New Car

So I bought one! A Mazda 3 s, a sporty little zoom-zoom hatchback. It is much fun to drive.



Unfortunately, using words like "sporty" and "zoom" in relation to a car trigger the ultra-sensitive receivers of all car insurance agencies out there. They can smell the higher payments, the more "comprehensive" coverage required by loan companies, the collision insurance. I had a conversation this morning with my insurance agent and this is about how it went, tweaked a bit to adjust for how I actually HEARD it...

"John S Hunter agency, John Junior speaking."

"Hey John, this is Tim Davis."

"Oh hi Tim."

"Hey. I just bought a new car and I need to look at switching my insurance over to cover this car, as well as adding comprehensive and collision to the policy."

"Sure, no problem, let me boot up the computer here. Slow computer day. Mondays and Fridays are slow computer days. Ah, here we go. A 2004 you said? Four-door hatchback? Comprehensive and collision... with a $500 deductible? Ok.... one moment. Looks like your insurance policy is going to be $1 hundred bazillion more dollars for a six-month policy."

"$1 hundred bazillion? Seriously? That sounds like a lot... how much is that a month?"

"An arm, a leg, and the life of your firstborn child."

"Wow... I knew it was going to be a bit more expensive, but not THAT expensive. Is that a good rate? I mean, is that a competetive rate for this insurance policy?"

"It actually is. I'll switch you over today, and the change will be reflected on your next month's bill... pro-rated at $1,258,221.83."

"Wow. I really wasn't budgeting that into my car payments. That's really a lot."

"Thanks for your business! Let me know if I can help you with anything else."

So I did a bit of searching around on my own and found a policy through Geico (no, they're not paying me to say this) for only $20 more a month than my current policy on my old beater Ford Escort, and that is adding comprehensive and collision.

I let John know that I wouldn't be needing his services anymore.