Drivers fail car insurance test, but women score better than men

By Sherrice Gilsbach, Crain News Service

DETROIT (March 11, 2013) — Results of a 10-question, multiple-choice test asking respondents to choose correct definitions for basic auto insurance terms indicate just how little some drivers know.

The average score for the quiz was 32 percent out of a possible 100 percent, according to insurance.com, which posted the test on its website. The test group included 500 drivers of all ages and from various regions of the U.S., but apparently no matter what the details, nobody really knows much about car insurance.

When broken down into demographic segments, women outscored men by about 8 percentage points on average, and drivers in the south beat out those in the northeast by 10 percentage points.

Age also played a role in higher scores. According to insurance.com, drivers age 40 and older were able to get 39 percent of the answers right while those in the 18 to 29 age group only answered 24 percent of the questions correctly. Still, these scores are a far cry from an A+.

Care to test your own knowledge? Here are a few questions from the test:

• What does comprehensive coverage pay for?

• What does collision coverage pay for?

• If a friend borrows your car and crashes it, whose insurance pays?

See more questions and take the full test at insurance.com.

This report appeared in Autoweek magazine, a Detroit-based sister publication of Tire Business.