Five million Aussie drivers left with bill for damages they didn’t cause
Almost a third of drivers have had their car damaged by another vehicle but the culprit fled the scene.
Millions of Aussie drivers have reported being left with an unfair repair bill after another vehicle hit their car but didn't stick around to exchange details.
A Finder survey of 1,007 people found that 28% had suffered mystery damage to their cars. That figure rose to 31% when only car-owners were asked.
The research also revealed that baby boomers are most likely to suffer damage to their vehicles (34%), while drivers in regional areas are also at a higher risk (32%).
South Australian residents should also be particularly careful, as 37% of drivers in the state reported that their car had previously been hit by someone else who didn't own up - the highest percentage of any region in the country.
Unfortunately, many of the drivers will have no help in covering the unexpected cost. According to Finder's Consumer Sentiment Tracker, a nationally representative survey of more than 15,000 respondents, almost 1 in 4 (24%) Australians don't have comprehensive car insurance.
Comprehensive car insurance is the only type of cover which will pay out if you sustain mysterious damage to your car - and it might not be as expensive as you think.
In our 2021 Finder Awards, we found that on an average, a 30-year old man paid anything between $612 and $2,385 annually, while a 30-year old woman paid between $426 and $2,969 for a comprehensive policy.
That means you could save a huge $2,643 a year, just by comparing car insurance online.
Get a quote for comprehensive car insurance
Car insurance quotes have to be tailored to your vehicle, driving history, and risk factors. Click 'Get Quote' to see how much it might cost to fully protect your car.
Compare other products
We currently don't have that product, but here are others to consider:
How we picked theseFinder Score for car insurance
We analyse over 30 car insurance products across insurance providers, and rate each one for price and features. We collect up to 36 quotes per product, for male and female drivers in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. Quotes are collected for 20 year olds, 30 year olds and 60 year olds, assuming an excess of $850 for a 2020 Toyota Corolla 4 door sedan model, with an average 15,000 kms driven each year. We use your responses to our quiz to pair you with the closest price profile and while we are not allowed to display actual quotes, our price score aims to serve as an indicative guide to how cost competitive a product might be for you.
Our feature score assesses each product for more than 15 features across loss and damage coverage, repairs and assistance coverage, personal items coverage and policy coverage. Features we assess include but are not limited to legal liability, essential repairs, new car replacement, car hire events, roadside assistance, agreed or market value, windscreen damage and natural disaster coverage.
Depending on your answers to our car insurance quiz, we upweight the relevant price score or feature score to generate a dynamic Finder Score (80% weighting on the primary selection between Price or Feature). Finder Score, Price Score and Feature Score are only to be used as indicative guides and are not product recommendations.
Picture: GettyImages
Ask a question