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The Route | Vehicle Preparation | Visa's | Shipping | Insurance | Useful Contacts | Thanks

Insurance
Unlike the UK, where you simply choose a third party or a fully comprehensive policy, a motor insurance policy for the US and Canada can have lots of bits and bobs added on. It's worth remembering that everybody sues everybody else in America, a tendancy that is working its way over to the UK, and therefore for us, a good policy that covers everything is a necessity!
In total I managed to find 4 companies that will insure a foreign registered vehicle and its owners. All of these companies seem to offer the same policy, underwritten by AUI from what I can tell. I found out about them through Horizons Unlimited, a motorcycle travel forum that just happens to have a lot of 4x4 interest aswell. Most companies although advertising motorcycle policies will issue a policy for 4 wheels aswell.

So, what are the options? The basic types of motor insuance include:

  • Bodily Injury Liability - This pays your legal defence costs and claims against you if your car injures or kills someone.
  • Property Damage Liability - This pays your legal fees and claims against you for damage to somebody elses property. It does not cover your own property or your own car.
  • Medical Payments or Personal Injury Protection - This basically pays for the medical expenses should you be involved in an accident involving a vehicle. It also pays out if you are injured by another vehicle while walking.
  • Collision - This pays fro the repairs to your car after a collision, regardless of blame. There is normally an excess to pay (called a "deductable" in USA)
  • Comprehensive Physical Damage - This pays for damage to your car resulting from theft, fire, hail,vandalism or a variety of other causes. There is normally an excess.
  • Uninsured or Underinsured Motorists - This pays for costs related to injuries or property damage should you be involved with an uninsured driver or hit and run.

Certain options of a motor policy can be switched off, but you have to sign to say that you don't want those bits.

Each state in the USA and Canada has a maximum liability level for car insurance, therefore it is important to select a level that will cover you for everywhere you intend to go. In our case we intend to go everywhere, so we need the maximum available coverage which appears to be $500,000.

The four companies that I found are
The Sunrise Group,
Michael I.Mandell Inc./Motorcycle Express.
The Insurance Exchange
AUI

I contacted Michael Mandell and the Sunrise Group initailly to get a quote. Gail Goodman form Micheal Mandell got back to me almost instantly, Tina Jenkins from Sunrise within 24 hours. Both requested that I fill in several forms to get a quote, which I did, scanned in and emailed back to them. Sunrise were able to provide a quote based on the info I had given them, but Michael Mandell wanted further information including copies of drivers licences and passports. At this point all I wanted was a quote and was unhappy to provide that info, so at the end of the day Sunrise got my business. The initial quote they gave me was pretty expensive, nearly $2000. However, when the time came to actually buy the insurance, I had to provide scans of licences, passports, vehicle V5 docs and the price came down to $800, which I don't think is too bad for a UK registered 110, with UK linces holders in a country where everybody sues each other for the smallest of things.

About a month before we left the UK, I had an email from Michael Mandell asking if i wanted to cancel my application for insurance. This annoyed me a little bit as I had only requested a quote in the first place.

Some time before actually buying the insurance from Sunrise, I had contaced the RAC's Carnet department. I have forgotten the name of the chap I spoke to, but he was very helpful, assuring me that a carnet was not necessary for temporary inport to the USA or Canada. He also mentioned the Sunrise Group.

So, Anybody from Michael Mandell who is reading this, sorry, but when all I wanted was a quote you seemed to be pushing me down the line towards a purchase and I don't like pushy sales people.