Car insurance. Let’s face it: it’s not the most exciting of topics. In fact, choosing a car insurance policy is probably up there with filling in your tax return and watching paint dry.

But what with food prices going up and the economy slowing down, many of us are feeling the pinch. And any way we can cut our outgoings is welcome.

So what’s the cheapest car insurance policy out there — and how can you get it?
Risks And Rewards
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IllinoisstateInsurance.com has introduced its new affordable car insurance for Illinois drivers with less than perfect driving records, such as tickets, accidents, suspensions, international driver’s licenses, and those who need SR-22 insurance in Illinois.

Using advanced auto insurance rating software technology, IllinoisstateInsurance.com rates online applicants against 15 to 20 different insurance companies to find the most favorable matches for there clients.

In addition to the new line of affordable car insurance, the company has also implemented a feature that allows customers the ability to instantly download auto insurance policy and insurance ID cards immediately upon purchase.
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An insurance research group said last week that two relatively new car safety systems — lane departure warning and collision avoidance — have huge potential to save lives by either helping prevent millions of common crashes or lessening their severity.

An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety report says the two systems might have helped to prevent or lessen more than 2.75 million crashes in the United States each year between 2002 and 2006, 17,500 of which were fatal.

The systems are currently only in luxury brands, but automotive technologies usually start there and spread to other vehicles over time.
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An East Lackawannock Township car dealership and owner were given accelerated rehabilitative disposition for 318 felony counts of failing to buy workers’ compensation insurance.

Gregg McCandless, an agent of Bill McCandless Ford-Mercury Inc., was charged for not having workers’ compensation insurance between Feb. 16 and Dec. 31, 2006.

If he meets the conditions of the program, the charges will be dropped and his record expunged. He was ordered to pay $2,500 in fines, along with his business, for total fines of $5,000.
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A Lawrence resident working on an electrical engineering degree at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is among those charged in the latest case initiated by the city’s auto insurance fraud task force.

Josue Jerez, 28, of 221 Water St., one of the eight people indicted by a grand jury called by the state attorney general’s office, was also charged with four other people — including his sister — for a phony February 2003 crash that investigators said he helped set up.
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Plumas Lake and Olivehurst residents were arrested on suspicion of defrauding insurance companies by destroying or damaging vehicles, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said Friday.

Helen Marler, 28, and her husband, Jason Marler, 33, both of Plumas Lake, and Agustin Lara, 33, of Olivehurst were arrested Wednesday.

California Department of Insurance investigators learned that Helen Marler conspired with her co-worker, Lara, to set fire to Marler’s 2006 Jeep Liberty so Marler could avoid $600 monthly payments on the vehicle.
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Mat Rogers did not deserve a four-week suspension for the tackle he delivered on Eels fullback Luke Burt last weekend. The penalty is absurd and an embarrassment to the game.

The early plea, carry-over points and loading features of the system are a problem. The NRL judiciary has vastly improved and is far more transparent than previous judiciary systems. But that doesn’t mean the current model can’t be improved. Any system that comes up with a charge and a four-week penalty for a tackle like this is flawed and requires urgent review.
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Here’s the question: How many people do you admire or respect because of the car they drive?

Note I said “admire or respect,” not “envy.”

No one, huh?

So now that we’ve established that you don’t care what someone else drives and that no one else cares what you drive, let’s get serious. The fact is that for most of us after our houses and maybe college educations for the kids (at a really, really good college) cars will take more of our money than anything else. And Detroit (and Nagoya and Stuttgart) want as much of that money as they can possibly get. Read more » »