Auto Insurance And Theft
The theft of your automobile or its contents can be devastating and may leave you feeling violated
, angry, confused, and worst of all without transportation. There are many ways to prevent theft such as buying an anti-theft device like a club that attaches to your steering wheel, car alarms, ignition cutoff switches, or by always parking your car in a locked garage. Some people even resort to more drastic devices such as the Lo-jack, which will track your car via GPS should it be stolen, allowing law enforcement to track the thieves down and in some cases even cut power to the engine of the stolen vehicle remotely with services such as On Star. No matter which measures people take, however, thieves figure out ways to steal cars and their contents. For every technology man has invented, crooks have invented a way to defeat that technology.Auto theft is covered under the comprehensive section of your auto insurance policy and applies to the loss of the vehicle as well as parts of the car such as tires, rims, airbags and catalytic converters. This may sound strange until you consider that nationally, more than 75,000 airbags alone are stolen every year from vehicles. Comprehensive coverage for your vehicle (which is not mandatory) also pays for events such as fire, vandalism and weather-related damage like hail or a windstorm, including damage from floods and earthquakes.
The premium that you will pay for comprehensive insurance is affected by the risk of loss, or the likelihood that an insured car will be stolen or damaged, as well as the cars value at the time of the loss. Certain types of cars are more likely to be stolen than others, and are more expensive to insure, for example. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), the 1995 Honda Civic is the most stolen vehicle in America, followed by the 1991 Honda Accord, 1989 Toyota Camry and 1997 Ford F-150. Other favorites of thieves are the 2004 Dodge Ram pickup, Acura Integra, Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sentra.
Older vehicles top the list and are targeted because there is still a large market for their parts. Carjacking, while covered more prominently in the media, are not as common as people might think, attributing to only about 3% of auto thefts each year. The FBI reports that the value of stolen cars in a typical year is approximately $6.4 billion, with the average value of a motor vehicle stolen at $6,751.
This means that crooks arent stealing Mercedes Benz and BMWs from the well-to-do, they are stealing average, everyday vehicles owned by regular people. A recent statistic shared by the FBI says a motor vehicle is stolen in the United States every 33 seconds, with the odds of a vehicle being stolen at 1 in 210. The odds of theft are highest in urban areas. About 38% of thefts occur in the South, 34% in the West, 18% in the Midwest, and 10% in the Northeastern U.S. Of all of these, only 12% of cases were solved. These statistics should be enough to convince any driver to fully insure their car to protect against theft.
For more information on auto insurance and how it can protect you, please fill out a free Auto Insurance Quote at Premier Insurance Services of Chicago.
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