Doesn’t everyone dream of having a super fast sports car that has a ludicrous mode, that is environmentally friendly, can sorta drive itself when you are napping and is pretty to look at. Why yes, yes, not a good idea and yes! Along comes Tesla and it promises all of these amazing things and more, but it also comes with a hidden cost, the cost to repair it after a car accident and the cost to insure any vehicle Tesla makes.
Is insurance on a Tesla really that different from any other car? Let’s take an example that I happen to witness one day. I’m working out at the gym on the elliptical machine, minding my own business. Working hard and not really going anywhere. A nice black Tesla model S rolls out of the parking lot. They go to take a left where you can only take a right. They drive that fancy car into the concrete street divider. The driver gets out, nods his head, puts his hands on top of his head, walks back and forth. From what I can see, he looks like a pretty young kid and is rightfully upset. The front bumper is damaged and the car can not be driven. The poor kids is obviously upset. The first thing that came to my mind was that it is going to be pretty annoying trying to get that car fixed.
So, now what happens? Well, hopefully it isn’t his dad’s car because that wouldn’t be fun to explain to him. After the tow truck comes to get your sad banged up car it gets towed to a repair shop. You call your insurance company and let them know you had a “momentary lapse” in good judgement. Most companies have pre-approved repair shops they can recommend. But, finding a shop to fix your Tesla might be a little more difficult.
In case you haven't heard, Tesla’s are a real pain to fix. First, you have the electric power system and any body shop that is going to fix your car is going to want to power it down so that no one gets electrocuted working on it. In some cases to get to the power system it requires removal of the back seat. More labor more cost. Secondly, a lot of the Tesla is aluminum. Aluminum requires specialized equipment to repair and not all shops are set up to do that work. Next there are the parts. I’ve heard of some cases where it can take six months to get a specific part. Tesla has been working to remedy this and I hear that it has gotten easier to get parts but you can still expect delays. The paint is another complex thing. A lot of high end cars use complex paint methods to give their cars a special shine. Different colors have different paint schemes. A few colors require three different coats of paint. More coats, more time more money. Additionally, there aren’t that many approved repair shops. Tesla is still a relatively new company and it takes time to certify mechanics and body shops. Sensors sensor sensors. All those sensors that keep your car in lane or let it drive along with traffic are built into different areas of the car.
Let’s imagine we need to repair this kids car that hit a concrete street divider. On a regular car it’s a couple of clips and screws and off comes the bumper. You order a new bumper, paint it, pop it on and off you go. On a Tesla it takes time to safely remove the sensors and reconnect them when it is put back on the vehicle. And then we need to get a part from Tesla. Or maybe we need several parts including new clips, new sensors and a new bumper. All of these things take time and time is more money. So, you put all of these things together just understand repairing a Tesla can be a very expensive proposition. If you are wondering why it costs so much to insured a Tesla no matter the model now you have a better idea.
Hopefully everything went smoothly to get this kids car repaired. But, I’m willing to bet it took a lot longer than expected and he most likely had to come out of pocket more than he expected.
One other thing to consider is your rental car coverage. Most policies offer 30 days of rental car coverage up to your policy limits. When that is used up you are on your own paying. Additionally, different companies charge different rates for car insurance. Those rates can be based off the driver and also the car you are trying to insure. It is best to shop your rate around with several companies to see who charges the least. Or, you can call us and we will shop it for you with all of our companies. 951-395-0754 www.socalinsured.com

​Have you read about Cellino & Barnes? It is a fascinating story about two partners that built an empire off personal injury claims against auto insurance companies and then couldn’t figure out how to work together. It was a national company that had to be disbanded state by state. Seems to me it would have been easier to just divided the states up and kept the company together. Cellino, you don't go past the Mississippi River and Barnes you stay on the west side! So, enough about that. If you want to read about a messy divorce click here: https://www.thecut.com/2017/12/the-cellino-and-barnes-law-firm-breakup-explained.html
This is a post about if you really need to call a personal injury attorney as soon as you have an auto accident? Will your auto insurance company just deny claims like the ads say? Why do they want you to call them first?
There are so many ads on TV and the radio now for law firms. Insurance companies must be really terrible people right? Well, here’s the deal. Insurance companies pay out billions of dollars on an annual basis and these law firms have decided they want in on the action. Guess who is paying for those ads? It’s you and me and your aunt Thelma and Uncle Tom and everyone else that pays for insurance. So, next time you catch yourself singing the catchy jingle, just remember that you are paying for it with your insurance premiums, so sing away you payed for it anyways!
Do you really need to get an attorney if you have a car accident? The truth is most of the time you don’t need an attorney. If you get a minor injury in an accident every insurance company has a special department dedicated to handling these injury claims. They will cover medical bills that your health insurance wont cover. They will pay lost wages if you can't work while recovering. If a death occurs the insurance company will almost automatically pay out the max liability limits. They will also pay pain and suffering if needed. It isn’t always easy figuring out if a claim is legit, but if you do have real losses the insurance companies will usually pay.
One coverage that is often neglected because people don’t understand it is your uninsured motorist/ under-insured motorist coverage.  What do these coverage's do? They pay you if you are injured by someone who either has no insurance or has limits lower than you carry.  Make sure those limits are enough to protect your lost wages for a year or more people. It’s really inexpensive so make sure you add it on if you don’t have it now.
So, why do these attorneys advertise? They make a lot of money and very rarely go to court. They want you to call them first so they can assess how much you might be able to make from an insurance company, and by you being able to get a payment it means they will be able to collect a share for representing you. All they need to do is get your hospital bills, how long you might miss work, and make a case for pain and suffering. They collect the information, talk to the insurance company and everyone gets paid. You just happen to be paying for this lawyer where you could cut out the middle man and still end up at the same place.
This post seems pretty anti attorney. Now, I’m not going to say that you may never need a lawyer. There are times and certain companies that will either deny a claim or pay out very little. Sometimes you need to sue a person separate from the insurance company. For example if someone is carrying the state minimum liability coverage 15 thousand a person 30 thousand per accident. Now, you get injured by them and can’t work for six months. Your claim against that person would probably be in excess of what the insurance company will pay. They will most likely write you a check for 15 thousand dollars. If you don’t have under-insured motorist on your policy you would then have to go after the person that hit you to collect more money. If they own a house, have assets you probably can collect enough to cover your losses. But, if they don’t have anything to sue for you might be out of luck.
My advice is always try to settle with the insurance company. Remember insurance is there to make you whole again. Meaning they aren’t there to make your life better than it was before the accident. But, they are there to pay for those lost wages, those medical bills and that pain and suffering. Your lawyer can pick up the phone and get them to settle, but so can you. And if you do it you won’t have to pay for the lawyer.
Call me today to discuss your limits and make sure your under-insured motorist coverage is where it needs to be. 951-395-0754 www.socalinsured.com

Every month when you pay bills you probably say some unflattering thing when the auto insurance bill is due. Auto insurance is one of those bills you hate to pay because the benefits from it always seem abstract. It isn’t something that you can pick up and hold. It isn’t something that you can snuggle with at night. It is however one of those things that you need to have and by having good insurance coverage hopefully you will sleep better at night, right, maybe?
So, why is it that no matter what you do your insurance rates keep going up? You haven’t had an accident in over ten years, you stop at all the stop signs, you yield to people crossing the street. You are the type of person that every insurance company should want to insure. Even with your good behavior it doesn’t seem to help.
Let’s look at why. Take a middle aged driver with a clean record. If you are old or young your rates are probably more influenced by your age than anything else, and if you have a ticket or an accident over the last few years that is having a big impact on your insurance rate too.
Mr. Responsible is driving an average mid priced car. When he bought his car wanted the backup camera and he wanted blind spot sensors, heck throw in that adaptive cruise control too, because he’s responsible. Nothing fancy, but he thought those would be nice to have and help him drive safer. When our driver rolled out of the new car lot he was driving a $37,000 car. That’s the cost for an average new car in 2018.
Two things just happened when he started driving this mid priced car. The average for a mid range car has gone up dramatically over the last ten years.  In 2008 the average car cost about $25,000. That’s about a 50 percent increase in the cost of an average car.
The second part is all the added technology going into cars. You would think these added devises would reduce the number of accidents happening, well that hasn’t happened. There are practically the same number of accidents today as there were ten years ago.
A few years back if you bumped someone in the rear maybe they needed to get a few scratches buffed out or maybe they needed the bumper painted. Now, if you hit someone that has a bunch of sensors in the bumper it can cost thousands of dollars to fix.  And, often they need specialists to fix a vehicle. Every time you say specialist, the cost of the repair goes up.
Car manufactures are great at adding all these features because people want them. What they don’t take into consideration is how these new features get fixed after an accident.  These complex set of sensors and cameras are sometimes easy to fix, and sometimes they are very complex to fix. There is no standard in the auto industry on how these items are installed or where they are installed. 
At the end of the day these are two factors influencing rates. You may not be the one buying the new car, but insurance spreads risk across everyone. The more expensive the cars are the more we all pay for insurance. There are other factors as well and we will cover those in a separate article. But, at the end of the day insurance companies are not making more money, They are just collecting more to cover losses they are incurring. Marvel at all those cool infotainment centers with Apple carplay and just understand where your money is going.
If you see your rates go up dramatically you can always call to have your rates re-shopped. Call us today to check your current rates with all of our companies. www.socalinsured.com 951-395-0754

​The state of insurance in California took a major hit last year with the wildfires in Northern California. I have been talking with several insurance companies about the state of insurance in California. There are several companies that are non-renewing homes at huge rate. Insurance companies will not cancel a policy during your policy period. But, they will take the opportunity of a renewal to no longer cover a home they deem too risky.  There are also several companies that have decided to stop insuring homes until they can reassess the market.
Prior to last year there always seemed to be a company that was happy to pick up coverage on homes. Sometimes it was more expensive, sometimes it was about the same price. This year however almost all the companies are reassessing how they take on risk. They are moving the distance your home is from brush (open areas not maintained) further back. They have taken all the data from the most recent wildfires and determined that homes farther from the source of fire are now at a higher risk due to blowing embers. They are looking at what the cost to rebuild homes are and then re examining what they charge per square foot on your replacement cost. One company told me that in an area near LA contractors are charging over 700 per square foot to rebuild. There are laws that protect companies from price gouging on materials, but contractors can charge whatever they want for labor. And, they are taking the opportunity to charge a lot!
What does this all mean? Well, if your home is in an area near or surrounded by brush it will now be harder to get the house covered. You will have less options too. And for everyone else your rates are likely to increase to offset the costs paid out by insurance companies.
If your home insurance is getting non renewed give me a call, I still have great options available. If your rate went up give me a call too. Maybe I can find a competitive company for you. 951-395-0754 www.socalinsured.com