Most of these P&C insurance agents will make the effort to get you under a multi item discount to give you the lowest quote. "All eggs in one basket" insurance. They want your home owners, auto(s), Life Insurance, etc if they can get it. But whatever they write for you is a kinda straight jacket.
The best thing you can do, if you find a new agent, is to tell them that you will be in touch with them from time to time as you trade cars when you see a deal and don't want to mess up your insurance discounts. So before doing anything, call them at a slower time of the day/week or stop by and explain the opportunity you have or
situation (if a motor or tranny blew out and it isn't worth fixing) and get their advicebefore doing anything. Insurance is a "shopping good", like paper towels, or socks, so from time to time keep an eye out for someone you've known who is going into the property & casualty insurance biz. If they are lean and hungry they may be inclined to offer you some low ball prices to build up their client base.
As an example, I knew this girl who worked at a Public Library. She was with one of the most crooked State Farm agents (who else but State Farm would have a mascot called the "Good Nay Bear"...a teddy bear who "just says no") ::roll eyes:: in my area. She drove
an old beat up Chevy Cavalier that wasn't worth $150 bucks but her brother kept it running dependably for her. So this leach gave her a whiz bang sales talk about the possibility of having other women in car to go to Library Meetings etc. That would never happen as she was a circulation desk clerk but she agreed it could possibly (one chance in a thousand) so he gave her another talk about the high cost of hospitalization in the case of a wreck. It wound up he was selling her $500 dollars worth of coverage every six months for what's called "blue sky" insurance. (something that wouldn't happen) He had $50,000 coverage each on three people who would never ride in the rear seat and some bogus amount on two more in the front with her. Ironically she was the least insured occupant in the car. So this agent knew he was shooting fish in a barrel with her and she just didn't know any better.
In the end I got her set up with a young upstart guy who was with Farmers and she was paying $140 every six months with realistic coverage for her and the base coverage for others onboard. (which were never onboard) The irony was that she was saving for a new car which she felt would have been safer and not so much a burden on her brother for upkeep. The State Farm jerk "in my opinion" was keeping a car on the road which shouldn't have been there for safety reasons, and all for his own profit at everyone elses risk. I just wonder how many other people he does this with while hiding behind his little "good nay-bear" puppet that stands on his desk.
