This articles discusses the different coverages that are available for used car dealers. Certain coverage or limits discussed here may be suitable for the used car dealers in Illinois. There are thousands of used car dealers in Illinois with about 700 registered used car dealers in the City of Chicago. Coverage types and limits may vary according to state.
Generally speaking, used car dealer insurance is expensive because of the fact that the insurance company has no idea of who will be sitting behind the wheel during test drives. Also, liability coverage limits for used car dealers are higher than those in personal auto insurance. In the State of Illinois used car dealers must maintain a minimum liability limits of $100,000 for bodily injury per person, $300,000 for bodily injury per accident, and $50,000 property damage per accident (100/300/50). The State of Illinois does not require more than the statutory limits of $20,000 bodily injury per person, $40,000 bodily injury per accident for the uninsured motorist.
The following is a list of mandatory and optional coverages that owners of used car dealerships need to consider as they shop for insurance coverage.
GARAGE LIABILITY: Provides protection for liability resulting from the maintenance and the ownership of the garage (ie because of ownership/use of a Covered Auto, and because of "Other than Covered Auto.") Basically Garage Liability provides protection for the premises (ie slip and fall) and for auto accidents. Again, Garage Liability limits for used car dealers must be maintained at 100/300/50 in Illinois.
AUTO LIABILITY: Provides protection for the used car dealer in the event of being sued because of an auto accident. As mentioned earlier there is a minimum limit in each state, and the State of Illinois requires 100/300/50 from all used car dealers. This coverage is almost always included as part of the GARAGE LIABILITY.
DEALERS OPEN LOT: Provides physical damage coverage on vehicles that are owned by the dealer. Physical damage coverage includes Collision Coverage (if/ when vehicle collides with another object, or overturn) and may also include one or more of the following coverages: (1) Comprehensive or other than collision coverage which encompasses all other losses resulting from anything other than collision, (2) Specified Cause (less coverage than in 1) which includes certain coverages specified in the policy such as fire, lightning, explosion, theft, windstorm, hail, flood, mischief and vandalism; or [3] Fire and Theft (less coverage than 2). Insurance companies may set coverage limits per vehicle (for example, the policy may contain a limit of $25,000 per vehicle, maximum 275,000 for the lot.) This limit may be a problem for certain dealers that sell expensive vehicles.
