Latest Auto Headlines

All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.

PIFC Explains Insurers’ Role for Salvaged Vehicles

Feb 11 2002 // The California Senate Insurance Committee recently convened a hearing with member companies of the Personal Insurance Federation of California (PIFC) to discuss how auto insures are complying fully with state vehicle code...

Commercial Auto Agents: Between a Rock and a Hard Market

Feb 11 2002 // The cyclical ups and downs of the multisegmented arena referred to collectively as commercial auto are nothing new. Though the years referred to as “soft” and “hard” vary in both length and...

Consumer Organization Files Suit Against Three Auto Insurers

Feb 11 2002 // Harvey Rosenfield’s California-based Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights (FTCR) filed separate lawsuits on Jan. 9 against three major auto insurers, Geico Corp., SAFECO Corp., and the Automobile Club of...

Before & NAFTA: Open Borders, Long Term Effects on Long-Haul Trucking

Feb 11 2002 // Now that Congress and the Bush administration have struck a deal to pave the way for NAFTA trucking provisions—which the U.S. had been found to be violating for most of last year—the task of actually implementing these...

Cell Phones and Commercial Auto Insurance: Leading by Example

Feb 11 2002 // If it seems like you’re seeing more drivers with phones stuck to their ears, it isn’t your imagination. There are more than 88 million cell phone users in this country —40,000 new subscribers every day—and...

AUTO FRAUD STILL RAMPANT IN CALIF

Feb 11 2002 // A new investigation by the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) reveals widespread billing fraud and repair defects have continued across California, according to the Los Angeles Times. The 18-month investigation was spawned...

Building Profitability into the Commercial Auto Market

Feb 11 2002 // Like most property and casualty insurance lines, the commercial auto insurance market has witnessed rate increases over the past year and expects to see more. And, as in other lines, underwriters are scrutinizing accounts...

Before & NAFTA: Open Borders, Long Term Effects on Long-Haul Trucking

Feb 11 2002 // Now that Congress and the Bush administration have struck a deal to pave the way for NAFTA trucking provisions—which the U.S. had been found to be violating for most of last year—the task of actually implementing these...

Cell Phones and Commercial Auto Insurance: Leading by Example

Feb 11 2002 // If it seems like you’re seeing more drivers with phones stuck to their ears, it isn’t your imagination. There are more than 88 million cell phone users in this country —40,000 new subscribers every day—and...

CDI Releases New Auto Premium Comparison Survey

Feb 7 2002 // The California Department of Insurance (CDI) announced the latest edition of the Automobile Insurance Premium Comparison Survey on its web site at www.insurance.ca.gov. The new Automobile Insurance Premium Comparison...

Three Auto Insurance Bills Get to Colo. House Floor

Feb 6 2002 // Three bills designed to help clarify and simplify the auto insurance process in Colorado, including one that would reduce the number of required options in the no-fault law, have passed the House. National Association of...

Investigation Reveals Widespread Auto Fraud Continues in Calif.

Feb 4 2002 // A new investigation by the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) reveals widespread billing fraud and repair defects have continued across California, according to the Los Angeles Times. The 18-month investigation spawned last...

NAII Stresses Legal, Competitive Reasons for Use of Credit Information

Feb 4 2002 // Insurance scores provide companies an objective and unbiased underwriting tool, Sam Sorich, vice president and western regional manager of the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII) explained last week during...

NAII States Ariz. Bill Would Benefit Rental Car Cos., Increase Other Auto Coverages

Jan 31 2002 // According to the National Association of Independent Insurers, rental car companies would be the only beneficiaries of a bill to shift insurance responsibility now moving through the Arizona Legislature. Under current...

Calif. Man Arrested for Auto Insurance Fraud

Jan 30 2002 // Investigators from the Fresno Regional Office of the California Department of Insurance (CDI) Fraud Division, served a warrant for arrest on Ali Saeed Echtibi at his residence in Fresno for his alleged involvement in a...

Direct Line to Acquire RSA’s Italian Auto Business

Jan 30 2002 // U.K. auto insurer Direct Line, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has agreed to acquire the Italian auto insurance operations of Royal & Sun Alliance for £12 million ($17 million). Direct Line, which takes...

If at first you don’t succeed…

Jan 28 2002 // Terry Thomas, 31, of Downey, Calif., was sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court to five years in state prison on one count of insurance fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Thomas’ conviction...

PIFC WANTS HELMET LAW TO REMAIN

Jan 28 2002 // A bill that would permit motorcyclists 18 and older to discard their helmets will do nothing but increase the number of motorcycle-related injury accidents and deaths in California, according to the Personal Insurance...

20 Arrested as NY Auto Fraud Unit Breaks Up Another Insurance Scam

Jan 25 2002 // Six weeks after arresting 112 persons on various charges of insurance fraud, (See IJ Website Dec. 6) New York’s Auto Insurance Fraud Unit has struck again with the arrest of 20 persons accused of being part of...

Auto Dealers Become First to Self-Insure Under Calif. DIR Plan

Jan 21 2002 // The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) announced that it had recently approved a plan allowing some private sector groups to self-insure workers’ compensation liabilities. California Motor Car...