The Middle Option Nobody Mentions

Physical damage coverage is usually presented as a package: comprehensive and collision together, or neither. On most policies they are separate coverages with separate deductibles, and carrying one without the other is a legitimate position that suits more people than it is offered to.

The difference between them

Collision pays for damage to your vehicle from a collision — with another vehicle, or with an object — regardless of fault.

Comprehensive pays for damage from most things that are not a collision: theft, vandalism, fire, weather, falling objects, animal strikes, and glass damage.

They are priced separately and, on most policies, carry separate deductibles.

Why comprehensive-only can make sense

• It is usually the less expensive half. Collision is generally the larger component of physical damage premium, so dropping it saves more.
• The risks it covers do not depend on your driving. A car is exposed to theft, weather and vandalism while parked, which is where most vehicles spend most of their lives.
• Glass. Windshield damage is common on California freeways, and some carriers treat glass claims differently from other comprehensive claims. Worth asking about specifically.
• It keeps a floor under a total loss from theft or fire without paying for collision coverage on a car whose value may not justify it.

Who it suits

Typically someone with an older, paid-off vehicle who has concluded that collision coverage no longer earns its cost, but who would still be badly inconvenienced by the car being stolen or destroyed by something they had no part in.

It also suits a vehicle that spends a lot of time parked outdoors, or in a situation where theft or weather feels like the more realistic risk.

Who it does not suit

• Anyone with a lienholder. If money is owed on the vehicle, the lender almost certainly requires both coverages, and dropping either can trigger expensive force-placed insurance.
• Anyone who could not absorb repairing collision damage themselves. If a collision would leave you without a way to work, collision coverage is doing real work regardless of the vehicle's value.
• Anyone with a newer vehicle where the value clearly justifies both.

The check to run

1. Find out what the vehicle is actually worth today.
2. Subtract your deductible — that is the most either coverage could ever pay.
3. Ask your carrier what collision and comprehensive each cost, separately.
4. Compare each against what it could pay, and against what you could absorb yourself.

Step three is the one people cannot do from their declarations page, because the premium is often shown as a total. Ask for the breakdown; carriers can provide it.

The thing to keep separate

This decision is about your own vehicle. It has no bearing on your liability limits, which are measured against what you might do to other people. Dropping collision on an old car is reasonable; carrying minimum liability because the car is old is a different and much less reasonable move.

Ask us to price liability-only, comprehensive-only and both — three numbers, one conversation, and a decision you actually made.