Are you talking about a one year rate or a six month rate? I pay my insurance for six months at a time, and it is less than $1000 for six months. My car is now 11 years old, however, and I do not drive very much. Having low mileage reduces my rate.

I believe she's talking about the insured value of the car, not the cost of insurance.

I took my 2019 Toyota 4-Runner TRD to the dealer for a fuel pump recall, got it back end-of-day and the heated seats didn't work; they came on every time the ignition was started. :0( I immediately looked online at Kellybluebook.com and Carmax.com for what my car was worth. I sold it for $4200 MORE than I'd paid for it! I've since heard advertisements that places will pay 10% more than you were offered. ☺ So yes.....my car value has gone up.

I didn't notice any difference in premiums when I paid the 6 month premiums for 4 cars in October. So if they upped the replacement cost it didn't seem to affect the premiums much if any.

Lars - almost $1000 for one car? All 4 of mine combined were less than $1000 for 6 months but only my Silverado pickup is under 5 years old and 2 of them only have liability coverage.

I said it was less than $1000, but I don't know how much less it is since my car is in my brother's name, and he pays for the insurance in a bundled package. I think my insurance is less than $250 for six months, and it is certainly nowhere near $1000. I have more than liability - I have coverage for uninsured drivers hitting me, which has happened. I don't think I have theft insurance, but I might. I made a point of buying a car that no one would want to steal.

I'm terrible at accounting.

We didn't notice any difference. We have 5 cars 10 motorcycles and scooters.

My renewal just came, and I was 😳 at the premium. I'm going to compare the value, it would have to be on DH's car, mine is 2006.

Yes! My son traded in his 2015 mustang GT a few months ago and got 5K more than he paid for it just over a year ago. I was curious so I looked up my 2019 mazda. I bought it used in 2019(it was a demo and the dealership used it as a rental). It had 11K miles on it. Today, the same car with 30K miles is going for about $3-4K more than I paid.

Thanks for your responses.

Yes I was referring to the value of the vehicle itself - not the premium which had increased for two reasons according to the agent. The insurance company had a rate hike in August and there was an additional cost to cover the increased value of the car.

Since usually the value of the car decreases with age I just wasn't expecting an increase.

So I looked back at last year's renewal. Turns out, they dont list the value of the vehicles on the bill. But they do list the premium by vehicle, and those are almost identical year to year. So I guess my reaction was 😳 last year, too.

No value is shown in my car insurance documents that relate to value. I know that value is a factor for premium determinations, as is the car's make and model, but nothing is stated. Maire-cate, are you in a no fault state? Insurance practices differ slightly between the handful of these and other states with traditional insurance practices. My insurance premiums run $400-$600 every 6 months for cars 2-5 years old, and that's with a number of discounts.

I don't follow the value of cars.

Used car values have skyrocketed. There is no inventory. Even 15 year oold cars are selling for high values.

If you have an accident and total a vehicle, good luck finding a replacement. Values are rising so fast, if you do have a total loss make sure you check the current value of your vehicle before settling with the insurance company.

I”m not surprised as inventory is apparently low. I mentioned a while back that during a recent trip we drove down a highway with many auto dealers. The lots were very sparse. Keep in mind that if you sell a vehicle right now, you may have a hard time finding another and the cost will likely be higher.

Thanks for posting this. I just realized that my mileage driven on my insurance is too high now that I'm working from home. I just cut my monthly payment by almost half!

Forgot to answer your question and I don't know. I just looked and it isn't listed on my insurance. I thought it hadn't changed because payment hadn't gone up so I corrected my post.

Moosemac- you are so right about that. I even looked at relatively lower cost cars and there just aren't many available.

My auto coverage is similar to my homeowner's - they both include full replacement coverage. Which might explain the increase in my car's value. And I just realized that I had a typo in my first post - I omitted a zero which may help explain why I was so surprised. - My car value increased by nearly $10,000 - granted it is rated as a luxury SUV but it isn't anything out of the ordinary - I'm not driving anything racy nor am I in a high crime area.

Elmer - - I'm curious how your insurance company would handle a claim. If a car is totaled would the Insurer look at a Blue Book value and then issue a check?

NJ offers a Basic Policy and a Standard Auto Policy . "New Jersey is one of the few no-fault states to offer drivers a choice on their car insurance coverage. Motorists who choose the basic policy are typically limited to no-fault coverage after an accident. On the other hand, if you purchase a standard auto accident policy, your right to sue is expanded.".....

Maire

DS's old SUV finally died. There was virtually *nothing* available to buy -- even at inflated prices. He had to pay more than he wanted just to get 'wheels', but at least he liked what he found. Unfortunately, he's only driven it for a week. He'll get it back from a body shop soon after being rear-ended by 'an elderly gentleman' who hit the gas instead of the brake while DS was ahead of him in a fast-food line. Happily, they have the same insurance company, and DS will be all right on this. He and DGS stopped by on Sunday, driving a loaner. He'd been offered a compact...not happening with tall DS, DIL and 6' 2" DGS. They gave him a ginormous F-something 4-door *truck*.

Our auto policy cost hasn't changed in two years...so far. Renewed last month.

"Elmer - - I'm curious how your insurance company would handle a claim. If a car is totaled would the Insurer look at a Blue Book value and then issue a check?"

I'm happy to say I've never had the experience so I don't know with certainty. But I think the insurance company does a simple calculation of what's cheaper, repair or paying for replacement and pays the lower. Blue Book value or maybe market data insurance companies have internally must be referred to.

Why I'm surprised about the disclosure of a car's estimated value is that in states with traditional insurance practices (not no-fault), there are many, many factors in addition to value that are tracked and weighed by insurance companies in determining, premium levels that are not expressly disclosed to customers. Claims history as affected by make and model, zip code stats (including thefts and break-ins), socio-economic factors, and on and on are all considered. As an extreme comparison, assuming two cars of the same value, a 5 year old car with sporty features (a larger engine, mag wheels, spoilers, aggressive paint and styling) owned by someone in an average urban neighborhood is going to be more expensive to insure than a Toyota Camry kept at a home a few miles away in fancy suburban neighborhood. In my experience, an insurance agent will only disclose premium rates and rating factors in a general way, without getting into details. It's likely most don't know the details anyway.

Yep, we have a Subuaru Crosstrek and for a while, the Kelley bluebook value was nearly the same as when it was new. It went down a little bit recently, but it's still high.

DD’s car is nearly two years old with 30,000+ miles on it. She takes it to the dealer for oil changes. The last time she took it in, they offered to buy it from her for more than she paid for it new!

@maire_cate interesting but did the increased value have a noticable impact on your rates? Can’t imagine $1400 making much difference.

This thread has me thinking it’s time to shop around. $3600/year for 2 cars, 5 and 10 years old nothing special. Looks like it creeps up a 100 or two every year. I’ve seen it said you should shop around every few years; I’m overdue.

Wow, i just looked to see what my car sells for now. I paid $20k in 2013 for a used 2010 Honda Accord. Carmax is selling the same car for $17, 998. It has low mileage. I know you dont get that much for a trade in, but i had no idea its worth that much. Hope i dont need new car soon.

I just checked mine on Kelly Blue book and it is worth a whopping $1400. lol It's a 2008 with a lot of miles on it.

I just checked Edmonds and my 2016 Honda CRV is worth only 200.00 less than I paid for it. I'd sell in a heartbeat if I could find another car I could afford lol.

I have never noticed our Insurance claims a 'value' on the cars.....................

I just bought the car in June. I pay for my car insurance in installments. The first couple of months were prorated because it was within the middle of an installment period. I thought that I had just miscalculated when it rolled around the next period, but it was quite a bit more. I'm usually pretty good at calculating things so I couldn't quite figure out what happened. I let it go because I had a lot on my plate come August.

I'm betting it was the increased value. It's a fairly new car, and has very few miles on it.

Sorry - a little OT, but I just heard this evening that those who lease cars

and are at the end of a lease may make out well by taking advantage of the buyout price on their contract which might be considerably less than the car's current value.

I sold my old 4-Runner & a week later purchased a used Benz. You said you left out a zero....WHAT! So I put in my new suv on Kellyblueblook.com.....I've had it 3 months....it's worth $10K MORE THAN I PAID! This is nuts! Maybe I should sell it and buy an electric car. :0)

When a teen driver T-boned our 2005 Jaguar X-Type VDP a few years ago, the car was worth about the same as the repairs would cost. We opted for the repairs. The car now has 43,000 miles and is the proverbial 'cream puff'. It's worth $6,000+ according to the market. It's worth ten times that to us -- the cost of buying a new car to drive a few hundred miles a year -- plus much higher insurance. Our only expenditures on this car have been new tires, general maintenance, and a few light bulbs (under $10 to replace). Not looking forward to the day we have to replace it! (I just got a compliment on it last week at the grocery store.)

Our renewals from State Farm do not provide a 'current value'. We're paying $500/yr.

Adding: I think this is an example of 'frugal', because we don't *want* a different car, so are not 'denying' ourselves. I can see that some would think 'cheapskate'. (They don't know how many 'fancy' sports cars I've owned -- but can't get in and out of today.)

chisue, I know what you mean. I had a 9 year old Mazda Protege with low mileage that I absolutely loved. We accidentally killed the transmission. Everybody told me it was insane to pay $4K to get it fixed, but the thing is, that car was known to be a super reliable model (we're pretty sure the transmission thing was our fault), plus we both walked or took public transit most of the time back then. There was no practical need for a new car. I consulted my engineer dad for advice and chose to fix it. The consensus was we'd sell it when the timing belt was too old. We had that Mazda for four more years with zero issues. Ultimately, fixing the transmission wound up being 100% the frugal choice for us. It definitely depends on your usage and your personal attachment to it! But it was a really tough decision, and felt like a bit of a gamble.

My grandson just sold his 2021 car for $8,000 more than he paid for it. He paid off some bills and had enough left to buy another used car. Last Saturday he bought another car and sold his convertible that he only drove on the weekends. I'm just amazed by this young man. He turned 24 today and plans to buy a house next year. Knowing him, I'm sure he will.

Nicole - thanks for your confirmation. Yep - it was a $10,000 increase - it's nuts. I honestly thought the insurance company made a mistake. My previous car was a MB SUV and I had no intention of trading it in until I took it in for a warranty service in August 2020 - during Covid. A salesman in the showroom approached me and said he had a customer who was looking for a model like mine - it was a 550 ML diesel with 45,000 miles. Diesel's are hard to find and he offered me a great price - cash - and if i picked another car from one of their 6 dealerships he would add another incentive. The only catch was that the buyer wanted the car ASAP since he wanted to tow his boat to Florida.

The owner of the dealerships was there and when I told him that our family had bought or leased 7 cars from their dealerships in the last 10 years he upped the offer. You never really know if you've gotten the best possible deal when talking with a car salesmen but I think I did all right.

So my new car is 14 months old and only has 5000 miles on it. I hope nothing ever happens to it because I wouldn't want to be car shopping right now

I traded my 2018 Yukon Denali with 30,000 miles on it. The dealer gave me more on trade than what I paid for it new. I just took delivery on a 2021 Ykon XL Denali. In the past 2 weeks I have been offered $10,000 more than what I paid for it. It's crazy. If I had another vehicle to drive, I'd sell it.