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Post by GTCGreg on Mar 28, 2014 15:34:32 GMT
it would have been my fault. That's the point. If it's your own fault, you have to pay for the damage you cause on your own, your insurance won't pay for it. Insurance must be different in Germany. Unless the insurance company can prove that you intentionally caused an accident, they cover it. You may lose future coverage with them, but they pay for the current damages.
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Post by c64 on Mar 28, 2014 16:21:05 GMT
That's the point. If it's your own fault, you have to pay for the damage you cause on your own, your insurance won't pay for it. Insurance must be different in Germany. Unless the insurance company can prove that you intentionally caused an accident, they cover it. You may lose future coverage with them, but they pay for the current damages. In Germany, a car has to be insured and safety tested (2-year interval) in order to be licensed. If the insurance is void, the police will remove the license sticker from the car. Until the sticker is removed, the insurance has to cover any damage you cause to other people with the vehicle, but in special circumstances, they have the right to claim their money back. There are 3 different insurance models you can have: Minimum is the mandatory third party liability. A vehicle may not be moved in public traffic without. Then there is what we call "Teilkasko" which covers common damage to your own vehicle like broken glass. And finally "Vollkasko" which covers any damage not related to common wear. If you crash your vehicle, you get it fixed for free or a new one. This insurance is highly expensive but a good choice for company cars. The more damage you cause, the greater the premiums though. They also can cancel this form of insurance and downgrade you to third party liability. My dad has "Vollkasko" and since he never had any accident which was his fault in the past 50 years, he pays less than I pay for basic third party liability. Two months ago, backed up into a corner of a small wall and almost totaled his car. It was fixed for free and he doesn't need to pay more for his insurance - but they said that he now won't get his "50 years of accident free driving" certificate they were about to send him.
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Post by the light works on Mar 28, 2014 16:22:04 GMT
That's the point. If it's your own fault, you have to pay for the damage you cause on your own, your insurance won't pay for it. Insurance must be different in Germany. Unless the insurance company can prove that you intentionally caused an accident, they cover it. You may lose future coverage with them, but they pay for the current damages. They will pay for damage I caused, and they will pay for my own damage, minus their deductible, and then depending on my history with them, they will either raise my rates, or discontinue my coverage. not sure what the liability rules are in Germany - in Oregon, they still determine fault in a collision, and the person at fault is held liable - they must have insurance guaranteeing that if they are liable the damage will be covered up to a specified minimum value. for example, if a car is parked by the side of the road (legally) and I hit his mirror, I am responsible for paying to fix the mirror - which I can submit to my insurance or pay personally. if the driver of the car opens his door into traffic (illegal but only enforced if it causes an accident) then he is responsible for his door AND whatever it does to my car.
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Post by the light works on Mar 28, 2014 16:27:41 GMT
I have on my cars:
Liability insurance - mandatory - covers any damage I cause to other people and their property. Collision insurance - lenders will require you to have it, but it is optional after - covers any damage I do to my own property minus a deductible. (this paid when I wrecked the truck a couple years ago) Comprehensive Damage insurance - lenders may require it, otherwise optional - covers anything God does to the truck (for example if a tree falls on it, or I get a broken window from a flying rock) Uninsured Motorists coverage - which covers me if somebody without liability insurance hits me. - I still get the car fixed, and they deal with getting the money from the guy without the insurance. (and if they are successful, I get the deductible back)
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Post by c64 on Apr 1, 2014 13:41:49 GMT
Insurance must be different in Germany. Unless the insurance company can prove that you intentionally caused an accident, they cover it. You may lose future coverage with them, but they pay for the current damages. They will pay for damage I caused, and they will pay for my own damage, minus their deductible, and then depending on my history with them, they will either raise my rates, or discontinue my coverage. not sure what the liability rules are in Germany - in Oregon, they still determine fault in a collision, and the person at fault is held liable - they must have insurance guaranteeing that if they are liable the damage will be covered up to a specified minimum value. for example, if a car is parked by the side of the road (legally) and I hit his mirror, I am responsible for paying to fix the mirror - which I can submit to my insurance or pay personally. if the driver of the car opens his door into traffic (illegal but only enforced if it causes an accident) then he is responsible for his door AND whatever it does to my car. Same here. But liability insurance is mandatory and car dependent. Without, you can't get your car licensed and it may not be inside the "public traffic area". It has to be on private property with a fence or in a garage.
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Post by the light works on Apr 1, 2014 15:34:10 GMT
They will pay for damage I caused, and they will pay for my own damage, minus their deductible, and then depending on my history with them, they will either raise my rates, or discontinue my coverage. not sure what the liability rules are in Germany - in Oregon, they still determine fault in a collision, and the person at fault is held liable - they must have insurance guaranteeing that if they are liable the damage will be covered up to a specified minimum value. for example, if a car is parked by the side of the road (legally) and I hit his mirror, I am responsible for paying to fix the mirror - which I can submit to my insurance or pay personally. if the driver of the car opens his door into traffic (illegal but only enforced if it causes an accident) then he is responsible for his door AND whatever it does to my car. Same here. But liability insurance is mandatory and car dependent. Without, you can't get your car licensed and it may not be inside the "public traffic area". It has to be on private property with a fence or in a garage. yes - that is the same as here - though it IS legal for someone with enough liquid assets to be their own insurance company if they want to - they just have to prove that they have deep enough pockets to cover the liability.
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Post by Cybermortis on Apr 1, 2014 18:18:28 GMT
*Ahem*
Interesting but not really anything to do with the OP.
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Post by the light works on Apr 2, 2014 1:07:58 GMT
*Ahem* Interesting but not really anything to do with the OP. right, so... we've established that tires are typically not coated with anything protective, other than colored lettering or whitewalls sometimes have a coating that is basically soap - and gets washed off when the tire is installed. there is some debate over whether there is a mold release agent applied, and whether a fresh tire will have properties from the molding process that needs to be scrubbed off by normal driving.
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Post by c64 on Apr 4, 2014 12:07:59 GMT
They could test this real easily. Just install fresh tires and measure the braking distance from e.g. 55mph. Then us the car for a few thousand miles (e.g. rental car they borrow twice) and test again.
Also very interesting was a test the German science show "Kopfball" once did decades ago. They took blank tires and cut groves on testing how the car behaves while accelerating, steering and braking on snow. First they fixed steering by cutting groves around the tire in rings. steering improved, braking and accelerating not. Then they used new tires and cut groves 90° for traction. Traction improved, steering didn't. The results of a grid pattern were highly interesting!
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