Auto Insurance Quotes - Free Car Insurance Estimates

 

Auto Insurance Quotes - Free Car Insurance Estimates

No matter where you live, if you drive an automobile, you need auto insurance coverage. Online auto insurance quotes and free car insurance estimates are easily available from Allstate. Auto insurance requirements vary from state to state - finding out more about your state coverage requirements is your first step towards researching and purchasing your coverage.
Your auto insurance rate is adjustable through your coverage limits and your deductible amounts. There are a number of other factors that affect the price of insurance, including your driving history, your age, and the type of automobile you drive. One of the best money-saving tactics is to combine your auto insurance policy with other insurance such as your home or renters insurance plan in order to get a deal on both. Whatever your needs, Allstate agents can help you find a plan that fits into your budget.
Auto insurance discounts are available depending on what kind of vehicle you drive, where you live, or the safety features your vehicle has. We provide discounts to students, seniors, and retirees. If you drive a new automobile, economy automobile or utility vehicle, you may be eligible for further discounts. Even the type of safety system your vehicle has can make you eligible for auto insurance discounts. For example, discounts may be applicable if your vehicle has passive restraint systems, anti-lock brakes, or anti-theft devices.
We also offer auto insurance discounts to those who have been accident-free with no moving violations in the last three years. Our best auto insurance discount is for drivers who have been accident-free for five years and who have no moving violations. Drivers age 55 and up can also save on premiums by taking defensive driving classes.
There are a number of different insurance policy options available to help you get the complete auto insurance coverage you need. We offer liability and medical protection including insurance to protect you from those with little or no insurance. Our vehicle protection plans help protect you through collision coverage and comprehensive coverage options. Additional protection can also be extended to you to protect you from a variety of personal injuries such as lost income, child care expenses, and medical expenses.
Allstate also provides specialized insurance for young drivers with our teen driver insurance plans. You can find out more about graduated driver licensing laws in your state on our site. These graduated driver licensing laws help teens to gain driving experience and learn how to safely navigate the roads. If you want to learn more about ways you can help protect teen drivers, visit the Allstate Teen Driver website.

Top Car Maintenance Tips for Teens

A survey says many teens are “completely clueless” when it comes to car maintenance. (Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons: Joseph Gilbert)

When teenagers (ages 16 - 20) have their own cars, the danger of them crashing it are 2 and 1/2 times more likely than the teens who used the “family car.” So those priviledged few teens who are responsible for their own car should also consider themselves warned — things can go wrong and you can avoid many dangers by learning good maintenace habits.
Yes, teens have much to learn about keeping safely out of a crash, but a recent survey shows that young drivers know even less about car maintenance. According to a recent survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of teens are rated by their parents as “somewhat or completely clueless” when it comes to how to take care of their car.
This spurred the folks at AutoMD.com to put together six tips for teens (and parents) to keep their cars running well with the ultimate goal for staying safe on the road.

1. Know your car’s maintenance intervals and keep up with service.
   Look at your owner’s manual and find the car’s required maintenance schedule. This tells you when to have the fluids, tires, brakes, and oil and filter changes.
2. Take care of your tires — make sure they can get you to school, work, etc.
   Keep your tires properly inflated and watch for tire wear. Consult your owner’s manual or tire sticker on the door jamb for manufacturer-recommended tire pressure settings. Also, look at your tires for wear and tear every time you stop for gas.
3. Don’t ignore dashboard warning lights
   Dashboard warning lights serve as notification that something may be wrong with your car. The warnings include Check Engine, Oil, Temperature, Brake, Tire sensors and more, depending on the car’s technology. Read the owner’s manual and pay close attention to the lights, what they mean, and how you should respond to them.
4. Don’t let your car run too low, or out of gas
   Like food, your car needs fuel to survive. Today’s cars are not made to run all the way to the last drop, as many have fuel-injected engines that use gas to cool and lubricate their components. A good rule of thumb is to keep the fuel level above a quarter tank to keep your car running well, and to avoid being stranded on the side of the road.
5. Steer clear — take care of your windshield
   The windshield is like the eye of your car. Therefore, it is critical to keep it clean and clear for safe driving. Wiper blades that have cracks or that skip, streak, or leave smears should be replaced. You should also check spray nozzles for proper aim. If the nozzles are clogged, clean them with a needle.
6. Teen life moves fast, but your car doesn’t have to.
   Slow down and avoid speeding. It may seem fun to drive fast, or you may be running late to school, but the best way to keep your car well maintained and safe on the road is to avoid speeding. Speeding is not only dangerous, but it’s bad for your car too. Driving slower puts less demand on your car’s engine and transmission, and also helps to reduce the amount of gas you use in the process. Avoid all driving habits that put stress and strain on your vehicle.

Teen training is only the beginning of a lifetime of good safety habits. To get further information, AutoMD.com has made a Teen Drive Car Maintenance and Repair Guide available on its site where your teen can take a maintenance and repair quiz and sign a certificate of commitment with their parent or guardian.
Preparing the teenage driver to be aware of his or her car’s condition can prevent many a mishap from ever happening at all. And if you have teenage kids, you have enough to worry about without having to add a flat tire, broken down vehicle, or a car stranded on the road to the list.

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Ford Fusion Wins Top Safety Pick in IIHS Crash Test

(Photo credit: Ford Motor Company)

A completely redesigned 2013 Ford Fusion has been picking up all sorts of kudos among the automotive press since it arrived on the scene in the last few months. New from the ground up, the Fusion is considered Ford’s most significant midsize car since the Taurus in the early ’90s.

This makes its recent achievement as a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) even more significant. Ford has suffered in quality ratings due to its high-tech MyFordTouch infotainment system, which uses voice and touch commands to interact with many different Internet-based apps, but the distraction its systems may cause was not a part of the IIHS testing.

IIHS crash testing mainly rates vehicles good, acceptable, marginal, or poor based on performance in high-speed front and side crash tests. It also conducts a rollover test, plus evaluations of seat/head restraints for protection against neck injuries in rear impacts, which is a common accident.

Belt and Bag Technology

Ford points to its many new safety technologies as the reason for the win. Its new safety belt and frontal impact airbags have futuristic computerized brains to know how to assess a crash situation and act accordingly. From a central “chip,” something called the restraint control module (RCM) can translate information from the front crash sensors, front safety belt buckle switches, driver-seat track position, and passenger seat weight sensor. With all this information, the RCM activates the safety belt pretensioners and determines how the dual-stage front airbags will deploy. All this technology results in adapting the airbag release to the size of the person.

Airbags have become increasingly complicated in the competitive landscape of safety technology. The strategy Ford is employing seems to create the right airbag to go off for the right-sized person. If the occupant is large, the side airbag lines up with the shoulder, keeping the side airbag solidly inflated. On smaller passengers, the side airbag vents, keeping the firm part of the bag at shoulder height for smaller people.

Filling in Blind Spots

Other safety features on the all-new Fusion include blind spot information system with a cross-traffic alert for making maneuvering in parking lots and traveling open roadways safer. The Fusion has something called BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) to sound an alert when the car is detected entering a blind spot. Cross-traffic alert warns if traffic is detected approaching from the sides, such as when you are leaving a parking space in reverse.

Competition is Steep

Ford needed to score this safety test to continue playing in the big game of finding enthusiastic buyers for its mid-size, moderately-priced cars. Most of the biggest contenders in this market have won the same honor. Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Chevrolet Malibu, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima and Volkswagen Passat have each won the honor for their latest model year, making crash test scores simply a cost of entry for the segment.

Also, coming in at pricing that undercuts some of the most popular sedans is a smart strategy for Ford. A base Fusion with an Appearance Package lists for $25,745 — which is thousands less than a comparable VW Passat.

No doubt Ford is glad to accomplish this safety testing for the Fusion. Still to come are the government tests conducted by the NHTSA, which determine other types of safety. A car that achieves high scores on both these tests is usually in pretty good shape from a safety aspect.

Steve Kenner, Ford’s global safety chief, said that Ford’s safety technology efforts have paid off so far.

“The new Fusion is another example of Ford’s commitment to the highest standards of safety and we are proud that IIHS has recognized these efforts,” Kenner said.

U.S. Government Begins Safety Study of Self-Driving Cars

A self-driving Ford Focus spotted in Mountain View, Calif., is one of Google’s employee cars currently in testing. (Photo credit: Flickr: Mark Doliner)

Thanks to the folks at Google, self-driving cars are the next technology that will change the world. The average driver may not be ready to turn the wheel over to a robot car, but the U.S. government and many car companies are taking this technology very seriously.
David Strickland, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, believes that, although these cars may not be commonplace on the road for another decade, they would eliminate a huge factor responsible for 90% of traffic deaths — human error.
“We have the chance of saving thousands and thousands of lives as cars in use today are replaced with automated vehicles,” Strickland said.
With NHTSA in the national seat for creating automotive safety standards, the question is, are they ready to re-write the book of the rules of the road to include completely autonomous cars? Strickland would not say while speaking on the topic at a recent industry gathering in Washington.
“Setting such standards would require the government to fundamentally rethink the way it evaluates auto safety,” he said.

This is only a test
What that would involve is testing several cars that can each communicate with each other — which is just what the government is doing in a massive, year-long road test that started this summer in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The road test, conducted by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, uses 3,000 cars, trucks, and buses set up with V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) technology. These vehicles were donated by many of the car companies developing this future technology and include Ford and GM.
A goal of the testing is for regulators to be directly involved in setting industry standards to make sure that each type of technology can communicate with another in an open system.
The companies known to be already testing robotic cars include GM, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Volvo, and Cadillac. But the technology that started this craze began in 2005, when a professor named Sebastian Thrun and his Stanford team won a contest called the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. The vehicle they created successfully traveled 132 miles across the desert.
Since then, Thrun has headed up a three-year partnership with Google Maps and has driven more than 300,000 miles in its many autonomous vehicles. Google has also been a driver of the government’s involvement and its lobbyists have convinced Florida, Nevada, and California to make self-driving cars legal for testing. Next in line are Hawaii, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Washington, D.C.

Critics have valid points
But as the wonders of the technology are being lauded, others are concerned about the implications of this brave new world. The legal implications of accidents, liability, and integrating self- and non-self drivers on the road, have some legislators worried. Some traffic laws for motor vehicles have been on the books for 100 years, meaning new laws would have to be created from the ground up.
Other naysayers include consumer groups who fear that companies like Google and major auto manufacturers will use data they collect via GPS, radar, and computer vision techniques for marketing purposes.
The biggest hurdle will, of course, be consumer willingness to turn over the wheel to a computer-based system. With technology advancing as fast as the speed of light, we may be ready in another 10 years. One thing is certain — our government has taken the stance of encouraging this behavior to further the cause of safety. So in reality, the road from horseless carriages to driverless vehicles may be much closer than we think.

Will 85 MPH in Texas Up the Speed Elsewhere?

By Joni Gray
A 41-mile-long toll road in the Lone Star State called Highway 130 (SH130), connecting Austin and San Antonio, has set the bar as the highest posted speed limit in America at 85 miles per hour.
Where’s this rise in speed limits coming from? Since 1995, when Congress repealed all federally imposed speed limits, the states have taken responsibility for the posted limits of individual cities and towns. In the years that followed, speeds have been steadily on the rise.
There are 36 states with 70 mile per hour limits, 12 that allow speeds on some highways to reach 75 and only 2 states, Utah and Texas, that post 80-mile-per-hour signs on selected highways and tolls. Most of the roads with higher speed limits are in rural, lower-populated areas.

Texas’ SH 130 lays claim to having the highest speed limit in the nation. (Photo credit: Flickr: ArtJonak)

A Need for Speed 
The support for higher speeds and resulting political pressure from drivers to legislators is easily explained by a culture growing used to instant access of all things. God forbid we don’t get where we are going as fast as humanly possible.
Safety experts have a growing concern about this trend. Research conducted by the the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that few drivers view speeding as an immediate risk to themselves or others, yet the probablity of death, disfigurement, or injury grows with higher speed at impact and doubles for every 10 mph over 50 mph that a vehicle travels.
And the fatality numbers are alarming. The NHTSA reports that on average, 1,000 Americans are killed every month in speed-related crashes and 66% of speed-related crashes involve a single vehicle.

Good News, Bad News
The good news is that fatality rates are on the decline. Between 2006 and 2012, there have been a reported 27% fewer deaths due to traffic accidents. Experts do not believe this comes from safer driving at lower speeds. It’s been concluded instead that the combination of cars built to handle at higher speeds and improved passive and active safety technology are the key reasons for the change.
No matter how you slice it, increasing the speed limit invites people to push the boundaries up. Or so says Jonathan Adkins, deputy executive director with the Governor’s Highway Safety Association in Texas.
“Whenever we see a posted speed limit, we think we can go above it,” Adkins said. ”We think we can go 5 or 10 mph above it and a lot of cases we can’t, so the reality is you’re talking about the flow of traffic being 90, 95, even a little bit more, and so if you’re in a crash, you’re just not going to survive, even if you wear a seatbelt.”

Fast Lane Hogs 
With all the arguments for and against an 85 MPH posting, an unforeseen factor was alledgedly the cause of the first three accidents that occurred after the opening of SH130 in October of 2012. Officials in the area have reported that two wild hogs and a deer were hit on the the road since its opening. A local news station reported video footage from the local police officials, showing examples of the feral hogs running into the highway and the easy access wildlife has to the high-speed road. They report that the hogs have become such a problem in the local area, that there is a bounty of $2 per tail on them due to overpopulation.
So, with all the arguments about high-speed safety, the first accidents on SH130 did not reportedly involve speed. This does beg the question — will driving that fast put you in a more dangerous situation when wildlife has easy access to the highway?

The Economics of Speed  
The cost for driving on America’s fastest highway is an average of $6.17 one way. That price pays for shaving off around 9 minutes on a trip that usually takes around 38 minutes to complete. Not too surprising is the fact that high-speed highways are money-makers and that’s where the rubber literally meets the road. If the the case of Highway 130 is any clue to the future, driving faster is a profitable venture for state governments.
The private company that built SH130, Cintra-Zachry, was confident that the toll road could be a money-maker in the market for speed. In fact, they baked it into the deal. The company offered the five-member state legislators a financial incentive in its contract — $67 million cash payment up front or percentage of the toll profits in the future for posting at 80 mph, and $100 million up front or a corresponding increase in profit.
So with states looking for any way possible to become financially healthy and please an increasingly impatient constituency, the future of speed limit increases seems to be fast approaching — whether we like it or not.

Survey Says: Japanese Companies Make the Most Reliable Cars

By Joni Gray
Most Reliable Car Brands
Consumer Reports recently announced the results of the top ten car brands, putting Toyota squarely at the top with its Scion, Toyota, and Lexus brands in the top three spots. Next were four other Japanese companies – Mazda, Subaru, Honda, and Acura. Also on the list of the top ten was the only German company listed, Audi. Kia was the only one Korean company to make the top ten, and no American brands were represented on the top list.
Of the American brands, General Motors had the biggest gain in reliability with Cadillac brand taking 11^th place in the study.
 Most Reliable Car
The subcompact Toyota Prius C earned the top reliability rating overall – however, Consumer Reports’ testing did not put that particular model in their “recommended” list. The company is both applauded and criticized for its objectivity due to the way it tests cars, refrigerators, vacuums, and other products. They buy one product from a retailer and put it through a bastion of testing to measure not only reliability, but satisfaction and comparative features.

The 2012 Toyota Prius C (Source: Toyota)

How CR Measured Reliability
In the case of these new car reliability ratings, the goal of the survey is to discover how each model is likely to hold up after a year of use. Basically, consumers are asked which problems and repairs they have experienced in one year of ownership. If the model has been unchanged for any other years of its life cycle, its past track record is also measured. Since it’s a “prediction” of sorts, there has to be at least one year of history reported by the owner, so brand new models that are built from the ground up don’t count into the survey results until next year.
Consumer Reports weighs each individual issue differently by how severe it considers the individual issue. For instance, a major engine problem is weighed quite a bit higher than a glitch in the audio system. By contrast, J.D. Power and Associates’ Initial Quality Study (IQS) measures all problems found in the first three months of ownership as equal in weight.
The Bottom of the List
The most notable fail on the bottom of the list is Ford, which only a few years ago, dominated the top of the list. The brand had issues with drivability in its PowerShift transmission and the MyFordTouch infotainment system, which had been cited for failing while in use and being difficult to use. Only two years ago, Ford was the most reliable of the American brands in the study; however, Ford had three new models that were too new to qualify for this survey – the 2013 Ford Escape and Fusion and the Lincoln MKZ.
From first being best to 27th being worst, here’s how Consumer Reports ranked car brands for reliability:
1. Scion: 72% above average
2. Toyota: 47%
3. Lexus: 47%
4. Mazda: 40%
5. Subaru: 37%
6. Honda: 36%
7. Acura: 26%
8. Audi: 16%
9. Infiniti: 14%
10 Kia: 11%
11. Cadillac: 10%
12. GMC: 6%
13. Nissan: 5%
14. Mercedes-Benz: 4%
15. Chevrolet: 3%
16. BMW: -2%
17. Hyundai: -3%
18. Volkswagen: -9%
19. Jeep: -12%
20. Volvo: -14%
21. Buick: -29%
22. Mini: -42%
23. Chrysler: -43%
24. Dodge: -46%
25. Ram: -55%
26. Lincoln: -58%
27. Ford: -59%
28. Jaguar: -141%

Study Shows Car Owners Keeping Vehicles Longer

According to a study from the automotive research firm R.L. Polk & Co., Americans are now holding on to their new car purchases much longer than in years past. Today’s typical new car buyer keeps their vehicle for almost six years, or 71.4 months to be exact. That number has increased by 18 months since 2006 alone. It should also be noted that new car sales figures are boosted by leases, which typically only last for two to four years, which bring the overall length of time owners keep their new cars down.
Polk also found that used car buyers are keeping their vehicles longer as well. Consumers of used passenger cars and trucks kept their vehicles an average of 49.9 months, which is 17.6 months longer than the 32.3 months reported in 2003. In addition, the trend of buyers keeping cars for longer periods of time has also pushed the average age of vehicles on U.S. roads to a record 10.8 years.
One of the biggest reasons for the decline in new car sales and the increase in overall vehicle age is attributed to the decline in the U.S. economy since 2008. With less disposable income available for a number of Americans, would-be buyers are choosing to hold on to their cars and pay off auto loans rather than trading in their vehicles for newer models.
Polk also said that people are holding on to their cars because of an increase in vehicle quality. In the past, the prevailing belief was that cars generally reached their performance limit at 100,000 miles, pushing drivers to purchase new vehicles once their vehicles’ perceived “life spans” were up. However, a lot of today’s drivers have been forced to keep their cars longer than this period, so they’ve consequently learned that their cars actually still performed quite well despite being over the established distance limitation.
To add to this, automakers have also lengthened their warranties. While most new, non-luxury brands already come with a three-year or 36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, many have opted to also extend coverage on drivetrain components like the engine and transmission for up to 10 years or 100,000 miles. Additionally, most luxury brands, and even Hyundai, typically carry a four- or five-year warranty that typically extends to 60,000 miles.
One bright spot for auto manufacturers is that the recent upswing in the economy, combined with the high average age of vehicles on the road today, has helped boost new car sales. Americans bought 12.8 million vehicles in 2011, which was up from 11.6 million in 2010. According to Polk, the number is expected to rise again in 2012, ranging from 13.7 million to 14.5 million this year.