Question about car insurance

[canman]

Does anybody know how long an accident stays on your insurance companies records? If I had an accident 7 years ago wouldn't enough time have passed that it would have no effect on my rates? Or is every company different! I don't trust insurance companies to start with and would like to know about this.

[wagyl]

My understanding is that what is relevant is making a claim on your insurance, not having the accident as such. After all, even if you have an accident every day, it doesn't cost the insurance company anything if nobody makes a claim on the policy.

The insurance company punishes you charges you more for being a person who makes a claim, by reducing the discount they give you as no-claim bonus. If you then continue to renew your insurance each year without making a claim, the no-claim bonus discount climbs back up over time. I am not sure how many discount notches you are sent back as a result of a claim, or whether the number of discount notches you lose relates to the size of the claim, as I have always been very careful not to make a claim and have no experience. When renewing the policy, they only ever ask about accidents in the previous year.

One thing I have learned about Japanese insurance companies: until very recently, they were all exactly alike in their policies and rates. Spookily so. It was a remarkable, remarkable coincidence.

[canman]

Sorry Wagyl, what I meant was filing a claim. So 7 years ago I filed a claim, then last year I backed into a car, still don't know how I didn't see her! My wife keeps warning me that if I have to file another claim that the insurance company will drop me, but I don't think 2 claims in more than 10 years qualifies for such status.

[Coligny]

Sorry Wagyl, what I meant was filing a claim. So 7 years ago I filed a claim, then last year I backed into a car, still don't know how I didn't see her! My wife keeps warning me that if I have to file another claim that the insurance company will drop me, but I don't think 2 claims in more than 10 years qualifies for such status.

You make a claim only if you want them to reimbourse you or the other party (methink). What is mandatory -on public roads- is to call the popo. But the financial aspect can be settled between party without insurance getting involved...

I once nearly backed on a Nissan Cube... Gunmetal grey car, dark parking in the evening... Stopped before it without even realising... since then I always have a fresnell lense on my back window, like this one, it's absolutely awesome for backing and turning while backing. (a rear camera... would actually triple the value of the car... and is not as natural since you have to shift between looking behind and looking in front at the monitor...)

http://www.3dlens.com/wideanglefresnellens.htm

[wagyl]

An insurance company is not going to dump you because you have two claims in eight years. They are happy to receive premiums from you without having to give you a no-claim bonus. I am pretty sure Japanese tend to make more claims on their insurance and keep their cars looking prettier than the people in many other countries, who are happy to drive around in a car with evidence of a life of swashbuckling.

I will also add that insurance premiums and packages are no longer the same across the various insurers. If you know anything about what you want to be included in your insurance and what risks you are prepared to bear yourself, there are some better deals to be found.

I love the idea of the Fresnel lens. I had a mirror installed on the tailgate of the van to see how many toddlers I can back over in one go, but the silvering has corroded with the snowgrit over the years, and Canman would have the same issue: a Fresnel would be ideal. Does it play nicely with the demister circuits?

[Coligny]

The lense is just a piece of thick transparent vinyl that hold to the window by electrostatic cling... (i/e real magic) you can remove reput, re-remove as many times as you want since there is no glue, no damage to the defroster... It's around 700-900 yens at autobacs. It get yellowish with the sun overtime (i replace mine every 2 years) pretty sure the defroster will also damage it a bit overtime but nothing like the Hindenbourg... This stuff was extremly popular with bus and autocars before the time of backup cameras.

CA390006.JPG

This picture give a good idea of the improvment in the field of view. My downard angle is not the best setup possible because of the position of the rear windshield wiper arm. But still kick ass anyway...
Notice that without lense, you can't see the ground behind the car, in the lense window you have a much improved view of the floor (in this pict, the ground behind my car is half under the shadow of the bunker half directly lit, morning light sun at the east). Same goes for left and right... and also a bit up.
I also put side convexe mirror on both side of the hatchback trunk door to have a perpendicular view of moving vehicles when I'm forced to back out of a parking spot. (it's a standard feature on the Nissan Wingroad, from where I stole the idea) It has been a life saver more than a few time with imbeciles that consider supermarket parkings like their private racetracks.

When you drive you see both in your rearview mirror and can either focus on the normal window view or the lense view which help when the road go up or down (bridge) it also help when a car is close to your rear to have a full width view of it showing if it's using its turning signal or not.

[matsuki]

The lense is just a piece of thick transparent vinyl that hold to the window by electrostatic cling... (i/e real magic) you can remove reput, re-remove as many times as you want since there is no glue, no damage to the defroster... It's around 700-900 yens at autobacs. It get yellowish with the sun overtime (i replace mine every 2 years) pretty sure the defroster will also damage it a bit overtime but nothing like the Hindenbourg... This stuff was extremly popular with bus and autocars before the time of backup cameras.

CA390006.JPG

This picture give a good idea of the improvment in the field of view. My downard angle is not the best setup possible because of the position of the rear windshield wiper arm. But still kick ass anyway...
Notice that without lense, you can't see the ground behind the car, in the lense window you have a much improved view of the floor (in this pict, the ground behind my car is half under the shadow of the bunker half directly lit, morning light sun at the east). Same goes for left and right... and also a bit up.
I also put side convexe mirror on both side of the hatchback trunk door to have a perpendicular view of moving vehicles when I'm forced to back out of a parking spot. (it's a standard feature on the Nissan Wingroad, from where I stole the idea) It has been a life saver more than a few time with imbeciles that consider supermarket parkings like their private racetracks.

When you drive you see both in your rearview mirror and can either focus on the normal window view or the lense view which help when the road go up or down (bridge) it also help when a car is close to your rear to have a full width view of it showing if it's using its turning signal or not.

All good stuff but I'm surprised you don't just have a periscope or drone giving you an overhead view...

[Coligny]

Working on it, already got the 2.4ghz wireless analog cam, the airframe and remote controller, received the lipo batteries yesterday, need to work on the launching plateform....