Your car’s your job. This is why the lack of reliable transportation is a ticket to the unemployment line. So here are some things that you can do to insure success by having good automobile health.
One, always buy a good car with a 100,000 mile warranty from a reputable dealer. Buy new or old new, and stay away from Mom and Pop car dealers if you can. A 100,000 mile warranty’s costs can be thrown in with the payments for a few extra bucks. It’s good to have because it’s auto shop insurance. The key also is to make sure the car the dealer is, again, reputable and will provide loaners through the life of the warranty or at least work shuttles. It’s not the cost here you worry about; it’s not having a car.
Also, always carry insurance that reflects the car’s value. If it’s new, you want to carry insurance so that if an accident totals the car, you don’t still have a payment. Remember, the trade in value falls even if the car’s one day off the dealer’s lot.
You don’t want to be stuck paying on a car that is at the bottom of a lake you backed onto. Don’t over insure your car thinking you will get a big payout either should your car be stolen or is again in our mythical lake. The insurance won’t pay more than the car’s worth no matter how big the policy. There’s insurance to cover you for the time the car is worth less than the payments, but not so your car becomes a little lottery ticket.
Make sure too that you have full tort and also liability for underinsured and uninsured drivers hitting you. Without full tort, it limits your legal actions. Without underinsured and uninsured driver coverage, you get nothing if hurt. and you sue a deadbeat. If you’re driving and hit by someone’s Uncle Wally after he’s on his 2nd quart of gin, you can’t sue a person whose lifesavings are that 2nd quart of gin. This is where underinsured and uninsured driver insurance helps you.
It’s probably wise to carry full collision also. Even a car worth little which you can’t afford to replace with one payment in cash from your own pocket is worth insuring. You’re insuring your job, not the car here. This is why it’s also good to have insurance that will provide a loaner if you have an accident, but also pay you your wages if you get hurt in a car accident. You then have a car for needs and money to pay bills.
Remember, if you die with no life insurance - well,you can’t work if you’re dead anyway. If you do not have any health insurance, while they don’t have to do preventative care, they have to fix broken legs or even do heart surgery (please don’t cancel your life or health insurance, I like these insurances too if done right). But no law will give you another car if the first one dies.
Always talk with an insurance professional. They can look at your needs and set you up for a monthly deduction from your checking so you don’t have to buy insurance 6 months at a time.
And make sure you change the oil at least every 3000 miles or so. I know times are hard, but an oil change is 5 value meals at McDonald's. The roads were designed by engineers on the assumption that people will obey driving laws. If you tailgate or think that roads are only there for you to speed on even in the rain, regardless of the physical laws that govern the planet, good luck because you’ll get hurt one day. Do you think most of the people who cause accidents obey the law?
No one ever died because they had to eat hot dogs for supper to keep down expenses. Forget cost graphs. To insure your job, fully insure your car.
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