"The Car Insurance Project"

ASSIGNMENT: We have been talking about INSURANCE for awhile now. Let's get down to work regarding one of the most necessary forms of insurance for a young person, CAR INSURANCE!

THE PROJECT: Most of you have a car that you drive on a regular basis. You know the make, model, mileage, etc. But do you know how much it would cost to get insurance for that car? Let's find out. We will be using the internet to gather some data and make some decisions about what insurance we want and what insurance we can afford.

HOW TO GET QUOTES: Honestly, this part is EASY and REALLY HARD at the same time. You can easily find a million websites that give you insurance quotes. You can go to the site of a well know insurance company, such as State Farm, Allstate, Geiko, Progressive. You can also try Googling for a site that will give you comparison prices for different companies, all at once. One site that is often used by potential customers is carinsurance.com, but you can search out your own, if you wish. Your choice.

A STRONG WORD OF WARNING: Once you start this process, you will find that most sites want information from you. They will want to know all about your car, how many miles? Is it being financed? What is your license plate number? What kind of extras do you have on your car? But they will also want to know about you. Do you have a job? Have you graduated? How many tickets? How many DUIs? They will also want your name and your email, so that they can start sending you quotes and other information. PLEASE do not give them your real name and I recommend that you give them your SCHOOL EMAIL (that you will be ditching in a few months anyway!) You will get LOTS of emails! Hopefully, most of them will be put in the SPAM folder!

HOW TO RESEARCH: Find your website and input your information. BE HONEST! This does no good if you lie about it! If you have three tickets and a DUI, put that information down!

YOUR GOAL: I would like you to get quotes from TWO COMPANIES. You need to get quotes for you and your car for both the minimal insurance= LIABILITY and "FULL COVERAGE"- a policy that includes Liability, Comprehensive, Collision, etc. Put this information into a Google doc, along with links to the sites that you used and forward that to Mr. B. for grading. PLEASE INCLUDE A NOTICE OF WHICH INSURANCE YOU WOULD TAKE FROM WHICH COMPANY AND WHY. By the way, if your car is being FINANCED, you will be required to have COMP and COLLISION INSURANCE!

WHAT IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CAR? OK, fine. Let's pretend you just bought a car. It is a 2007 Honda Civic with 177,000 mles on it. It's completely paid for. Yay! Find quotes for THAT!

SUBMISSION OF PROJECT:You will need to share your Google Doc with Mr. B. for grading.

GRADING: This project will be worth a total of 50 points. You will be graded on the documentation of two different company quotes for two ranges of insurance, basic Liability and "Full Coverage" and your description of which quote you would choose and why.