If you are planning on buying a brand-new car, you better also plan on calling your insurance company right away after you make your purchase. Buying a brand-new car can be an extremely exciting event in life, but it will also require visiting your local DMV and contacting an insurance company for insurance coverage. To make sure your new car has sufficient coverage, you may want to talk to the insurance company about the following three things.

Full Coverage

Full-coverage insurance is something that is typically mandatory when a person has a loan on a vehicle. It is the lender of the vehicle that will require this, and this is designed to protect the lender against default if the borrower is involved in a car accident. If you purchase your new car with cash, getting full coverage will not be required; however, you may still want to choose this type of coverage.

If you have full-coverage insurance and cause an accident that leaves your car totaled, your insurance company will be required to reimburse you for the value of the car. If this happens and you do not have full coverage, you will get nothing from the insurance company for the totaled car you now have.

GAP Insurance

A second type of coverage is also extremely useful when purchasing a brand-new car, and this type of coverage is referred to as GAP insurance. GAP stands for guaranteed auto protection, and it is designed for one purpose. This purpose is to cover the gap that may exist between a totaled car's value and the amount owed on the car.

It is easier to understand how GAP insurance works by looking at an example. If you owe $20,000 on your car and total it in an accident, your insurance company will determine what the car's current market value is when they write you a check for your loss (if you have full-coverage insurance). If they determine that the value is $16,000, they will give you a check for $16,000 if you do not have GAP insurance.

If you have GAP insurance, the insurance company will fill the gap. This means they will write a check for the total amount you owe on the car, and not on the car's current market value. In this example, they would write the check for $20,000 instead of $16,000. You may be responsible for paying the deductible out of your pocket before the insurance company pays for this.

Adding GAP coverage to your auto policy is usually fairly affordable, and it normally costs around 5% of the amount you pay for collision and comprehensive coverage on your policy. This often calculates to be around $30 per year for GAP coverage.

Roadside Assistance

The third type of coverage you may want to add to your policy is roadside assistance. Before you do this, you may want to find out if the warranty on your car already provides this type of coverage. If it does, you will not need to add it to your auto insurance policy.

If you find out you do not have roadside assistance, you should add it to your policy. While you may not be worried that your new car will break down while you are driving, you may forget about problems that could occur. For example, what would happen if you ran out of gas while you were traveling? Would you know how to change a flat tire if you got one, or could you open your car doors if the keys were inside?

With roadside assistance, you will not have to worry if these things happen. You can simply call a number, and someone will show up at your vehicle to help you with your problem.

Making sure you have the right auto insurance protection from a company like Northeast Insurance Agency is important for insuring any car, but it is even more important when you need to insure a brand-new vehicle. If you would like to get a quote or find out about other types of coverage you may need, contact an insurance company that offers the best auto insurance around. 

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