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Car Insurance for 16 Year Old Drivers
08/18/2009
How to get cheapest car insurance rates for 16 year old male teens
Since 16 year old teens cannot legally sign contracts, including car insurance agreements, they typically get insurance coverage by being added to their parents' existing insurance.Until they are 18 years old, teens cannot buy their own insurance.
If a teen is added as a occasional driver for an existing family car that is also driven by other family members, rates will be much lower than if the he/she is a primary driver on his/her own car. The cost of adding a driver to an existing family car insurance policy is always cheaper than taking out a separate policy.
Adding a 16 year old male teenager to a family's car insurance could easily double the cost. The exact amount of the cost increase depends on a number of factors, which we'll discuss in a moment.
Teens and their families often are tempted to try and avoid the higher cost by listing a teen as an occasional driver when they are actually a primary driver, or simply not listing the teen at all. It may seem that the scheme is working for a while — until the first time the teen is involved in an accident or receives a traffic ticket. If an accident is the teenager's fault, the insurance company has a right to deny any claims resulting from the accident, which could be financially devastating if damages and injuries are extensive. Furthermore, the company would likely cancel the family's insurance. Auto insurance companies are not dumb. They've seen every trick in the book.
Contrary to what some teens believe, the purpose of insurance is financial protection, not satisfaction of the law. Of course, many teens, especially 16 year olds just learning to drive, doubt they actually need financial protection because they often feel they will never be involved in an accident. Fact is, the reason insurance rates are higher for young drivers is that young drivers are the most likely to have accidents, as determined by statistics and accident records — 16-year-olds get into accidents almost six times more often than drivers between the age of 30 and 59.
The law sets your car insurance requirements - is that all you need?
State laws require a minimum level of insurance coverage. In most states, a car cannot be registered without proof of insurance or financial responsibility.
Of the three fundamental types of car insurance, state laws typically require liability coverage, but not collision or comprehensive. Liability insurance protects you if you cause an accident and damage other people's property (i.e. vehicles) or cause injuries. The amount of coverage is usually stated as something like 25/50/10. In this example, the insurance would pay a maximum of $25,000 for bodily injuries for one person hurt in an accident, $50,000 maximum for all persons injured, and $10,000 maximum for property damage.
Each state sets its own minimum auto insurance requirements. Many of these requirements were set years ago when the coverage was perfectly adequate. However, cost of automobiles has increased, accident repair costs have zoomed, and personal injury lawsuit settlements have grown. Some states' requirements, such as those in Pennsylvania, are a low 15/30/5. This means if you caused an accident and totaled someone's car, your insurance only pays $5000 to the other party. If the other party was driving a brand new $60,000 Lexus, you would be about $55,000 short when that party sued you to replace their car.
The point of this discussion is that you can reduce your car insurance cost to the bare minimum by only buying the coverage required by state law but you'll be exposed to the very real possibility of not having sufficient coverage, which can lead to personal or family financial disaster.
Although collision and comprehensive coverage are not required by law, lenders and lease companies nearly always require it, at a specified level, to protect their interests. Therefore, if you plan to buy a vehicle using a loan, or you plan to lease, you can expect to pay more for car insurance than is required by state law.
How much does car insurance cost for a 16 year old male driver?
It depends. Annual cost can range from $1000 to $4000 or more, depending primarily on the type of car and where the car is driven.
Sporty 2-door cars with powerful engines, such as the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, are the most expensive to insure for 16 year olds or any young driver. Why? Because they are wrecked more often. Larger 4-door sedans are cheaper to insure. SUV's and trucks are also cheaper. Luxury cars are more expensive to insure because they are expensive to repair and replace.
Where you live and drive is a big factor in car insurance cost. Insurance companies know, statistically, where drivers have the most, and the fewest, accidents. Large cities with heavy traffic see more accidents than small towns or rural areas. Accidents occur more often in some states than others. Repair labor costs vary across the country. If you live in a large city in California and drive your high-performance sports car 50 miles every day in heavy traffic, you'll pay far more for car insurance than your cousin in North Dakota who drives a pickup truck 5 miles to school.
Of course, traffic tickets and previous accidents also affect car insurance cost, often very dramatically, especially for young drivers. 16 year olds who are just beginning to drive won't have this problem to begin with, but it can affect their future insurance cost. What seems like high rates now could skyrocket after a couple of tickets and an accident.
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