Sorry to ask what seems so simple, but I’ve really googled the hell out of this one. Is it true that adult new drivers deal with much higher auto insurance if they haven’t taken drivers’ ed? I’ve only heard this specifically with regards to teenagers, but most people seem to assume it extends. I live in Massachusetts, FWIW.
By the way, I mean legal/insurance drawbacks, in case it wasn’t clear from the OP.
I live in Ontario. I am 21, nearly 22 and just finished learning how to drive. Calling around and asking for quotes, I discovered it’s much better for a new driver of my age to have taken a certified driver education course. The savings were on the order of $300-400 a year, which you will note is not as much as the driver training course actually costs – it takes two years of insurance for it to pay for itself.
I should add that even after the driver training, my insurance is over $1700 a year. How frustrating that I must pay 1/4 of the worth of my car every year just to legally drive it.
Does the penalty run forever?
I would doubt it. Around here, the longer I went without an accident, the less my insurance would cost. For the record, I never took a driver’s course; friends of mine that did, however, were able to get a class 5 (no restrictions) license in half the time.
Most of your insurance coverage is for the other guy, not your car. Have a momentary brain lapse and run into a $100,000 Mercedes like a co-worker of mine did a few weeks ago. He is now finding out the state minimum coverage he had on his car will only cover about 3/4 of the damage he caused. The rest is coming out of his pocket.