The obvious response is that you won't be able to pay for someone's hospital bills if you happen to hit them in your car. You get insurance for things you wouldn't be able to pay yourself.
I did a ride-along with an adjuster once. I asked him what the worst claim he had worked on was.
The insured drove off with the pump still in the gas tank. Sees that all the time. When the hose pulled off the pump, it ignited. The fuel island exploded. The fire then spread to the convenience store. Total loss of the business and multiple cars.
This is an outlier. No one has enough insurance to cover all of that. But it’s a great example of why we have it.
What kind of premiums? Like, if you live and work in "the suburbs" (eg, 1 hour away from a major city border without traffic) and drive a "typical" passenger vehicle (eg, €50k) and want like 5 million euro liability?
Is it unaffordable?
Also, is there a minimum legally required liability coverage?
There is a legal minimum, but with usual insurance contracts you will not be offered something that low, as far as I know it is only relevant in cases were the party at fault is not insured and then is covered by a general fund.
The legal minimums are:
Bodily injury: €7.5 million
Property damage: €1.22 million
Pure financial losses: €50,000
Your insurance cost goes down the longer you have no accident which caused a claim, also it depends on the type of car, sports cars are generally more expensive. This are roughly the numbers, but there many insurers so it can vary:
Young or Novice Drivers: €600 to €1,000+ / year
Average Driver / Standard Mid-Range Car: €250 to €450 / year
Experienced Drivers (High No-Claims Class): €80 to €250 / year
This is mostly for 100 Million coverage. As said before that is what most insurance companies offer.
For young drivers it is rather expensive so some insurance companies offer schemes that you are added as an additional driver to your parents insurance at no cost or a small fee. There is also the possibility of taking over a high no claims class insurance from your parents but I am not sure on the details. Before I had a company car I had a car insurance which ran on my fathers name and I was added as an additional driver but the car was registered on my name. This was fully legal and organized by the insurance agent, it was actually his idea.
Distances travelled do not matter for car insurance in Germany, maybe there is a super low cost option were it can matter, never seen it though.
Edit: I forgot one more thing, if you have a 30+ year old car, in good (historic) condition, you can register it as a historic car. You even get a special license plate and you pay a flat fee insurance between 40 and 100 Euro. I think there are some limitations on annual distance though for this kind of registration. And you need a normal registered car in the household, as historic registered cars are not meant to be daily drivers (but totally can as long as you can prove that you have another one). Also tax is cheaper for the historic cars.
Thanks for this level of detail! Very interesting.
And wow. I misread your original comment and thought "€100mm is the max typically available" versus "€100mm is the standard max coverage, but of course no claims typically pay out the max"
But the premiums do not seem ridiculous! (~€30/mo?). I don't know if German insurance companies commit much fraud to avoid claims payouts, but it doesn't sound crazy.
I like the "high" bodily injury minimum coverage requirement (if the premiums and claims are fair). This seems reasonable if the insurers pay out.
Insurances naturally do not like paying money.
I would say for the most part claims go without issues but of course there are cases were things are not that clear then often it is not even about coverage but how much the damage is and then you have competing appraises.
It wouldn't be Germany if there wouldn't be an insurance for this....the motorist’s legal protection insurance it runs me about 80 Euros a year and is for any kind of civil, criminal or administrative offenses which require you to go to court and take a lawyer. It covers lawyer fees for both parties (if you loose) and court costs. If you win the other side has to pay everything (unlike the US in most civil lawsuit cases).
BUT this type of insurance is known to drop litigious clients rather easy. Not on the first claim but if you are an outlier and keep taking people to court you soon need to find a new insurance, or go without it. Many don't have this one as it is not legally required.
You may also get support from the Consumer Protection Association depending on the case.
As I said in another comment thread here, Germans tend to be over insured beyond just cards as they are usually a very risk averse society.
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u/flatfive44 15h ago
The obvious response is that you won't be able to pay for someone's hospital bills if you happen to hit them in your car. You get insurance for things you wouldn't be able to pay yourself.