On the Car Insurance Blog we have given much attention to advice on finding the correct insurance to meet your specific needs.
We have also advised vehicle owners who are not driving that much to consider a Pay As You Drive Insurance product. This will allow them to pay a fair insurance premium for the distance that they do travel!
Pay As You Drive insurance is perfect for those vehicle owners who travel shorter distances in their vehicles – or who have a specific vehicle that is not driven that much. I have made reference to my mom who has driven her VW Jetta only 11,000 km in three years and even more significant -has only driven the VW Beatle 78,000 km in 32 years!!
Some Vehicle owners drive far and wide!!
There are however also those who really drive long distances! I have come across a very interesting story on Wheels 24 titled “Ford bakkie’s amazing mileage” and would like to quote a few facts from this rather amazing travelling record:
• Floridian Phil Marsella’s is the owner of a four year-old Ford F-250.
• The petrol powered F-250 has found the upper limit of Ford’s digital odometer’s endurance by tallying 1.6m km in only four years of ownership.
• Ford never expected F-250 owners to surpass six figures in terms of mileage. As such the digital odometer could not record Marsella’s journey beyond the 1m mile mark; it stopped working at 999 999 miles.
• Marsella spends an inordinate amount of time behind the F-250’s wheel. In fact, he averages around 8 000km a week – akin to commuting from Bloemfontein to Pretoria daily for work…
• Phil Marsella delivers purebred Greyhound racing dogs to various events around the United States.
How much does this driving cost?
Factor in the service costs and consumables (brakes and tyres) and it is hardly surprising to find Marsella’s F-250 having cost him a chunky R480 000 to run in four years of ownership – excluding his fuel bill.
Unfortunately there are not more details on the fuel costs – or the car insurance premiums paid – but we can bet that the insurance product in this case is not a Pay As You Drive insurance product! We could argue though that Phil Marsella deserves some credit for his rather considerable driving experience!!
Often when we consider car insurance we only think of a single specified vehicle and the insurance for that car.
It has been said often that driving at night is a risky time to be on the roads.
These risks are not unique to South Africa. There has recently been a proposal in the UK from a Cardiff University expert to introduce a graduated driver licensing (GDL) system for all young newly-qualified drivers as unenforceable.
Are you the average traveller – or do you believe you drive a bit less than the average driver? This is a question I have asked myself this week as I prepare to take my car for the 135,000 km service.
Many families have a “special” car – a car that is inherited from a grandparent and which has special sentimental value. It might not qualify as a true antique – or have a special financial value – but it might be of significant value for people whose lives developed around that vehicle.
We are all experiencing significant life changes all of the time. We meet people, enter into relationships, break-up, start and end careers and move our places of residence all the time. It appears that this is becoming more frequent in the 21st century!
We have previously referred to the economic benefits of Pay As You Drive car insurance. The financial benefits of reduced car insurance premiums might be what would drive most of us towards changing our existing car insurance – but there are other more noble motivations as well – such as keeping the environment green!
On the Car Insurance Blog we strive to advise vehicle owners not only on how to find the correct car insurance, but also to find affordable insurance and save on their monthly car insurance premiums. We have suggested that vehicle owners who tend to drive less consider the benefits of a Pay As You Drive Car Insurance policy. An essential element of such a policy is that the insurer will be provided with data about the driving of the driver.
