Does Car Insurance Cover the Car or the Driver?

When you buy insurance for your car, there are a number of options that come with different degrees of coverage. Many Chandler drivers find it confusing to navigate the insurance landscape, and choose the insurance that best fits their needs. This is especially true because some types of car insurance cover the driver, while other types cover the car itself! The team at Mercedes-Benz of Chandler out together this guide to help answer common car insurance questions, including:

• Does car insurance cover the car or the driver?
• What are the different types of car insurance?
• What type of car insurance coverage do I need?
• What does full car insurance cover?
• Is my child covered under car insurance?

Feel free to contact our financing department for more car insurance tips, like when you’ll be covered for weather-related damage. Read on below for an overview of the different types of car insurance, what’s covered under each, and how to decide which plan is right for you!

Who Does Car Insurance Cover?

One question we hear a lot from Phoenix drivers is, “Does car insurance cover the car or the driver?” It’s no wonder this causes confusion — especially for first-time car-buyers — because “full car insurance” is actually a combination of insurance policies that each cover something different:

• Comprehensive insurance follows or covers the car.
  • Comprehensive car insurance covers damage due to events that are not collision-related, and that are out of your control. Your car is protected from a wide array of events including theft, vandalism, fires, and rockslides, weather-related damage, and accidents with animals.
• Collision insurance also covers or follows the car.
  • Collision insurance covers damage from situations when you are driving. This means events like a collision with another car, going off the road, or hitting an object.
• Liability insurance covers the driver, and follows them no matter which car they’re driving.
  • Liability insurance provides coverage for damage you may cause to others when driving, such as medical bills or costs to repair damaged property. Liability insurance may also apply when the insured person is driving someone else’s car or a rented vehicle.

As you might expect, there’s a considerable amount of overlap between the coverage categories, and some events may fall into more than one insurance category. As the driver and policy-holder, you’ll choose one policy to consider as your primary coverage. The primary coverage will cover everything within its limit, at which point the secondary policy or policies take care of any remaining expenses.

Required vs. Optional Auto Insurance Policies

Neither comprehensive nor liability insurance alone constitute “full car insurance.” In fact, there’s no single insurance option that covers everything. Instead, you’ll need to bundle several policies together for coverage that takes care of everything you need it to. That might sound complicated, but it’s actually a way to customize your coverage so that it fits your needs as a Gilbert driver! Keep in mind the following key differences between comprehensive, liability, and collision insurance:

• Liability insurance is required by law in most states, and most drivers will have both of the two forms of liability insurance: bodily injury coverage and property damage coverage. It covers damage that results when you are the driver at fault.

• Collision insurance is an optional policy that covers damage to your vehicle, or pays to replace it, in the event of an accident for which you are not at fault.

• Comprehensive insurance is optional, and covers non-accident-related damage to your car for which you are not at fault, but it can also provide an extra level of coverage in the instance of an accident involving another vehicle.

Explore Your Auto Coverage Options with Mercedes-Benz of Chandler!

If you’d like expert guidance as you choose your primary insurance policy and build the right coverage for you, the Mercedes-Benz of Chandler team can help. Reach out to our finance center, or visit us in Chandler to go over insurance policy details in person.