(Newswire.net — May 9, 2022) — Auto insurance is as important for your car as the steering wheel. You can have the car, but can’t drive it. Car insurance coverage not only protects your car from accidental damages but is also mandatory in most states. It is a felony to drive a car without proper liability coverage. There’s no doubt that auto insurance coverage is expensive, costing thousands of dollars. If you are paying so much for your insurance, surely it must also cover flat tires, right? Not exactly.
Even though insurance premiums cost a lot, almost all insurance companies do not cover flat tires. This almost sounds unfair, but there are good reasons for it. While this is a very direct answer, in real-life situations, things can be a little bit complicated. There are ways in which you can use your insurance coverage to replace flat tires. But it only applies to specific conditions and policies. Let’s take a look.
What Does Auto Insurance Cover
There are three major types of car insurance policies that you can get that cover most of the damage. Liability insurance, collision insurance, and comprehensive insurance are the three insurance you can get, out of which liability insurance is the one that you will have to get. The other two are optional but important. Here’s what all these vehicle insurance policies cover:
Liability Insurance Coverage
Liability insurance coverage is mandatory auto insurance that you have to get to legally drive in almost every state in the US. Liability coverage is no coverage for your car, but the other car, person, and/or property that your car might damage in an accident. It is also one of the most expensive auto insurance policies, and it covers accidental damages to the vehicle, property, and injury to the body. There is no room for flat tires here.
Collision Insurance Coverage
Collision insurance covers almost everything liability insurance covers (except bodily injury), but instead of covering the other vehicle, it covers your vehicle. This auto insurance is also one of the most popular car insurance coverage in the US. It covers all the damages incurred in a car accident, from getting rear-ended to totaling the car.
While there are some cases when collision insurance coverage will cover flat tires, it depends on how the tires got damaged.
For example, your insurance company might cover flat tires if it was damaged in an accident and you have collision coverage. Without damage, a general flat tire will not be covered. From the most expensive to the cheapest companies that offer car insurance, it is very rare to find an insurance policy that will cover flat tires.
Comprehensive coverage
Comprehensive insurance is a policy that covers your car from damage from natural calamities and other accidents that are not your fault. For example, if your car is parked and a tree falls over it, or perhaps another car hits it. All these damages will be covered by comprehensive insurance.
There is one special case when comprehensive insurance might cover flat tires. Since most of the comprehensive insurance plans cover all the damages to your car that are not your fault, or while it is parked, if by any chance the car gets damaged due to collision, animal or rodent attack, or just a theft attempt, and the tires are flat as well, then you might be able to get coverage.
Why Insurance Companies Don’t Cover Flat Tires?
Insurance companies are risk management companies. Whenever they insure a vehicle, not only do they consider every possible risk factor to avoid paying for insurance, but they also do not cover damages that might occur due to wear and tear. Since damages due to wear and tear are inevitable, insurance companies steer clear of it.
Flat tires are not only a part of wear and tear damage but also extremely common. This is the reason why you’ll never find any insurance coverage which covers flat tires in collision, comprehensive, or liability insurance. But you can get it as an add-on.
Roadside Assistance
Most insurance companies offer an add-on to the insurance coverage. This is called “Roadside Assistance” and it could be very helpful and useful if you drive a lot and drive over long distances regularly. What is roadside assistance? Let’s take a look.
Roadside assistance is an additional service that you can opt for that offers a lot of assistance, mostly on the road. For example, let’s say that you are on a highway in the middle of nowhere and suddenly get a flat tire. This is where you’ll need someone to come and help you get the tire changed.
Not just tires, but roadside assistance also provides refueling service in case you run out of gas on the road. Other services included in roadside assistance are:
- Battery jumpstart
- Towing services
- Minor mechanical repairs
- Pick up and delivery spare key
So if you are worried about getting a flat tire, getting roadside assistance would be very useful. But there are some conditions as well. For example, some of the services are limited to only a few times per policy period. So don’t expect to get free gas every time you run out. There are some other conditions as well, differing from company to company. So to answer the question, no, most car insurance does not cover flat tires, but there is some specific condition when it might be covered or the tires might be changed.