's time, money, and insecurity... but I do enjoy fixing things, and have AMA just in case things go bad while I'm on the road. Also, parts for an old, domestic car are cheap and plentiful at the pick-a-part lot. In addition to fixing things as they break, I'll now have to do preventative maintenance (e.g. fluid and filter changes) on two vehicles instead of one.
Secondly, the Lumina's tires aren't completely bald, but are worn enough for me to deem it unsafe on snowy or icy roads. And new tires on a 13-year-old vehicle is out of the question in my books. Incidentially, this is the main factor that "drove" me to buy an SUV -- a safe 4WD vehicle for winter. So, I'd only be driving the Lumina from March - October (that being an optimistic estimate). I'd also only give these tires 15,000 - 20,000km of life left (adding a bit of generosity in).
An extra third issue is that I still owe money on the Lumina, so driving it instead of selling it will cost a bit. The Bank of Mom and Dad are usually generous with their loan terms, however.
If I'm able to juggle insurance coverage so (a) my Lumina only has fire/theft coverage during the winter, and (b) my Lumina is my primary vehicle (and Pathy pleasure-only) during the non-winter months, this could be a feasible plan.
Disclaimer: This all assumes I'm able to start the Lumina. I haven't used it since late November and was unable to jump-start it last month (granted, in -20*C weather).
As a lot of my friends and family know, last November I bought an SUV. Pictures are in the gallery if you're interested. However, some recent debate over on Fane's blog led me to dig deeper into facts and figures. Mostly, gas mileage and insurance premiums. To a lesser degree, environmentalism, but I'm not overly concerned about that.
To the point: I have two vehicles. The first is a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder (aka "Pathy"), a mid-sized SUV, which I currently drive. The second is my 1995 Chevy Lumina, a mid-sized sedan, which has been sitting in my parent's front yard ever since I bought the Pathfinder. The milage on the Pathy is 15/19MPG city/hwy, with an average of 17 in mixed driving. The Lumina gets 21/30MPG, averaging 24MPG.
Some quick number crunching and an insurance quote later, I've found that if I added liability insurance on my Lumina, it'd cost me an extra $45 a month. However, if I used my Lumina to drive to work instead of my Pathy, that's a savings of $51 a month. Note that this:
(a) assumes I will drive my Pathy everywhere else,
(b) reflects that my Pathy takes premium gas, the Lumina doesn't,
(c) only includes liability insurance on the Lumina, not collision or comprehensive, and
(d) assumes gas prices will remain stable (ha!).
The more I drive my Lumina, the more I save. Driving the Lumina to my parents every weekend instead of the Pathy will save an extra $20/month, for example, and I rarely need my Pathy out there.
Two things go against my plan, though. For one, the engine and transmission in the Lumina is fine, but in the last two years I've done a lot of "reactive maintenance" (my fancy phrase for fixing or replacing parts as they break). That's time, money, and insecurity... but I do enjoy fixing things, and have AMA just in case things go bad while I'm on the road. Also, parts for an old, domestic car are cheap and plentiful at the pick-a-part lot. In addition to fixing things as they break, I'll now have to do preventative maintenance (e.g. fluid and filter changes) on two vehicles instead of one.
Secondly, the Lumina's tires aren't completely bald, but are worn enough for me to deem it unsafe on snowy or icy roads. And new tires on a 13-year-old vehicle is out of the question in my books. Incidentially, this is the main factor that "drove" me to buy an SUV -- a safe 4WD vehicle for winter. So, I'd only be driving the Lumina from March - October (that being an optimistic estimate). I'd also only give these tires 15,000 - 20,000km of life left (adding a bit of generosity in).
An extra third issue is that I still owe money on the Lumina, so driving it instead of selling it will cost a bit. The Bank of Mom and Dad are usually generous with their loan terms, however.
If I'm able to juggle insurance coverage so (a) my Lumina only has fire/theft coverage during the winter, and (b) my Lumina is my primary vehicle (and Pathy pleasure-only) during the non-winter months, this could be a feasible plan.
Disclaimer: This all assumes I'm able to start the Lumina. I haven't used it since late November and was unable to jump-start it last month (granted, in -20*C weather).
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