9 Ways to Save on Car Insurance

You’ve found the car you want, and you’re ready to close the deal – except for one thing – you’re concerned about insurance costs.

We can hardly blame you. Amid the pandemic and all, insurance premiums have leapt over recent years. Not to worry though, here are 9 tips to save on your insurance.

1. Nominate the right drivers on the policy

Adding a more experienced, secondary driver can lower the cost of your premium, provided that driver has a no-claims history and good rating. Younger drivers however, are viewed as an insurance liability. While some niche insurers can offer them better options, generally their inclusion raises prices.

2. Use an insurer that meets your needs

Whether you: drive low kilometres; own a vintage car; are a young driver; or live in a certain region – no one insurer suits all. Some operate: on a kilometre basis; specialising in classic cars; by pricing better for certain locations; or by offering discounts to those restricting under 25’s from driving.

3. Research

Before renewing or switching policy, shop around – comparison sites such as iSelect or Compare the Market offer easy comparisons. With loyalty bonuses no longer as common as before, and ratings transfers more widespread, it’s easier to change providers and save hundreds. Failing that, ask about promotions or for a better deal! Though do be wary of any promotion’s duration – premiums often increase thereafter.

4. Pay up front and bundle insurance products

Paying the policy in full will save you money compared with monthly instalments, however, be wary of any surcharges for card payments. Some insurers offer lower premiums when bundling insurance products (multiple cars, home and contents, bike, boat, etc.)

5. Consider your coverage

If you own a newer car, comprehensive is more fitting whereas older cars are more suited to third-party property or third-party fire and theft insurance. Increasing your excess or omitting coverage for items covered elsewhere can reduce your premium. Furthermore, insuring your vehicle prior to purchase, and ensuring coverage does not lapse, will place you in good stead. Items stolen from a car generally aren’t covered, while some extras (roadside assistance) can be sourced externally.

6. Alter the car’s value

Depending on the insurer, adjusting the policy to a lower (agreed) value can help. Market value is typically based on the insurer’s findings, so if you need to dispute this appraisal, source your own quotes and provide good maintenance records.

7. Maintain a clean driving history

Your insurance rating determines the premium you pay – some insurers have a no-claims discount, but incidents drive up prices – even if the car was driven by a friend, and potentially if you weren’t at fault. Some insurers may wave the first at-fault incident but this is rare.

8. Maintain accurate details

While some may be tempted to omit details on past claims or change info on the car’s storage, should a claim arise, insurers generally probe further into your details and you risk forfeiting all your coverage – don’t do it!

9. Read the policy

Not only do exclusions between insurers vary (unroadworthy/modified vehicles; non-covered drivers; incidents involving drugs/alcohol; etc.) but there are considerable differences in coverage to consider. That might include a higher excess for drivers returning from having their license suspended, or even excluding cover altogether.

What The Person With The Caravan Wishes You Knew

Summer is the time of year when you’ll see a lot of people out on the road going to their favourite holiday destinations – or making the journey the holiday. Some of them have caravans behind them. Others have similar large trailer-type things behind them, such as horse trailers or even furniture trailers (which don’t have to contain furniture – they can carry all the camping equipment, the bikes, the kayaks and so forth). We won’t consider trucks in this article, as they’re a different story altogether.

It’s easy to get frustrated when you barrel along the road without anything attached to your towbar and see a caravan on the road ahead of you, getting gradually closer and closer (as you travel at the legal speed limit, of course). You may grit your teeth and start scanning the road ahead, looking for an opportunity to overtake. Why do they do it? Why do caravans go so slowly? Are they that heavy? And why don’t they just pull over and let people pass as soon as a line starts forming?

Well, I’m going to answer your questions. As you may have guessed, I have sometimes been that person with the caravan, and I can tell you exactly what’s going through the mind of a driver with a caravan. Believe me, we’re not going slow on purpose and holding everyone up just for the sadistic pleasure of annoying people.

Why Caravans Are Slow

There are several reasons why the person towing a caravan goes more slowly than you do. In other countries, the speed at which you can tow anything, including a caravan, is different from the maximum speed limit (usually lower, of course). However, that’s not the case in any of the states of Australia, where a caravan can be towed at the full legal limit, as long as the driver can do so safely.

And there’s the point of it: as long as they can do it safely. Because they’ve got that extra thing on the back, their car handles differently when it comes to corners and things like that. Strong winds can also affect how a caravan sits on the road, meaning that a driver towing a caravan may have to slow down when you don’t have to. What’s more, even a modern caravan has quite a bit of drag, which puts a lot of extra demand on the engine – even the most powerful engine. Nobody really wants to wring the guts out of the engine all the time, as this makes even the most frugal car into a thirsty beast. This means that the caravan has to go slower than you do, especially when going into a headwind and/or uphill.

In the case of horse trailers, the driver has to make sure that he/she drives smoothly without anything sudden. Horses are sensitive creatures, and travelling in a trailer is something that they hate. Anything surprising or startling will freak them out, and there’s a risk that they could hurt themselves in that confined metal box. This is why the drivers of horse trailers often go a little bit slower. They definitely don’t want you to honk your horn. Seriously – don’t do it.

Why Don’t They Pull Over?

While you’re looking at the back of the caravan and wondering why the heck the driver won’t just darn well pull over and let you pass, said driver is probably scanning the side of the road. You see, a caravan driver can’t pull over just anywhere. They have to look for a place that allows enough space for their vehicle and their caravan without taking out any of the “road furniture” (signs, markers, barriers, etc.) or any vegetation. They also don’t want to drive onto anything that they can’t get out of again, such as ditches or boggy patches. What a vehicle (and the associated caravan) can get into and out of will depend on said vehicle and whether or not it’s got 4×4 capacity.

A good place to pull over has to be a good place not just for the caravan driver but also for you. It’s no good if the caravan driver pulls over just short of a blind corner where you can’t see what’s on the road ahead (we’re not talking about lay-bys, passing bays and slow vehicle lanes here; they’re another story).

In short, it can take a while for the driver of the caravan to find the right place to pull over that’s good for both of you. It won’t happen the instant that you appear. The driver won’t start looking for a good place until you appear in his/her rear vision mirror.

If you are the caravan driver, make sure that you do look out for a good spot to pull over and let others pass to avoid a long snake of traffic building up behind you.

When You Overtake A Caravan

OK, so the driver of the caravan has found a place to pull over and now you can overtake. This driver may or may not have come to a complete standstill. Sometimes, the driver of the caravan will stop completely, especially if the road is winding and a lot of traffic has gone past. However, sometimes, the caravan driver will crawl along half on and half off the road, especially in the case of a long straight. Now is your chance to pass. You can also get a chance to pass if the road has a passing lane.

When your chance comes, here are some things that the driver of the caravan would like you to know:

• If the road ahead is clear for, say, 500 metres, then please go ahead and pass as soon as you can. Don’t leave it until the last 100 metres to make your manoeuvre. This doesn’t happen, you say? Well, it happened more times than I cared to count last time we were out with the caravan behind. I or whoever was driving edged over when the long empty straight came, but did that car that had been tailgating overtake straight away? Nope – he/she waited until the last possible moment to do it safely and then overtook. Nuts!
• Use your indicators, from when you start your manoeuvre until you’re back on the proper side of the road and ready to roar away.
• Make sure you actually do overtake, especially if you have been behind the caravan for ages.
• Use all the usual safety precautions when overtaking, like checking you have a clear view of the road.
• Don’t make rude hand gestures or angry honks at the caravan driver. He/she can’t help being slower thanks to the factors mentioned above.
• Feel free to wave and/or give a “thank you” honk!

Are You Feeling Sleepy?

Anybody else feeling a bit tired at this time of year? What with all the build-up to Christmas, the Big Day itself, the weirdness of the in-between days at the end of December and the fun of staying up all night to see in the new year, it would be unsurprising if you weren’t a bit tired. This is especially the case if you’re one of the many who has to keep working during this time of year (because cars still need fuel, fruit needs to be harvested, cows need to be milked and people need to eat). Add in the fact that this is when quite a lot of people like to drive longer distances to visit relatives or to go somewhere on holiday, and you get a much higher risk of people driving fatigued.

Fatigue is more than just ordinary tiredness. According to the dictionary, fatigue is a state of complete mental and physical exhaustion, of being completely and utterly worn out or, as C.S. Lewis would put it “dog-tired, cab-horse tired, tired like a child in a factory”. You could refer to it as being overtired.

Why Fatigue Matters

Fatigue matters because it affects your driving. It makes you less alert and less aware of your surroundings, and it slows your reaction time. It also affects your thinking powers so that you make crappy decisions. In short, driving fatigued is at least as bad as driving drunk. In fact, the two are pretty similar. Both slow your reaction times and affect your ability to make decisions. However, people who drive drunk are likely to make impulsive, reckless decisions, whereas those who drive when exhausted are likely to be less alert, less aware of hazards and slow to make a judgement call. In fact, driving after having been awake for 20 hours is the equivalent to driving at the legal alcohol limit.

Fatigue also carries the risk of nodding off at the wheel. You can see why. It’s dark outside (signalling to your body that it’s night time and therefore bedtime), the white lines on the road flick by monotonously (which has a hypnotic effect), the car seat is beautifully padded and supportive, and the interior of the car is warm… Before you know it, you can feel your eyelids drooping and your head nodding. Not good. Even if you nod off for a second, that can be one second too many if your car swerves.

Unfortunately, although you can estimate breath or blood alcohol levels, you can’t measure fatigue. You can’t even pin it down purely to the number of hours you’ve slept for the way you can pin down the amount of alcohol you’ve had using the number of standard drinks. Although lack of sleep is one component of fatigue, it’s not the only factor. Someone who had had one bad night of sleep can be less fatigued when driving than someone who’s had a week or more of wakefulness and insomnia, even though the first person has had fewer hours of sleep last night. A lot of things influence your level of fatigue other than how much sleep you’ve had – there’s how stressed or emotionally drained you’re feeling, any mental fatigue you’re going through (hard day at work, anyone?), what exercise you’ve done and what you’ve been eating.

One contributor to fatigue, both mental and physical, is doing the same thing for hours and keeping alert and focused on one thing for hours. This is exactly what happens when you’re driving, especially if you have to focus intently the entire time (e.g., in very busy traffic). This makes long-haul driving especially risky.

Then there’s the little matter of your body clock. It’s natural for the hormones in your body to fluctuate during the day, although this can be influenced by what you’ve been eating and/or drinking (looking at you, caffeine). This means that you can be feeling fine in the morning even though you’ve only had five hours of sleep the night before, then feel sleeeeeeepyyyyy come midday. In fact, it’s natural for people to feel a bit lethargic in the middle of the day after lunch, and it’s not just because of the heat. Your body clock can be messed with by a number of things, including shift work, the changeover to and from daylight savings, having a new baby in the house… and even the very common habit of staying up late and sleeping in on weekends.

How Can You Avoid Driving While Fatigued?

The main cause of fatigue is poor sleep, so the obvious answer to how you can avoid driving while fatigued is to ensure that you get a good night’s sleep on a regular basis. The odd broken night, late night or very early morning probably won’t hurt you or your driving, but if it happens too often, you could be putting yourself and your passengers in danger.

This is primarily a driving blog rather than a health blog, so I can’t go into too much detail about how to get a good night’s sleep, but here are some ideas:

• Have a regular bedtime routine, which helps your body wind down and get ready to sleep.
• Wake up at the same time every day (yes, even on weekends!).
• Avoid blue light (e.g., screens without a filter) last thing at night.
• Keep your bedroom dark and minimize the number of devices you keep in there.
• Watch your caffeine intake. A good rule of thumb is to have your last cup of coffee at 4 pm, and switch to other drinks after that.
• Avoid thinking about, reading about or watching anything likely to make you stress, angst or worry – including the fact that you can’t sleep if you’re having trouble dropping off.

Other ways that you can help avoid fatigue when you’re driving are the following:

• Know yourself. If you’re a night owl, avoid driving in the early morning when you’re not fully awake. If you’re an early bird, then avoid driving later at night.
• Be aware of your natural ebb and flow of sleep-related hormones. If you know that you’re tired, it may be best to avoid driving during the early afternoon slump. This is a good excuse to get out and go for a stroll (which will ease some of the mental fatigue and give you a good oxygen burst) or to take a siesta.
• Having extra coffee – although this only works in the short-term and will wear off and leave you even more fatigued, so use this one with caution.
• Opening the window for fresh air and switching on some pumping music. Again, these are only short-term fixes to wake the brain up by increasing oxygen intake and getting some natural stimulation (in the form of music). However, these also wear off fairly quickly.
• Share the driving. If you know that you have to put in a long-haul drive, then arrange for the passenger to take a sleep first as you go (eye masks and a nice pillow help here), then swap.
• PULL OVER AND TAKE A NAP. It won’t kill you if you pull over somewhere safe, turn off the engine put the seat back and have a short nap (about 10 minutes or so). However, falling asleep at the wheel may kill you. If you’ve got kids in the car, then wait until they’re asleep before you do this if you’re alone. If there’s another adult in the car, then the other adult can keep an eye on the kids while they whizz around in a playground and you sleep. But get that nap. It’s better to arrive 10 minutes late than to not arrive at all.

Essential Car Maintenance for Summer Driving

With summer upon us, it’s a perfect time to look at some basics of car care. Of course, you can take your car to a service centre or mechanic, but you also have the option to do some things at home.

The logical starting points are the tyres and the engine. Let’s take a look at these two areas.

Tyre Maintenance

A crucial point is tyre pressure. Why? Having an under or overinflated tyre causes excessive tread wear, can cause sidewall damage, limits the size of contact on the road, and can affect the performance of your braking system.

The sidewall of the tyre will have the maximum pressure recommended for the tyres on your car.

The tyres themselves will be a certain size in diameter, width, and sidewall height. Again, you will also find this information on the sidewall. This is important as certain sized tyres should be fitted to your car and therefore, the pressure for them will vary.

Somewhere inside your car should be a placard with the right tyre pressures for your particular tyres and car.

Engine Maintenance

The most common thing to take care of as far as engine maintenance is changing the oil.  Fresh oil lessens interior engine wear nd will help in fuel consumption.

Keep in mind, however, safety is paramount, so pick up some good thick gloves and eye protection if you’re doing this at home.

Start with a good drive to warm up the current oil, which will make it easier to drain. Then jack up the car, loosen the sump plug, and slide in an appropriate holder. Carefully remove the plug. Remember the oil will be hot.

Using an oil filter remover, swap the old filter for a new one once the oil has finished draining.

Wait for the engine to cool and after reinserting the sump plug, pour fresh oil into the top of the engine. Refer to the car manual for information on the appropriate engine oil.

Other Maintenance Tasks

Another task you may wish to tackle is changing the spark plugs. Providing you set the gap at the end of the plug correctly, these will aid fuel efficiency by burning the fuel more effectively, reducing emissions, and improving driveability. Check what types of spark plugs your car needs before making any changes.

Next up, your air-conditioning system may need a regas. This is one task you should take to a licensed service centre where they can check for leaks from potentially corroded connections or cracked pipes.

Then there’s windscreen wipers. Being rubber, they suffer from UV exposure, and if not cleaned regularly, can trap and scratch windscreens from embedded particles. While you’re at it, check the level of wiper fluid, and if it needs topping up, head to your local auto retailer.

Last but not least, the radiator is important. Radiator fluid may fail to be efficient over time. Check your car manual to see how much, and what type of radiator fluid your car needs. Depending on the car you have, there will be a drain plug at the base of the radiator. Only drain the radiator when it is completely cold. Once drained, flush the system with water and follow the directions in regards to refilling.