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WHLTBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUAýRY 28,1990, PAGE 19 The Bricknell. RIDE car tops nto the aut-o nsu rance maze anid out again by Jil Mclntosh Cars that show their personality I have the February blahs. I hate getting Up in the morning and I hate driving to work. I feel like the whole world will be this duIl shade of gray forever. I want te, pull the covers over my head andst"y in bed untilspring. My Buick is ging through exactly the same thing. Every year at this time it gets its own February blahs. It will start then stail. Start it up again and it will run fine aHl day. But evezy February, it needs a little bit, of encouragement te start the morning. iàke most older cars, it has its own "personahity quirks." Yeu're probably nodding right now, thinking about the secondhand cars you owned and the. personalities they had. Wbat about the on. withth gas gauge that would read ful for two weeks, and then drop te, empty in two hours? The on. where you had te bang the hood te get, it open? Tii. on. that always whined in reverse, but ran great for eight years like that? In a new car, such personality traits wouldn't b. "qturks", they'd b. "defecta" and it would b. off te the deaier te get thera repaired. On an older car, theyre just niinoe items that. really aren't worth fixing. '1hey become part of the car's character. They aren't dangerous -- a door that won't close isn't a quirk, itfs a hazard and it should be fixed. But these little items seem te cement the bond between car and driver, making the relationship more personal. Who else could drive the car without knowing the little tricks? After a while, the seat seems te fit right and the car's personality becomes famliar. Car and driver are friends. One of my ail-time favorites, my 1978 Chevy, had an alternator light that glowed a red warning fr-om the day I picked it up off the. used-car lot. I worried about it at first, but the light styed on and the car kept running fine. I watched that little liglit hum for three years. On the One day it went out, the car refused te start. Then there's the. afore- mentioned Buick, which is not only quiirky but also considerate. The rear door doesn't always lock when I bit the power lock button. On days when I want to lock the car but first get sornething from the bock seat, the. door won't lock. This little-quirk saves me opening the front dloor again te bit the. lock button and best of aIl the car seems te do it mostly on rainy or snowy days. Thanka te tbis, I can even forgive it for occasionally substituting refrigerated air out of the heater on icy Januarîy mornings. I think anyone who bas owned a car with a personality -» basicaly any older, high-mileage car, it seems? -- will probably remember it fondly. Sometimes we could have lived witbout the quirks, but it was sure a lot more' fun than driving something boring. So if a car with personality is a fun car to own, why baven't the auto manufacturers worked to make one? Actunlly two of them did and SEE PAGE 33 The debate over Ontario's proposed car insurance systeni, wvhich could come inte, effect as early as Jume, is heating Up. Strong arguments for and against the new legisiation have been presented, Ieaving moterists wondering: Will we be better off with the changes? Motorists could face auto premiumn increases of 30 te 35 per cent. Meanwhile, insurance companies are losing millions of dollars on car insurance and withdrawing from the market. Some accident victims receive lottery-eized injury settlements while others receive nothing. And the nuniber of accidents keep. on rising. Clearly, the car insurance systemn in Ontario is in trouble. The provincial government is aware just how serlous the problem is. Having- tinkered, unsuccessfully with the systemn over the past cou ple of years, David Peterson's iàberal Party is going for broke. Their latest move, the Ontario Motorist Protection Plan, is a comprehensive package that attacks the major facters driving up insurance costs --the increasing number and costý of accidents, iixjuries and claims. At the heart of the plan is a new insurance systeni that significantly changes the way in which accident victiros are compensated. It will provide guaranteed compensation, at a level substantially higher than in the past, te aIl accident victims - regardless of who caused the accident. In return; aIl but the most seriously injured victinis will give up the rigbt to sue. Skyrocketing Claixus People ask how we could have reached the point wbere insurance on a car valued at r THE CAR INSURAME CRUNCH I $10,000 can cost twice or three times the insurance on a $200,000 bouse. Insurance companies say that if you consider on. of the basic principles of insurance, it's easy te understand: there. must b. sufficient income from preniiums te pay cdaims. Acording te Insurance Bureau of Canada, the major association representing property and casua]ty insurance companies in Canada, the cost and, number of car accidents in Ontario have increased dramatically over th e past decade, sending dlaims payments spirallying. Since motorists who don't have accidents help pay the basses of those who do, the soaring dlaims have affected the cost of insurance for aIl consunmera. For many drivers, premiums have reacbed levels which tbey consider simply unaffordable. Insurance officiais say the coat of personal injury dlaims bas-been' the major contributing factor to rising costs. From 1980 to 1988, prsonal injury payments jumnped- by430per cent te $1.3-billion. Ontarios car insurance industry is bighly competitive, with over 100 companies providimg coverage for- the province's 4.5 million vebicles. No company bas more than a 10 per cent share of the business. I the early 1980s, when higb interest rates were providing unusually high. investment income, insurance comparues were able to' increase their coxnpetitive edge by délaying premxum increass. But ini the mid-1980s Ontario, like many other'North Ainerican regions, began to experience a car insuanc criis.Interest rates noeedived and car insurance premxums climbed sharply as the industry tried to keep pace with rising accident costs. Gwernnient Action Public complaints grew as cos and rates continued to soar, and in. April 1987 the, provincial governnent stepped in. tfroze ail premium rates and set up a regulating body, the Ontario Automobile Insurance Board (0MEB), te, investigate the ituation and determine fair rates. Car insurance becani. a major issue during the September 1987. poncal -election. 'fie NDP cusdthe Liberal Party' of niishandling the issue and called for government-rUn car insurance, wbule Laiberal leader David Peterson proniised the electorate that he had a plan te, reduce preniuxns. In 1988, while the 0MIB was preparing te, conduct public hearings, the government recognized that cdaims costs were still soaring and approved two interim rate increases of 4.5 per cent. After montha of hearings, the 0MAB in February 1989 announced new premium rates. A "benchxnark" rate was established and conipanies were permitted te charge up te, nine per cent more than the benchniark rate or as much as 20 per cent less. The goverrnent also required the OAIIB te, ifiplement major changes te, the critéria used for SEE PAGE 21 OWASCO VOLKS-WAGEN iNC. 1425 Oundas St. E ast, Whitby Oshawa/Whitby 668-9383, AjaxlPickçering/Toronto 683-3235, ToIl Free 1-800-263-2676 Experience the Owasco Feeling - It's been pro yen since 1972. An I CARE" and O.M.L. SERVICE AWARD WINNER