New Insurance Requirements

The minimum required insurance for a Texas motorist will increase January 1, 2008. It will go from the current 20,000 personal injury, 40,000 combined personal injury and 15,000 property damage to 25,000 / 50,0000 / 25,0000.

According to my insurance agent, Dave Phillips (Allstate) this will mean about a $12 increase in the 6 month rate for most drivers.

The third number in those figures is the one we are most likely to be involved with. That determines the amount of coverage available to repair your car when someone hits you.
$15,000, the current limit is far short of the average value of a late model car, and long past due to be increased.

We often see cars in our shop that are only a year or two old and a total loss as the result of an accident. When this happens if the car owner is not at fault the other drivers insurance is responsible for the damages, but only up to the amount of the coverage. If the other driver has opted for only the minimum required coverage that means you can only collect up to $15,000.

$15,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it is not when compared to the replacement cost of most late model cars. Looking on NADA, the used car value website, I found these values for 2005 models; Camry 19,000, GMC Pickup 24,000, Chrysler 300C 25,000 and Lexus LS 430 46,000.

As you can see the minimum coverage can leave you short of recovering your loss anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars to tens of thousands.

The gap is filled by your own "uninsured / underinsured" coverage. This means that we are in fact subsidizing the other guy's insurance coverage.

Of course that doesn't include the more than 20% of drivers who don't have insurance at all.

The minimum is again scheduled to increase in 2011 to 30,000 / 60,000 / 30,000. That will help to close the gap, but will still leave those of you who drive really nice cars with underinsured exposure.

Insurance Verification

Beginning next year law enforcement authorities will be able to verify insurance coverage on a vehicle almost instantly over their computer. The Texas Financial Responsibility Verification Program mirrors similar programs in other states.

All insurance companies will report coverage to a centralized computer system that will make the information available to law enforcement in real time.

This plan aims at stopping the practice of a motorist buying one month's coverage and then using the proof of insurance card the rest of the year in order to buy license plates or get a state inspection. It will also eliminate the use of fraudulent or forged insurance cards.

It is hoped that the plan will reduce the number of uninsured drivers on the road. Currently it is estimated that more than 20% of motorists have no insurance.

You Never Graduate

If your life's work is to be an automotive technician, or a body repair technician, then you will never be done with school.

Just to give you an idea of what it takes to stay up with the latest and greatest in automotive repair, in the last 60 days we have been to;

• Welding re-certification so we can weld the newest materials used in your car.
• A Tire Pressure Monitor Systems class to learn how the newest tire pressure systems work and are serviced.
• Ford 6.0 Diesel engine controls class to update our skills on that popular engine.
• Mode 6 diagnostics class to learn more about using the engineering data that comes right from your cars computer in hex-decimal format.

This information provides a closer look at what is happening in the complex computer systems of your car.

A service advisor communications class to better understand how to get the information we need to properly service your car.
A collision estimating class to help us better evaluate the damage to your car after and accident.

In the next couple of months we will send our staff to classes on body repair, computer programming and business management.
We take our job seriously and understand the importance of continuing training in order to provide you with the best service available for your car. The investment we make of time and money (welding class was $700) pays off for you, and for us, in the long run.

New Laws
You Should Know About

Here are a few of the new laws that Motorists will have to contend with in the coming year.

HB 84, known as Katie's Law, requires drivers 85 years of age and above to pass a vision test to have their driver license renewed. Licenses will be valid for two years instead of six. Drivers age 79 and older are not allowed to renew their driver licenses electronically.

HB 586 prohibits a driver who is issued a speeding ticket and found guilty of driving at a speed higher than 95 miles per hour from taking a driving safety class to dismiss the ticket.

SB 369 prohibits the use of blurring or reflective matter on a license plate that significantly impairs the readability of the state name and license plate numbers and letters; prohibits the use of material or an apparatus that alters or obscures one-half or more of the state name; and prohibits using material that obscures the license plate number or plate color.

SB 153 makes it an offense for the accompanying licensed passenger of a driver with a learner's permit to sleep, be intoxicated or to engage in any activity that prevents the passenger from observing and responding to the actions of the driver of the vehicle.

SB 502 increases the minimum liability coverage amounts for automobile insurance. The first increase applies to motor vehicle liability insurance policies issued or renewed after January 1, 2008. A second, larger increase in motor vehicle liability insurance coverage takes effect on January 1, 2011.

Buy New or Maintain?

A recent report in Consumer Reports did the math on keeping a car for 15 years (225,000 miles) versus buying a new car every five years.

In its analysis Consumer Reports calculated the cost of purchase, depreciation, finance charges and interest, maintenance and repair as well as insurance costs against the same factors for purchasing a new comparable model every five years.

On their project car, the popular Honda Civic EX, they calculated that you could save as much as $20,500 over the 15 year period. That is more than the original cost of the car!
Of course if invested this saving could grow to considerably more. Consumer Reports estimated that to be about $30,800 at the end of the 15 years.

Some models are a much better bet for long, mostly trouble free life. Among the ones that CR picks as good bets for more than 200,000 miles are the Honda Civic, CRV and Element, the Toyota 4 Runner, Prius, RAV4, and Highlander and the Lexus ES & LS sedans. Bad bets include many of the so called high end European cars such as Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen Tourareg.

You notice Consumer Reports did not include any American products in this list. I disagree with them. We service many American cars with in excess of 200,000 miles on them. It comes down to good maintenance and being aware of any developing problems in the car.

If for you a car is not a status symbol, or a social necessity then you may consider the wisdom of keeping it longer. Begin your maintenance planning early in its life, and stick to it.

We will be happy to discuss the pros and cons of any particular car making it to the 200K mark.

Have We Been Corned?

My wife and I recently made a car trip to Montana; great trip, friendly people and beautiful country. But there was a surprise along the way.

From Kansas north to the Canadian border there was mile after mile of corn growing in the fields. With the ever increasing use of ethanol in gasoline that really didn't surprise me, what did surprise me was the gas they sell in those states. NO Ethanol!

The only other State where I saw the 10% Ethanol sticker on the pump was in Colorado. In some of the other states there was one or two grade of gas available with Ethanol, along with several grades without it. In most of the states there was no Ethanol mix at all.

Now maybe it is just me, but doesn't it seem like the folks who are making all the money on the corn crops that are used to produce Ethanol would be the ones who would insist on buying it?
This is like owning your own grocery or hardware store and then shopping in one of the big box outlets for your personal stuff.

I was quite willing to put up with the loss of fuel economy with the 10% Ethanol mix. I was willing to accept the possible long term effects of the corrosive alcohol base and the water absorption problems. Now I am not so enthusiastic about taking on the down side of this conservation program when the folks who benefit the most from it are not sharing the same fate.