Open Road

I haven't and won't do this for a couple of reasons: 1) it would get my insurance cancelled in a heartbeat, and 2) I'm not putting any surveillance device in any car I own.

About a year ago, my insurance agent "offered" me the Drive-Safe monitoring device that plugs into your OBDII port and records your speed, braking, acceleration, etc. Said I could get a 10% discount for using it. I declined for reason #2 above, and told him so. But wouldn't this be fun:

Install it in my 996 track car, take it to Mid-Ohio, run the snot out of it (as I usually do) and then give the insurance guy the device, and tell him to let me know if I qualified for the discount.

haha

I support you doing that for the giggles...

Is there an insurance database that captures that info?

What if you were going to cancel and go with another company anyway? Would that other company ever find out?

insurance companies share all kinds of info. every car and home can be tracked for claims. Every person has a claim's credit report of sorts. can you dispute stuff and get it corrected? nope.

I hate to say it but I'm waiting for those things to become mandatory.

OK, maybe they can't mandate it but I'm sure they can find a way to up the rates on those who choose to not use one to make it cost prohibitive to drive without one.

BB.

maddog2020 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:09 pm insurance companies share all kinds of info. every car and home can be tracked for claims. Every person has a claim's credit report of sorts. can you dispute stuff and get it corrected? nope.

Claims I know but if you were dropped for being an excessive risk, I wonder if that is captured and noted somewhere?

BeerBurner wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:16 pm I hate to say it but I'm waiting for those things to become mandatory.

OK, maybe they can't mandate it but I'm sure they can find a way to up the rates on those who choose to not use one to make it cost prohibitive to drive without one.

BB.

Yeah that's what I'm afraid of. That's how they introduced credit scores into the mix years ago. Before it was "We'll check your credit and give you a discount if you have a good score"

Now it is, "If your score is bad you get a surcharge"

Its also a way for insurance companies to collude with car manufacturers as older cars don't have the ability to collect this info. Insurance companies use everything they can to charge more money or deny claims.

Did you switch to Geico....?

I actually did switch to Geico, saving about a G a year.

Yes it would be a hoot.

Insurance companies do not look for ways to save you money. They look for ways to raise your premiums.

They're all evil, yes...

True story here. I was given one of those OBD 2 connectors to lower my insurance rates. I was heading to Myrtle Beach, in my Subaru WRX with my best friend, and did not want this to hinder our trip, so I installed it in my wife’s car( without telling her). So, every couple of days, the insurance co. sends you emails, to tell you how you are driving.....2 weeks into our trip, my wife says, you boys are having fun down there. I asked here what she meant, and she told us that we had a few too many quick starts and stops.
Only when I got home, I told her the real story. She took it all in stride.

In the small print advertising these discounts, NC is one of the States where discounting is not permitted.

Not sure why, don’t really care. Just passing along some info.

I did sign up for the State Farm Drive Safe & Save program when I had to add my 16 yr old son to my insurance. Always thought I would never do this for the reasons stated above but when I was shopping for insurance to cover my 2 cars, 20 yr old daughter's Mini Cooper S and 16 yr old son's Mini Cooper S, a friend of mine who has his own State Farm agency talked me into it. Had to add him last November in the middle of Covid and business really sucked so was looking to save as much money as possible. Since we classified the Cayman as a limited mileage whatever, no discount was possible with the Drive Safe app so no beacon in that car. The other 3 cars have the beacons and it is rather amusing seeing all the acceleration, braking, cornering, and speeding events that get registered. Rates are good for 6 months and rates get re-done after 6 months based on our score. Thanks mostly to my son who is constantly getting braking, cornering, and acceleration events registered, our 2 week score has always been in the low to mid 60% range. Forget what the original discount is when you sign up so the discount could decrease based on our driving history, which I thought it would with a 60% score, but our rates actually went down ~ 5% after 6 months.

Regarding taking the car to a track event, Cooper has done a couple of AutoX's at a local airport and for some reason once his car was off the main road, the AutoX runs did not show up.

We use AZUGA trackers in our company vehicles. It's all the same technology. I can see where the vehicles are at all times via google maps. It also has the function to track speed vs speed limit so we get alerts if someone is over the speed limit and exactly where it happened.

It would be fun to take one to the track and see the google maps overlay.

Big brother is scary!