JamesM

You'll believe it when you need and start receiving quotes.

Novocastrian

Cross post, but yours reminds of another advantage of keeping a US acquired car in Canada on US plates/insurance.

About 30 years ago not too long after we arrived here the first time, a big bit of a tree fell on my car parked in the drive, doing not negligible unpleasantness to the bodywork. So I had it repaired locally for the then considerable sum of $1000 and submitted the claim to my US insurance company.

No questions asked and I got a cheque in the mail for $US1000 even though I'd made it clear that the invoice was in $Cdn.

I think I bought my first home computer with the profit.

beckiwoo

Because Canada like the USA appears (on the trips I have been on at least) a place where people need cars (except inner Toronto as their public transport isn't too bad IMO)

It's a much bigger country then the UK, people travelling longer distances so unless it is an environmental element. I'm not sure what it is about...

You said it's not done on the car or it's age it's all about the driver and their driving history?

dbd33

Insurance is expensive in Canada because people who drive in Canada crash a lot and get very litigious about their collisions.

IMO, there are several reasons why they crash here more than in the US:

- DRL. Canadian cars have the headlamp switch disabled. In consequence people driving in Canada, especially those who haven't driven elsewhere, are unaware that in the dark, snow or fog, one can turn the car lights on and so make the vehicle visible to people behind it.

- No lane conventions. People who drive in Canada cling to their God given right to drive in any lane at any speed they like. Thus vehicles are constantly changing lanes to go around slower vehicles, when two drivers aim at the middle lane, one to pass a vehicle drifting along in the left lane, one to pass someone meandering along in the right, they can't easily see each other and so are likely to collide.

- disparate driving styles. People drive in the manner of their country. Some of these styles do not fit well together. For example, there aren't many cradles here but the few that are here drive in a peculiar manner. Two characteristics stand out:

they pull into the oncoming lane to slow down before turning left, they do this a quarter mile or so before the corner

they cut the corner completely so that, having rounded it, they're driving up the wrong side of the street they've just joined

The average driver doesn't expect these behaviours and so doesn't, for example, stay back from corners in case someone comes around on the wrong side of the road. Allowing that everyone else has oddities of style, perhaps originating from having to switch to driving on the wrong side of the road, perhaps originating from having left an ox cart at home and bought a blingy truckette thingy here, it's inevitable that vehicles collide.

- blandness. Most of the vehicles here are minivans/SUVs painted in grey or beige (platinum, silver, Grecian, harvest sunset, wheat or similar in the brochure, greige on the road) it's hard to see them in dim light and hard to care if you bang into them.


The type of car is a small factor in determining premiums but, yes, that's generally true. The insurers consider that a particular driver has much the same chance of costing them money, through a liability claim (the ones that entail big dollars and so matter) regardless of the vehicle driven. Note that many of the insurers are UK companies; RSA and Aviva, for example, they charge more here than at home because the loss experience is worse here than at home. (Also, arguably, because car insurance in Canada is a nightmare of muddled government intervention and complex risk sharing pools).

SchnookoLoly

That is rather mental. We are with TD and paying $2000 for a brand new off the lot Hyundai Elantra. We also live in Oakville, ages 28 and 33-in-3-days.

Tirytory

See Christoompa, we're fresh off the boat and paying $750 each for brand new vehicles. It does seem reasonable

SchnookoLoly

I should point out, it was meant to be $2500, but I got a $500 discount because TD has my university on the list of universities that get a discount.

Tirytory

It's just all bloomin expensive....pfft!

SchnookoLoly

Pretty much. We want to get a second car, but it's just not feasible right now, so we're putting it off until later this year, until we have our first year of insurance under our belts and we'll go from there.

Actually, does anyone have any view on how long it took for premiums to go down?

(That said, my parents, who are 60 and who have no at-fault claims on their insurance [they have been in a few accidents, but not at-fault], are paying around $1200 per car... Dad has a 2012 Jetta Diesel, Mom has a 2012 Lexus ES350... and my brother, who is driving a 2002 Honda CRV, is paying $2400, though I think that's gone down now that he's turned 25.)

Oakvillian

When I was fresh off the boat a colleague put me in touch with a broker who suggested I talk to Aviva about a policy they had at the time designed primarily for drivers getting their licenses back after suspension. They sent me a data logger to plug into the OBD port on the car, the policy came with a bunch of discount rules (amount of time spent >120km/h, amount of miles driven in peak vs off-peak hours, proportion of aggressive acceleration/braking, etc), and a quarterly upload of information to a website provided a discounted premium for the next quarter. Fairly moderate modification of driving habits got my premium down very quickly.

Neither that particular policy (Aviva Autograph, I think it was called) nor the broker concerned, are available any longer, but I believe there are other similar things avaialble. Progressive advertises one for the US, don't know whether it's available in Canada. Ask a broker....

Otherwise, no-claim discounts work pretty much like they do in the UK. A few % per year up to a set maximum discount.

dbd33

I spoke with someone this morning who is programming one of those in-car gadgets for an insurer active in Canada. The discount for compliant driving will be 5%. He said it wouldn't be worth it to him to save 5% and have a file of all his journeys made available to his ex-wife and I said that I could never be compliant enough to get the discount. All in all, we didn't think the gadget would be any good for the insured, only the insurer. Still, all programming is billable programming.

christmasoompa

Oh, I don't disagree that it is very reasonable for Canada, it was the fact that you were paying a similar amount in the UK that astounded me!

Oakvillian

That's a bit crap. Mine built up a 45% discount (mind you, from quite a high starting premium) fairly quickly. Perhaps that may be connected to the reason the particular policy is no longer offered...

At the time I wasn't taking the car to work every day, so it was actually quite easy to be compliant. Very little rush-hour or late-night driving, cruise control set just below 120 on long highway trips (that was pretty frustrating...), not too heavy with the right boot, Bob's your uncle.

Hasan78

Hi all
Can someone suggest a broker for car insurance in Toronto area as newbie in Toronto - just exchange my UK licence 2 days ago, and 0 NCB in UK I need to find a good deal. Thanx.

Tirytory

Hasan do it through the CMPA I think it is...your medical Union. Our rates for both of us were excellent plus they recognised our UK no claims too. They insure through The Personal which is a group insurance. I wasn't believed on another thread that our insurance was that low. Of course we've both held driving licenses for a long time with no claims so that might have a bearing on it plus locality, winter tyres, garage etc...