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The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
Official Website of the New Car Buyer

Progressive Insurance Agrees with TACh, There's More to the Cost of a Car Than Just the Purchase Price


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But First Snide's Remarks: After you read the article below I promise that all of you TACh'ers will feel smart, smug and empowered with your auto buying tasks, because you smarty pants know about and use the exclusive Total Ownership Cost Guide here on TACh.

As I am sure you will agree, Progressive Insurance while admirable in their desire to enlighten and broaden their clients car smarts, missed the boat by not knowing and then telling their clients about The Auto Channel's Total Ownership Cost Guide...but instead took the easy way out and quoted a hackneyed old fashioned dealer biased service to try to make a very important point.

Not that the nice guys and gals at NADAGuides would ever mean to help the auto dealer at the expense of the consumer, oh no, but stop me if I am wrong, doesn't NADA stand for National Automobile Dealers Association...you know the old fox in the chicken coupe(sic) stories.

OK Progressive good first try, just admit that you blew it and now tell your customers how they can easily access\find the valuable consumer information you believe is important to everyone before buying a new vehicle...all of this great info is contained in our Total Ownership Cost Guide, it also allows users to compare the cost of ownership of every car for sale in the United States.

By the way www.theautochannel.com has been leveling the playing field between car sellers and buyers on-line for over 10 years...in fact we were the first to offer both MSRP and Invoice prices free to consumers.

Let me know what you think. msnide@theautochannel.com.

Progressive Insurance Press Release
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio Jan. 4, 2006: Are you someone who debates endlessly whether to get leather or fabric interior, or spends a week deciding between fire engine red and canary yellow when shopping for a new car? Or, do you go to the car dealership calculator in hand, ready to crunch some numbers? If you said the latter, you're not alone. According to an online survey conducted by The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, new car shoppers say they put the bottom line above all else. But while consumers are most concerned with the cost of the car itself, they seem to discount the importance of how much it will cost them to actually own and operate it.

The survey, which queried people researching new cars on NADAguides.com, a leading vehicle information Web site, finds that overall purchase price is the most important factor to people shopping for a new car (46 percent), followed by make and model (31 percent). Safety and performance come in a distant third, tied at 7 percent.

But while they care a lot about their car's purchase price, many shoppers ignore two factors that have a big influence on the cost of owning the car: how much it will cost to keep the fuel tank full and how much it will cost to insure.

At the time of the survey, gas prices were at record highs with the national average ranging from $2.24 to $2.54 per gallon. And, insurance can be a significant cost of owning and operating a vehicle. Yet, those surveyed rank both fuel efficiency and the cost of insurance as two of the least important factors when shopping for a new car.

"It's interesting to see what's most important to people when they're shopping for a new car," said Robin Harbage, product development manager, Progressive. "Our results show that even the most savvy shoppers, like those who visit NADAguides.com, are concerned with the economics of buying a car but not what it costs them to actually use it. We want people to realize that insurance can have a big influence on how much they pay to operate their car over the long haul, and that the type of vehicle they buy makes a difference when it comes to the cost of insurance."

When determining rates, insurers generally consider factors such as the vehicle's make, model, year, weight, horsepower and body type. They analyze how often specific types of cars are involved in accidents or are stolen, and how much they've paid out in claims for various makes and models. This helps them predict the likelihood of future losses and set accurate rates based on risk.

Harbage added that even if budget-conscious consumers are unwilling to consider buying a car that's generally less expensive to insure, they can still save money on their insurance by shopping around. Because different insurers consider different factors when setting rates, the cost to insure a given vehicle can vary by hundreds of dollars among companies.

The survey also finds that while respondents generally agree that cost is a major factor in their decision about what make and model to buy, they disagree about the importance of features such as reliability, safety, performance, and creature comforts such as heated seats and moon roofs.

For example, 10 percent of drivers spend no time at all weighing a car's reliability, while 16 percent spend a week or more thinking about its creature comforts, and 19 percent spend a week or more on performance.

Older drivers - ages 50 to 64 - are twice as likely as younger drivers - ages 18 to 24 - to spend no time at all considering a car's safety features.

And when it comes to men and women, some stereotypes continue to live on. Men are twice as likely as women to rank performance as the most important factor when buying a new car. And, 25 percent more women than men spend a week or more weighing a vehicle's safety features.