Do You Need Gap Insurance When Buying A New Car?
Reader question:
If I have to get a new car as a result of a car insurance accident, does my gap new car insurance coverage take care of the down payment for my new vehicle?
Britney
No, it does not, Britney.
Unfortunately, there is a reason why you have to be way more careful when you own a new car, and that is because even with gap new car insurance you will be entirely responsible for getting yourself a new vehicle. The reason for this is that gap insurance has one purpose only, and that is to create a bridge between what your car is worth and what you owe. For example, the car that I am purchasing right now is worth fifteen thousand dollars, but I still owe eighteen thousand dollars on it. This is called an upside down loan, and it means that you owe more for a car than it is actually worth. This happens a lot with new cars, which are worth a lot straight off the assembly line but depreciate rapidly.
If I had gap insurance (and I do), then if I got into a car insurance accident I would not have to worry about continuing to pay on a car that I know longer have. My collision coverage will give me the fifteen thousand dollars that my car is worth, and then the gap coverage will provide the other three thousand. However, at the end of all this, while I would be safe from debt, I would still be stuck paying for a new car. I would no longer owe anything on my old car, but the gap insurance does not worry about that, it only worries about bridging the gap between what you owe and what your car insurance coverage is actually worth.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
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