How to reduce your insurance costs

" If somebody with 1/2 a brain wants to steal your car, they are going to steal your car."

I politely disagree, in fact it is the opposite, it is the people who put in 1/2 a brain worth of time and money to not want to protect their vehicle (or equipment) will be the ones impacted by theft. I had show cars most of my youth (5 figures worth of aftermarket), and have had this conversation too many times, even on a terrasse during Grand Prix weekend, where some smart ass insisted that he could pretty much steal any car. I told him with confidence that he could never steal mine, and if he did, he got to keep the car (it was an insane system, including electronic hood lock pulling against the hood release).

So here's the basics (think like a thief) :

By today's standards, there is no window breaking or coat hanger tricks (that is so 80's). They want to copy your key FOB or it's frequency via OBD to make it easy. I always assume my FOB frequency can be copied, so I make sure it cannot get copied.

1) Hide the VIN number with some paper, thief cannot take a picture the night before, head home, and use it to look up your frequency
2) Lock the OBD port, yes the lock is expensive ($500+) but once the port is locked, no way for them to connect their computer to copy the frequency
3) Steering wheel lock, I am not sure why people stopped using this, does not look pretty, but who cares, mine matches the color of my upcoming car

Those 3 things alone, if in place, will make most thieves walk right past your car, even if they managed to open the door to access the OBD port.

Now let's say for whatever reason they drag the damn thing on a flatbed.

This is where tracking comes in, and if you are paranoid like me, you will have no less than 2 systems.

4) The TAG system is great, insurance discounts pays the system/service within 2 years (for a 5-year service contract), and their recovery rate is very high.
On top of relying on a service to recover my vehicle (they do not share the GPS co-ordinates with you while they recover), I like to know where the car is at all times,

5) so I have a live GPS unit as well (Tracki) , hidden away.

So then the next smart person will tell me, yeah but they will disconnect the car battery. No problemo. Both units mentioned above actually work on their own standalone battery. TAG has something like 5 or 6 units each hidden in a different location, running off of a 5 year battery source. So even if the thief finds 1 or 2 units, several more, which are in difficult locations to reach, will continue to be accessible. As for the GPS unit, it has it's own battery too which gets charged from the 12v car battery, disconnect that source, and the unit will continue to function with live updates off of it's own battery, for the next 10-12 days, plenty of time to find the car.

Like I said, you get out of it what you put into it. Some don't care, and will just rely on their cushy insurance policy, and as I said before, good luck waiting for a replacement. To each their own.

Forgot the last one

6) Faraday pouches for your keys inside the house. Yes some FOBs are dormant when not moving, but I do not take a chance and block the signal from the front door (where thieves use wire antennas to capture the signal outside your home to copy it on the spot).

Before anyone asks me for links or brands or pricing, please see my tracking security post in the main section, all details are there.

opmope said:

I think you're exactly right. The use the key fob scenario. Once the have the car in their little warehouse. Then they disable OnStar. They know all the tricks. I know people say thats why you have insurance but as mentioned before, who wants to wait another year for an allocation.
I spoke to my insurance broker and she is looking into what the discount is for installing Tag. I have also read that some insurance companies pay the $600 to have it installed on your car. Some say you get $200 off the premium a year. So in 3 years, Tag pays for itself. Plus Tag say," 99% recovery rate." But do you really want your car back if it gets stolen? I don't think they will take as good a care as owners do haha.

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Actually, two corrections. Depending on insurance company, the cost of your TAG setup (including 5-year service) should pay itself off after 2 years, if your insurance company gives you the same rebate as mine ($325/year). Second, no problem to get your car back after it was stolen, it will be in mint condition, and here is why. Every thief knows that there is a chance that there is a tracking service and unit on the car. So unlike the movies, where you see them tearing off under highways and speeding into some airplane hanger or shipping port with containers all lined up waiting for the car to be driven inside, reality is very different. They actually drive the car to a different city, and leave it parked there for 24-48 hours, and wait to see if a tracking service will find it. If the car remains there untouched, then no tracking service, and they are home free (or so they think) to bring the car to the next location, which is often to prep it for shipping.

If you have a service like TAG on the car, law enforcement usually works with them to create a sting operation. Meaning instead of allowing the owner to take back the car right away, the police will monitor the car for someone to come back pick it back up, and once they do, bam caught the thief. I would co-operate and offer the cops to catch the guys, why not. Worst case, can follow the car again with GPS.

Pro Tip 2: Stay happily married for over 20 years, and that insurance discount increases, deeper discount if it's "happily".

Blows my mind how much money some of you are paying for insurance in other provinces. I think $458 was my extra to add on the C8 to the policy here in Quebec, and the insurance company has been stellar for any previous claims. And as mentioned, $75 of that is because I took the depreciation coverage, else would be in the $3xx. You would think I was driving a Honda Civic for that cost. Of course my driving record is pretty clean and I am probably in the age that suggests I am responsible too, who knows.

Cannot imagine having to pay $3k-$4k for insurance, I think the wife would really challenge the purchase if that was the case, driving up the whole policy by a lot. Would have to really want a summer toy to make it worth the coin.

Murray20c8 said:

Like I said before, location and actuaries!
High density areas with high accident rates pay more.
Low density areas with relatively low accident rates pay a lot less because it costs the insurers less in those areas.

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I would consider Montreal a high density area and high accident rate, so not sure how that theory applies here when some of us have extremely low rates. Guessing driving record and tracking decide play a major role for the lower price

Unless you meant an individual’s accident rate in which case yeah drives the price up for sure.