[gambiting]

>>$3700 per year for comprehensive insurance,

Bit of an aside - how is American insurance so stupidly expensive. Here in UK I have a brand new Volvo XC60 PHEV, £60k, 400bhp car, in one of the highest insurance groups(like group 45 out of 50), I'm 30 years old and my fully comprehensive insurance is £400 a year. That's including 20 million liability limit, legal cover, courtesy vehicle, key cover.....etc etc.

Yeah when I was 21 my insurance was £2000 a year on some crappy old econobox, but in general once you turn 25 the insurance falls down rapidly. On my previous Mercedes AMG I paid about £500 a year for fully comprehensive, aged 26.

[withinboredom]

It cost me a simple written exam (free) and a driving test (free) and then about $25USD for the actual license when I was 16. How much does it cost in the UK? If the barrier to drive is low, you end up with people driving around that got a 70% on the written test (lowest passing score) and a 70% on the driving test driving around doing stupid things. It drives up insurance considerably.

[gambiting]

Uhm, in the UK you can only pay for the test if you want, no actual training is strictly required. So....like £99 or there about?

But of course majority of people pay for training because they want to learn somewhere, and not everyone has parents willing to risk the family car. Surely even in US people pay for training and there's more to the cost than just the $25 test fee?

[withinboredom]

Most families in the states have more than one car, so there’s less risk to teaching your kids how to drive. There are schools though, but I never had that (neither did my wife, apparently). My dad was an insane teacher though. He’d have me slam the brakes in the middle of an empty highway to learn how to stop at-speed. I’ve never been in an accident (knock on wood) but I’ve seen more than my fair share of deadly accidents happen right in front of me.

[perl4ever]

>how is American insurance so stupidly expensive

It varies; you can't make a categorical statement like that based on random stuff you read on the Internet.

My insurance is the equivalent of £430 and I have nearly the maximum liability coverage and comprehensive on a current year model car.

[gambiting]

Thank you - yeah that confirms what I suspected - that at least for some people the insurance isn't $3000 a year.

[frosted-flakes]

Americans drive a lot more than Europeans, that's probably why. For comparison, I'm in Canada in my mid-20s and only pay CAD$700 per year, same as you (clean record).

[gambiting]

You have to specify how many miles per year you're going to drive - that £400 a year insurance is declared for 10k miles. How many more do Americans drive? 20k? 30k? Aren't those very silly numbers quickly? I thought even in America people drive no more than 20-30 miles a day on average, no?

[perl4ever]

I always thought of the US "standard" being 15K miles, although before covid-19, I averaged more like 10K, and now around 5K.

Obviously it depends on your commute, and I've always prioritized a very short commute.

Also, some people lease and have mileage limits. I have the impression that leasing is more popular in the UK, so that might affect the average.

[PhantomGremlin]

That's including 20 million liability limit

This is the most noticeable difference between US and UK.

Cars here generally have perhaps $300,000 liability, perhaps $500,000. I have $1,000,000 but larger number is covered by an additional "umbrella" policy that includes liability for multiple cars and also my house.

I imagine there are much greater limits for the likes of Bill Gates. But not commonly for the ordinary 99%. Also, despite auto insurance being legally required, probably 10% or 20% don't have it. They don't care, they have no assets, so they're "judgement proof". There are never any serious criminal consequences for this.

Ordinary people can protect themselves against uninsured drivers by adding additional coverage for that to their own insurance policy. In effect, if you have an accident with an uninsured driver, your own policy pays out whatever liability that driver would owe you. This added coverage is not all that expensive.

[_ph_]

Here in Germany, liability limits are usually much higher. 100 million isn't unheard of. The reason certainly is partly advertising, but also because some freak accidents have caused these amounts of costs. A few millions are not uncommon for bad accidents where for example semis with delicate load are involved.

The most severe damage caused so far in a single car accident in Germany is about 30 Million €: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiehltal_bridge

Fortunately, they were finally able to repair the bridge and didn't have to completely rebuild it, which would have been vastly more expensive.

[gambiting]

The minimum required from any insurance in the EU is €5M in 3rd party liability, no vehicle insurance can offer less. The ones offering 20/50/100M are doing it mostly for advertising, there's no appreciable difference in cost.

[360walk]

I would guess it's because your insurance pays someone's medical bills if you hit them in the US, which can be >>> the cost of replacing a car even if it's a relatively minor injury.