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There are many sides to this question, but also many misunderstandings. One misunderstanding is the basic definition of auto insurance. There are those who believe auto insurance is only for the auto and cost of repairs after an accident. This cannot be further from the truth.

Your auto insurance policy covers the cash value of your vehicle at the time of the loss, assuming you have collision and upset, and / or comprehensive insurance. The liability insurance covers injuries and damages you may cause to other persons and their property. This can far exceed the loss to your car if you are at fault in an accident causing injury or death.

One concept of insurance is pay-as-you-go at the fuel pump. That will not work, and cannot be made to work, in a proper and fair manner. I, as a tourist am not interested in paying premiums at the pump that do not cover me or my car when I am traveling away from home, when I am already paying for my choice of full coverage. Canadian and American motorists are pretty mobile. So, unless you make such a plan one huge programme, one huge unwieldy programme, covering the hundreds of millions of drivers in every state and province, linking the collection programme to every service station, one programme that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to set up, not to mention administer, from the one-pump country mom-n-pop store to the corporate stations of the industry giants, it cannot work. That does not even take into account the loss of thousands of jobs in the insurance industry, jobs that pay well because these people are highly knowledgeable and trained, as well as the loss of choices in policy types available to the consumer.

That concept would also be found inadequate to cover theft or vandalism claims to very expensive cars that may be driven weekends to the cruise or the drive-in. They would not be consuming much fuel, so would be paying very little premium.

At present we have choice in deductibles, and choice in additional coverages such as replacement transportation, and full cost coverage on new vehicle purchases. We also have choice in all-purpose coverage for people who use vehicles for work or school, business or courier coverages, or pleasure coverages for vehicles that are second vehicles, and/or not used for other than holiday, shopping, visiting, etc. We have policies available for laid-up vehicles, many of which are expensive vehicle parked in storage away from winter conditions.

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