I got my $3655 car insurance renewal notice today for my 2012 Prius ... thanks DeSantis

Along with our homeowners. And oddly enough manufacturer's extended warranties. When I purchased my first hybrid vehicle, I called a Ford dealer that everyone mentioned in the forums as being the least expensive. Again, this was for a Ford warranty, not one of those 3rd party insurers. When I told him my address he asked if there was any other state where I had an address I could use as Florida had one of the highest rates in the country. The rate for Indiana where my brother resided was 55% of Florida's rate. That made ZERO sense to be, but I purchased it. (That policy more than paid for itself when my ABS system took a dump.)

 

Twisting my comment a bit as I didn't say it was the cause for the increases although I am not disqualifying it as a factor either. Just mentioned his experience with it from a comment he made a couple years ago well before these current increases.

 

That was unintentional. I confused your comment with another poster's. I'll delete it.

 

Homeowners being higher than other states at least makes sense when you consider the driving cost factor is mostly wind coverage. My business property coverage if I quoted it xWind (without) was like 25% of the cost. And my wind deductible went from 5% to 10%.

 

I agree with most of your post but draw a different conclusion.

Yes, cars are more expensive to repair. Consumers generally don’t look at repair cost when shopping. Manufacturers can make cars cheaper if the ease of repair is not a factor. If consumers were willing to pay more better potential collision repair costs then manufacturers would gladly market and provide it.

Yes, UM is more expensive because Florida, and many others have not made the penalty for having insurance stiff enough to deter the practice.

Ambulance chasers (glad to hear that you are not one) don’t “potentially reasonably impact injury liability coverage”, they drive it. They drive it hard and they drive it fast. Fix this from the legal side and both injury liability and UM coverage will see sizable reductions in cost.

 

I agree with this up to your last paragraph where we disagree on "impact" vs. "drive." I'd like to see a few actual premium comparisons before I concede your verb is more accurate than mine.

 

I have full insurance on 2 vehicles with 2 drivers in household. I pay $1400/year...but I live in maryland

 

Florida also got hurricane Ian. I work in mortgages and talk with a lot of insurance agents. They all warned me our rates would sky rocket because of the amount of claims coming in from that storm.

 

I watch a lot of YouTube videos of people buying cars at salvage auctions and fixing them up. Several have reported that cars sold and purchased as flood cars were not flooded. The adjusters apparently became overwhelmed and no one verified the insureds' claims.

 

Biden's Inflation Reduction Act saved you a few bucks it seems

 

100% believe this. The same thing happens to homeowners insurance claims during major storms like that.

 

It happens, and you have “Auto injury” clinics who are real good at sucking that PIP up, hey your neck is sore from that minor rear end… get that MRI of your whole spine $$$$.

 

The point I was trying to make is many MVA’s have PiP getting used that need not be used. Multiply 1 million 10k PIP cases that didn’t need any medical attention. Plenty of people have more than 10k of PIP also.

My years in the ER showed me the majority of ambulance rides for minor MvAs were BS people thinking they would be able to get cash because they got rear ended.

Obviously not talking about your particular situation.

 

Had many attorney friends say don’t get those big umbrella policies just makes you a bigger target. Often the first thing the personal injury guys want to know is what the persons policy limits are. No cash, not worth their time..

 

When I was assigned to fire investigations in Tampa I worked on a shift of 24 hours on and 48 hours off. I was a cop prior and between those jobs becoming a private “licensed” investigator was an easy license to attain.

A buddy of mine worked for a private detective/investigations company in Tampa and offered me a part time job. This was back in the early 80s.

My assignments at first was dealing with auto accidents. I pulled and reviewed insurance policies, checked limits and drove to the addresses of those being sued and took pictures of their homes. Also followed up on background checks re current employment.

After about 2 weeks I realized what the hell was going on. If the limits were small and the house was not in a “nice” neighborhood, the case was dropped.

I quit after not wanting to be a part of “ambulance chasing”.

There are numerous people in auto accidents that need help. Most of those I investigated did not. I lost respect for my buddy. He was all in and said it was no big deal as the insurance companies, not the driver paid the bills.

 

I’ve dealt with a few PI Attorneys over the years, their answer always is it doesn’t cost the person being sued, it’s the insurance companies money..
Rolls eyes.

 

Nope. The maximum PIP coverage in Florida is $10K. (You kind of moved the goalpost there from the point you were originally trying to make.)

 

PIP is limited at 10k, but often additional medical payment coverage is added.

Doesn’t change the fact there is quite a bit of scamming going on, and that’s the point.

 

Well at least dear leader has made sure that you cannot have a drag show in your car, so there's that...

 

This started with what was driving car insurance premium increases. Med Pay is available at a nominal costs and only pays 20% of what PIP doesn't cover. The highest Med Pay coverage Progressive offers is $10K. My $2000 Med Pay through Progressive costs $8/6 months/car, so another swing and a miss as to what is causing car insurance rates to dramatically increase.