Racers, start your engine. One. Two. Three. Goooo! Woooo-weeee! Doing doughnuts in a slush-filled parking lot, drag racing down an empty strip of road, half hanging out the window, letting that wind comb your hair,  rolling your car so many times that the mechanic couldn’t stop laughing when you asked him to fix it…wait, what? Oh yeah, car accidents. Ugh.

Hey, I’m not hatin’ on being wildly reckless. Wildly reckless is fun, but what about if that nightmare happens? Even if you are Mr. Car Cautious, there is always the possibility that someone could T-bone you clear across a four lane highway. Unpleasant. Weeping over the death of your car is bad enough, but you or someone in your car might be hurt (details, details). Then what? You don’t want to be at your friend’s side in the hospital secretly estimating the cost of setting his/her leg, wondering if that cast is really necessary. (I mean, you could rip up some cloth, grab a plank of wood, and presto change-o, it’s a cast.)

That’s why you have auto insurance, not only to resurrect your car (or buy a new one) but to help pay for any pending medical bills…oh, and it’s the law. Sure, it’s a drag paying that insurance every month, but it’s a holy savior in the event of a disaster. Finding insurance and picking the right insurance plan for you is a mine field, and all you want is to avoid a piece of shrapnel from taking out a chunk of your buttocks.

So, let’s look at the basics, factors that affect premiums, the types of auto insurance, picking auto insurance, finding auto insurance, and tips for getting and keeping auto insurance.

Auto insurance will never be fun to pay for. It’s paying money for the just in case situation, and it’s hard to feel good about that because…it hasn’t happened yet (hopefully). But for car users, insurance is a necessary evil that seems quite pointedly less evil in a bad situation. With a little help from us (and possibly your personal finance guide), we can diminish as much pain as possible in getting auto insurance, especially in terms of price. So, let’s go in there and get us some good auto insurance.