Automobile Insurance

Overview

Automobile insurance is coverage for motorized land vehicles (e.g., passenger type automobiles, pickups, vans, trucks and motorcycles). The coverage can include loss or damage to the vehicle itself (evaluated at replacement or repair damage cost, actual cash value, or agreed value). It can also include loss, liability, or expense as a result of ownership, maintenance or use of any such vehicle. The coverage also includes medical, hospital and surgical benefits to injured persons, funeral and death benefits to survivors irrespective of legal liability if incurred while in, upon, entering into, alighting from, or being struck by a vehicle if such coverage is issued as part of a liability insurance contract.

There are several types of automobile insurance for private passenger automobile coverage (where natural persons are named the insureds and the vehicle is not used as a livery or rented to others):

• Private Passenger Auto No-Fault (Personal Injury Protection or PIP)
• Private Passenger Auto Liability (Liability  of the insured for Bodily Injury or Property Damage inflicted and other coverages not involving damage to the vehicle itself)
• Private Passenger Auto Physical Damage (Comprehensive, Collision, and miscellaneous other coverages involving damage to the vehicle itself)

There are also automobile policies for commercial entities (businesses). These include policies insuring vehicles with load capacities over 1,500 pounds, insuring more than four vehicles, garages, automobile dealers, repair shops, service stations and public parking places:

• Commercial Automobile Liability (Liability of the insured for Bodily Injury or Property Damage inflicted, Medical Payments, other coverages not involving damage to the vehicle itself)
• Commercial Auto Physical Damage (Comprehensive, Collision, and miscellaneous other coverages involving damage to the vehicle itself)