Re: driving / accidents
 

I'm not sure I follow this. Canadian legislation is irrelevant to car manufacturers, Canada is a small market, California a large one, cars are made to California standards and the Canadians get whatever type of vehicle results. Legislation is relevant to the issue of insurance costs in that, a) Canadian law encourages driving likely to result in accidents whereas US law does not and b) various governments in Canada intervene to adjust policy terms and conditions, driving out insurance companies and increasing rates. I don't see that Canadian legislation concerning vehicles is important or, indeed, effective.

Re: driving / accidents
 

On the other hand, the guy who did $3500 of damage to our new car last year was an American making an unsafe lane change at a stop light.

But otherwise I agree, I'd rather drive in London than Saskatoon. I've seen more accidents in three years here than thirty years in the UK.

Re: driving / accidents
 

Wow some of those prices are frightening and people in BC moan about the government run ICBC.
I pay $1872 fully comp on a new 5.7L truck including business use and i have had a claim 3 years ago.
My son pays about the same for a Subaru Impreza turbo WRX, he's 21 and would not even get insurance in UK on a car like that at his age i'm sure.

Yes i did have cheaper insurance in UK but i guess current insurance isn't as bad as some.

Re: driving / accidents
 

Incidentally, we passed another accident on the way home tonight. I'm guessing the government insurance here contributes to that as a good driving record doesn't seem to make much difference to the price of insurance... mostly people just drive too close, change lanes without looking and generally aren't paying attention to what's going on.

Re: driving / accidents
 

In contrast, having paid more than $20,000 in car insurance over the last few years, I'm a very conscientious and careful driver. I always try to not take risks and live in fear of another at fault accident.

Re: driving / accidents
 

Me and the Mrs (me 29 her 25) pay 800 a year full comp courtesy car the lot for an 05 cobalt, mint condition with all options and only 75k on the clock - still a lot more than UK pound for pound... but i earn more here so not really worse off.

The poor standard of driving must be a factor......dont get me started :D

Also its the way that you buy insurance here - call or go see your broker for a nice friendly chat and waste many hours of your life to get a quote

UK - stick your details into any number of websites and you can get umpteen quotes in minutes - you will probably be able to do that here in a few years time :p

Re: driving / accidents
 

:confused: Surely thats your choice? Sites like Kanetix allow you to just go to a website and get quotes from 20 companies.

Re: driving / accidents
 

1. There aren't many companies writing car insurance in Canada. Still less in the back of beyond.

2. The technology used by those companies is not usually advanced enough to support this kind of application.

3. The companies don't want your car policy alone, they want to use writing it as an opportunity to "build a relationship" i.e. to sell you life insurance.

4. Insurance is not a dynamic industry sector anywhere, combine this with the generally lackadaisical approach to business taken by Canadian firms and dealing with a Canadian insurance broker will inevitably make the pace of arranging a beach rental in Honduras look frenzied.

All that said, a reason often cited for wanting to move to Canada is that it's thirty years behind the times. Both ways you cannot have it.

Re: driving / accidents
 

LOL, true enough.

As it happens my car insurance is up for renewal. My current provider, Belair direct (found previously by an online service) want $2400 for the two vehicles/ drivers. Kanetix threw out $1800 from RBC, but it remains to be seen what the real damage will be one combined home insurance, different liability and coverage levels etc etc etc are factored in. I expect to lose at least half an hour chasing all that up on the phone. Naturally, my house is too old to get an online quote for coverage:rolleyes: