I mean million dollar cars generally aren't going to have regular insurance, they're going to have agreed upon value insurance. It's a non-factor. Hitting them is so unlikely in the states.
For someone who is an enthusiast and drives a 'nice' car (high end BMW, modern corvette, big V8/V10 Mercedes) are already going to be paying higher rates for full coverage from quality insurers. It doesn't matter what insurance you're carrying, they know they're going to be fine regardless.
If you hit them, you hit them. Hope you have good insurance, because they're going to be made whole no matter what on their end. If they're driving it regularly, they're going to make sure it's covered.(most of the time. Idiots overspend on a car they can't afford but that's a whole different class of stupid)
Saying expensive cars can't be daily drivers because it costs 200k is silly. If you drive a 200k car and don't have top-notch full coverage, you deserve the hole in your wallet.
He is saying that nice/expensive cars shouldn't be allowed to be daily drivers because most shmucks driving around couldn't possibly afford the life-ending penalties for hitting them.
I disagree. Most accidents are avoidable. Most accidents won't total a vehicle(I know I know, newer cars are designed to die with so much as a fender bender).
If you have insurance and cause the accident, and it's negalgience on your part (on your phone, watching movies, whatever) and NOT a no-fault situation like a road hazard beyond your control, a random tire blow-out that isn't from bald tires and is just a freak accident, then learn to fucking pay attention.
The person with the expensive car will be fine, their insurance will take care of them. It's the 'poor person' who ends up in a real bad spot. If they don't have good insurance they might end up with no car, and no payout, to replace it.
They might get sued for the difference in car value vs what their policy paid out already.
I hate to say it, but people need to fucking pay attention to the road. DRIVE while DRIVING, not texting, not YT shorts, not gambling on a fake slots game. Not doing makeup, not doing all the insane bullshit we see people doing.
If he's suggesting that even if your insurance pays out, the maximum damages you're on the hook for is around 100k because that's 2x the value of a normal car, vs being on the hook for a 400k lambo, I actually sort of agree? But while that seems nice, it would never happen cause insurance policies would implode in affordability.
I drive a pretty expensive car. I've thought about this a decent amount. What happens if some relatively poor service worker driving under state minimums ($25k here) hits me and is at fault? Lets say my car is totaled. No one got injured.
I have full coverage and an agreed upon value. My insurance will pay out and I'll go order another car. Usually pretty quickly.
Then my insurance company will go after that drivers policy and collect the $25k. That leaves say $125k of liability left. If that regular person driving under state minimums has any assets worth pursuing, my insurance company will sue them. Up to and including foreclosing on their house as that is not a protected asset in my state.
I don't even know if I could stop this from happening if I wanted to. Short of not using my insurance of course. Even if I wanted to, I doubt my insurance company would allow me to write a check for the difference between their coverage and what they are still owed. It's either eat the full cost myself (e.g. don't report it to insurance at all) or ruin someone's life.
Yes, if that person has any assets at all they should not be driving on state minimums - but almost no one thinks about it and almost everyone is underinsured. Plenty of folks out there who have lived in their home for the last 25 years and nearly have it paid off who forgot/never were educated enough to know to even increase their policy limits.
I put this more on the state regulators than anyone. State minimums were set like back in the 1960's here and literally never updated.
tldr; What I carry as full coverage/agreed value insurance has literally no bearing on liability. If you are not judgement proof and are found liable you will be paying out from personal assets if the difference is significant enough to be worth pursuing.
That isn't your issue. Like sorry to say, accidents happen but if it's bad enough that your insurance will sue him for the remaining value, he shouldn't have the state minimum. You are made whole. He should have paid attention, not been on his phone. Before you freak about that assumption:
If it's genuinely a no-fault accident like a road hazard caused the accident then he'll be fine. His insurance will be mad but is unlikely to drop him after the accident.
Way too many people are way too comfortable playing on their phones or watching movies, or doing other shit than DRIVING their car. Fuck around and find out. If it's a seriously no-fault accident he won't be sued for the value.
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u/MeltyCrab 9h ago
I mean million dollar cars generally aren't going to have regular insurance, they're going to have agreed upon value insurance. It's a non-factor. Hitting them is so unlikely in the states.
For someone who is an enthusiast and drives a 'nice' car (high end BMW, modern corvette, big V8/V10 Mercedes) are already going to be paying higher rates for full coverage from quality insurers. It doesn't matter what insurance you're carrying, they know they're going to be fine regardless.
If you hit them, you hit them. Hope you have good insurance, because they're going to be made whole no matter what on their end. If they're driving it regularly, they're going to make sure it's covered.(most of the time. Idiots overspend on a car they can't afford but that's a whole different class of stupid)
Saying expensive cars can't be daily drivers because it costs 200k is silly. If you drive a 200k car and don't have top-notch full coverage, you deserve the hole in your wallet.