Posted On: February 3, 2005, 7:10 am CST

Posted By: John

It will never last, as a not so young driver, I have enough life experience to be able to figure out it is not free, and that if I purchased a VW, I would be subsidizing the higher risk drivers (younger) that gravitated toward this incredible rip-off. If you consider that an 18 year old will most likely pay more in insurance premiums than he does on a car payment, it will not take long to see that the $500 car payment which he can't afford now will become $700. Lets assume the insurance is $500 a month (average for a youthful driver on an average model new car) the car loan will actually incorporate the financing of that first(free) year of insurance into the loan, there by financing one year of insurance over 36-60 months, thus lowering the additional month payment. The problem is that in years 2,3,4 and 5 the driver is now paying for insurance on there own and also still paying for the free year that is included in the car payment. Nationwide is NOT doing this gratis and they are being paid well by VW for this new fangled scheme. Nationwide would be fullish to price this model expecting to lose the first year and make up for it on renewals, they will never be able to capture enough business from young drivers to make it. I expect the average cost of a new VW just went up $2500. As a consumer I would not want to be insured by a company that makes that big of a gamble on young drivers, unless the cost is actually higher. How do we find out what Nationwide is actually charging VW for this freebie. Do I have options on coverage or do I just get the statutory minimums, what deductible are shoved at me? there is alot on questions that are not able to be answered yet.