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All insurance companies in Ontario offer a discount of up to 5% on your auto insurance if you use winter tires from November to March. Winter tires help you brake faster and keep control of your vehicle in snow and ice. They save lives.

Winter driving conditions can vary from good, on sunny days with no precipitation, to very, very bad when the snow flies and the temperature dips. Snow and ice can make it next to impossible for your car to maintain contact with the road, and falling or blowing snow can reduce visibility to almost zero at times. Insurance companies offer a discount to drivers who take practical steps to prepare their vehicles for the winter weather.

A majority of insurance companies in Ontario offer a winter tire discount of 2 – 5%. Given that the average auto insurance premium in Ontario is now over $2,000 a year, that means you can save $40 to $100 simply by doing something that makes sense anyway.

To get the discount, you need to have your car equipped with winter tires (also called snow tires) between November 1 and April 1. All four tires need to be winter tires.

Most insurance companies will require that you provide some kind of proof of installation when you first apply for the winter tire discount. In some cases, it can be a receipt from the mechanic who installed them. In others, the insurer may ask for a picture of your car and a closeup of the tires, showing the winter tire logo.

In most cases your insurance company won’t ask to see proof every year, but you will likely have to make a declaration at the time you get the discount that your vehicle will be equipped with four winter tires during the winter season. Most insurers expect that your tires will last six years, and may ask for proof again after that period has passed.

No, they do not. The name “all-season” suggests that the tires should be used year-round, and some people do that. But all-season tires perform best in warmer temperatures, and are not nearly as effective as winter tires on snow and ice. When the temperature dips below 7° Celsius, all-season tires start to lose their grip on the road. To get the discount from insurance companies, your tires need to be actual winter tires, identified by a symbol of a three-peak mountain with a snowflake inside.

Your savings really depend on how much you pay for auto insurance, which can vary from less than $1,000 a year to more than $7,000.

Given that most insurance companies offer a 5% discount, here’s how much you can save:

They don’t, but they do. A set of new winter tires costs between $600 and $2,000. And twice a year, you’ll pay $80 to $120 to have your mechanic switch them on and off. If you need somewhere to store the tires you’re not using, that’s an extra $40 to $100. So even at the bottom end, you’ll pay $600 up front plus $200 a year.

But the reality is that you don’t have to count the cost of the actual tires, because they are more or less the same price as all-seasons, and when you switch them back and forth, it extends the life of both sets of tires. So if your all-seasons would usually last six years with year-round use, you may be able to extend that to 10 years if the tires get a five-month winter break. Over the long haul, the cost of buying tires is a break-even proposition.

How much you can save on insurance depends on how much you pay. The average premium in Ontario is now over $2,000, so for most Ontarians, a 5% winter tire discount will save about $100. If you don’t need storage, your ongoing costs for winter tires could be as low as $160 a year. A difference of 60 bucks, and a small price to pay for safety.

The answer depends on whether you are going by the rules of the insurance companies or the recommendations of safety experts. Typically, your insurance company will require that you have the winter tires on the car every year from November 1 to April 1. If you want to pre-schedule your tire changes, that’s a good guide.

What tire professionals will tell you is that winter tires should ideally be put on when the outside temperature goes below 7° Celsius. According to Weatherspark, daily low temperatures in the GTA reach 7° in October, and daily highs reach 7° in November. It’s not an exact science.

In terms of when to take the snow tires off, driving on winter tires in warm weather will result in premature wear, and they won’t last as long. That said, there are always a few snowfalls in April and the average temperature is only 6°, so waiting until the middle of that month might be better.

Since 2016, FSRA has required all companies providing auto insurance in Ontario to offer a winter tire discount.  It varies between 2 – 5%. Talk to one of our brokers about all of the different insurance discounts that are available for Ontario drivers.

Most winter tires are designed to last five or six years. But if you forget to take your winter tires off, and use them in warmer weather, they are likely to wear out faster.

Tire manufacturers recommend that you replace all four tires at the same time for maximum safety and durability. When your mechanic puts the tires back on in the fall, they will rotate them so that they will wear evenly.

Winter tires are designed differently than all seasons. The three main differences are:

But the most important thing you need to know about winter tires is that they will stop your car faster on snow and ice. According to tests done by Consumer Reports, even when driving as slowly as 16 km/h, winter tires will stop your car 16 feet shorter than all-season tires. That could easily prevent an accident, and save a life.

It’s always a good idea to be prepared for the worst. Here are a few things to consider before getting on the road in winter.

Winter driving conditions can be treacherous, and change at a moment’s notice. Safety experts always recommend that you drive according to the conditions. In winter, that can mean snow, ice, slush, water and/or mud on the road, and snow, rain or sleet affecting visibility.

In Canada, any business that sells tires is likely to sell winter tires. If you value convenience above all else, it makes sense to buy your snow tires from the car dealership or garage that you trust with your other auto service needs. Many garages offer storage so that you can keep the tires you’re not using right there. One stop shopping. This also allows you to schedule your bi-annual tire swap along with other scheduled vehicle maintenance.

If price is your main motivator, you may be able to save up to 10% by buying your winter tires online.

Mitch Insurance works with more than 70 different insurers in Ontario, and our expert brokers can find the best combination of discounts for the auto insurance you need. Drive safe this winter. We’ve got you covered.

If you’re in the market for a sports car, you may think you’re going to pay an arm and a leg for insurance. But that’s not necessarily true. Yes, a Porsche 911 may cost quite a bit more than you pay now, but the Mazda MX5 Miata is even more affordable than some sedans.

As always, premiums are based primarily on your driving history, but for some of the more expensive sports cars on the list, the price of the car has a clear impact on the price of the insurance.

A deductible is the part of a claim that you, as the policyholder, agree to take responsibility for. If you make a claim for $10,000 and have a $500 deductible, if the claim is approved, the insurance company will pay $9,500. If the claim is for repairs to your car, you may have to pay the deductible directly to the shop before they’ll fix your ride.

For home and car insurance, $500 and $1,000 are the most common deductibles. Some business policies have deductibles as high as $50,000 or more. You should make sure your deductible is low enough that you will be able to come up with that money on a moment’s notice if needed.

You can save about 10% on your home insurance and 2-3% on your auto insurance by increasing your deductible from $500 to $1,000.

To understand what a deductible is and why it exists, we first need to understand that insurance is there to protect you from costs that you can’t easily afford to pay for yourself. For example, if your house burned to the ground, most of us wouldn’t have the money on-hand to pay for it to be rebuilt. Although you can get insurance against smaller losses, it often makes more sense to just pay for these yourself. If your $900 golf clubs are stolen, most of us are able to buy a new set, whether it be paid for in cash or on a credit card.

Deductibles help to reinforce the above principle. If you have a $1,000 deductible, it wouldn’t make sense to claim your stolen clubs (even if the claim was approved, you’d get no money back). But it would definitely make sense to claim for your charred home. You would pay the first $500 or $1,000, but the total cost of rebuilding would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When you get car or home insurance, your broker will probably quote you a premium based on one of the standard deductibles, usually $500 or $1,000. Most insurance companies will allow you to opt for a higher one, maybe $1,500 or even as much as $2,500. A deductible can theoretically be any dollar value, and you can get a lower premium by increasing it, but on a standard auto policy, you typically cannot choose a deductible lower than $250, or higher than $2,500.

Deductibles can also be different for different types of claims. In an auto policy, you can choose a different deductible for collision vs. comprehensive claims, for example.

To illustrate how much changing your deductible can affect your premium, we ran auto and home quotes for four sample Ontarians:

All of the above premiums assume the following:

Based on the above quotes:

If you have to make a claim on your home insurance policy, you will always pay a deductible.

Deductibles work similarly for auto insurance claims. The exception is that there is no deductible to get your car fixed if the damage is related to an accident for which you are NOT AT FAULT.

Let’s go back to that case of the stolen golf clubs. But let’s say that they were worth $1,500 instead of $900. Even though you could be reimbursed $500, the fact is that it would count as a claim on your home insurance record. Here’s the most important thing to consider: In home insurance, it doesn’t matter whether the loss was your fault or how much the claim is for. Each claim you make is just a claim on your record. Having one claim on your record doesn’t make a big difference in the premium you’ll pay on renewal. However, that all changes if you have to make a second claim within a five-year period. Two claims in five years disqualifies you from many of the standard insurers. This means your annual premium could double or triple on renewal, and stay that high until the claims are five years old.

So if you’re thinking about making a claim for less than $5,000, you always have to consider:

Auto insurance is a completely different story. If a claim is not related to an accident (your car was stolen or a tree fell on it), it shouldn’t affect your premium on renewal, so you can go ahead and make a small claim, even if it’s a $1,300 windshield replacement and you have a $1,000 deductible.

If the claim is related to an accident, however:

The last possibility is that you are involved in a single vehicle accident. That means you hit a guardrail, a tree, a post or some other object (not a person). By law, even if it happens in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, you should go and report this accident at a collision reporting centre, and because there is no other driver, you are automatically at fault.

In this case, if you’re going to report the accident, you may as well claim your damage. The effect on your premium will be the same. If you’re not sure, here are a few things to consider:

There are other deductibles that apply for different types of insurance, and different types of claims.

If you have extended health benefits through your employer or membership in another group, it’s very possible you have an annual deductible. So, for example, you may have drug benefits, but you might have to pay the first $25 or $50 out of pocket for the year. Some plans have a $100 annual deductible that applies to your whole family, and any costs beyond that will be covered by the plan.

Just like with EI benefits, if you claim long or short-term disability through your workplace benefits plan, there is usually a waiting period before you can start collecting benefits. It’s typically five days for short-term disability, and 120 days for long-term disability. This waiting period is essentially the same thing as a deductible, in that it discourages smaller claims.

In Ontario, if you are injured by an at-fault driver in a car accident and choose to sue them for your pain and suffering, any award you receive is subject to a $40,000 deductible. The deductible won’t apply to any actual financial losses you sustain (medical bills, loss of income, damage to your property, etc.), but only to claims specifically for pain and suffering. So if a jury decides that you deserve $38,000 for your pain and suffering, you won’t receive a cent. This is a measure to discourage frivolous lawsuits and keep costs down in the auto insurance system.

Modifying your deductible can be a good way to make sure you have the right mix of coverage and price. Practically speaking, if you choose a higher deductible, you have less coverage, but you’ll also pay a lower premium. When you talk to one of our experienced brokers, they’ll walk you through the options and make sure you have the right deductible for your circumstances. Give us a call!

^{1 Quotes reflect CAA Insurance’s minimum deductibles, $500 for collision and $300 for comprehensive. Most insurers have maximum and minimum deductibles.}

On average, a brand new car loses about 20% of its value over the first year, and half its value over 4 years. After 10 years, it’s probably worth less than 5% of its original value. The fact is your car is worth what someone would pay for it, which means to find the actual cash value, all you have to do is find similar cars for sale online, and nudge up or down based on the exact features, conditions and the number of kilometres driven compared to your car. That’s what insurers do when deciding how much to pay you after a total loss.

It’s been said that a new car loses 10% of its value the second you drive it off the lot. This may not be exactly right, but it’s close. Your car does lose value quite quickly over the first year that you own it, and then more slowly over time. That said, when your car is badly damaged in an accident, and the insurance company determines that it’s a total loss (or write-off), it can seem like they are low-balling the value. As a policyholder, you have the right to challenge the insurance company’s valuation, but you’ll have to present proof.

There’s no formula for depreciation, because in a free market economy like ours, your car is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Different brands are said to hold their value better than others, but generally, depreciation works something like this:

A quick search on AutoTrader.ca will show you that depreciation is not at all an exact science. You may see 3-year-old vehicles and 7-year-old vehicles both listed for about half their original price. When you look more closely, you’ll always see a reason for the discrepancy. Generally it’s one of the following:

Here’s an example of how you would determine the ACV for your 2015 Nissan Pathfinder S 4DR 4WD, with 91,500 km, no accidents and no optional features.

The easiest way to get an approximate ACV for your vehicle is to go to Kelley Blue Book, and enter the particulars of your vehicle.

According to Kelley Blue Book, the ACV for your Pathfinder, in good condition, is $17,577.

Your insurer is likely to do a little more research than that, so you should too. That means finding comparable models that are currently for sale. So when you search for a 2015 Nissan Pathfinder, you’ll find a lot for sale, but they’re not all comparables. You’ll see Pathfinder Platinums and Pathfinder SVs and Hybrids. Try to find exactly your model. Here is a list of exact matches on year, make and model.

First off, you can forget about the first vehicle listed, which has very low mileage and so is in a different stratosphere price-wise. Number 2 also can be excluded because the owner is asking significantly more than the market for a vehicle with more km and an accident on its record. Your price is somewhere among the other 4.

One perfectly valid way to pinpoint it is to take an average ($18,125), but then subtract 5% to account for the fact that buyers will negotiate.

That makes your price $17,220.

So you have two methods, both pointing to a price in the $17,000s. If your insurer offers you less, you have a valid argument against them. If you think your vehicle is worth significantly more, you’ll have to produce proof that it was in exceptional condition, or that it had features that would make it more valuable.

If you drive a vehicle that’s less than 5 years old and you’re the first owner, there may be a way to avoid any arguments about what you should be paid in the event of a total loss. Starting around $5 a month and increasing to around $25 as your car ages, you can get what insurers call a waiver of depreciation. That means that if your car is a total loss, the insurance company will pay you either the price you originally paid, or the price of a comparable brand new vehicle, whichever is less. This is still subject to your deductible, but it essentially means that your car is insured for what you originally paid.

You may need fight to get a fair price for your vehicle if it becomes a write-off. We’ve given you some strategies to make sure you know what a fair price is, but if you’re working with a licensed insurance broker, they will be on your side against the insurance company, and will help you get the claims payout you deserve. Moreover, when you’re shopping for with Mitch Insurance, we always recommend a waiver of depreciation if yours is a newer vehicle. It’s well worth the price.

Two ways that managing your insurance through a top brokerage like Mitch Insurance can make for a better insurance experience.

SUVs are Canadians’ favourite ride, accounting for just about half of all new vehicle sales in 2020. But unlike pickups, where the top four selling models account for 80% of total sales, the SUV and crossover market is extremely competitive, with only the Toyota RAV4 capturing more than 7% of the total market.

Lots of choice is great, but it also means myriad factors to consider. So here’s a little more info to add to your checklist. If you want to know how the most popular SUV models compare in terms of insurance costs, we did the work for you. Here’s some of what we found out:

Comparative quotes

In order to ensure that the findings aren’t specific to a particular region or individual, we used our online auto insurance quoter to run quotes for each of the vehicles on the list, with different types of drivers.

The sample drivers above represent different ages, genders, marital statuses, driving records and postal codes.

The SUVs quoted below have MSRPs (the base price) between $23,000 and $55,000. We list the price because it affects premiums for collision and comprehensive coverage.

To make sure we’re comparing apples to apples, all the quotes below assume the following:

SUVs, insurance rates, and your safety

Every year in the U.S., the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) tests all new cars on the market, and assigns the title of “Top Safety Pick” or “Top Safety Pick+” to those that perform the best. In 2022, of the ten SUVs featured in this article, the RAV4 and CR-V were designated Top Safety Picks, and the Tucson, CX-5 and Rogue got the plus designation. These safety ratings have no clear link to insurance premiums.

We know that, generally speaking, the number one factor that influences insurance rates for a vehicle is a past history of injuries and deaths in collisions. Although we would never debate the results of a highly reputable organization like the IIHS, if your family’s safety is top of mind, you should also take insurance rates into consideration as a predictor of how well your car will protect you in an accident.

Can’t decide? We can help

In the end, the only way to know exactly how much you’re going to pay for insurance is to get a quote based on your location, age, gender, driving record, etc. If you can’t decide between different models, we’d be happy to give you personalized, no-obligation quotes on two, three, even five SUVs you might be considering. Because we work with more insurance companies than just about any broker, you can feel confident that whichever vehicle you choose, you’ll get a great rate, and better yet, if you decide to join the Mitch family, you’ll get our all-star service, lots of options if your rate goes up next year, and a strong advocate in your corner if you ever make a claim.

It all starts with a simple phone call…

^{1 Sales figures from} Driving.ca

It can be tempting to try and lower your insurance costs on that trusty old car by getting rid of optional coverage like collision and comprehensive. But these coverages are actually quite affordable (in many cases less than $250 a year even if you have a couple tickets). And if you do get in an accident, it’ll save you a ton of hassles and provide you with a free rental car while your own car is getting repaired. For illustration, we ran auto insurance quotes on carpages.ca’s 15 most reliable cars of all time.

Canada’s top-selling luxury vehicles are not all created equal when it comes to how much they’ll cost you in premiums. When running insurance quotes for drivers in Toronto’s most affluent neighbourhoods, we found that the Acura RDX and the Mercedes-Benz GLC43 are the best insurance value among the top luxury models, beating some other models on the list by 25-40%.

If you live in one of Toronto’s most exclusive neighbourhoods, and are in the market for a luxury vehicle, insurance costs may not be top of mind. But for the record, your choice of vehicle can make a big difference in your insurance costs, especially if your driving record isn’t perfect.

Using Mitch’s auto insurance quoter, we ran quotes for three fictional people, living in Toronto’s most affluent neighbourhoods. Here’s what we found out.

When arriving at a final premium, insurance companies consider a number of factors. The year, make and model of the vehicle is one of those factors. Insurers refer to past claims data from vehicles that they have insured that are similar to the one being quoted. If a vehicle has a big upward effect on the prices you’re being quoted, that usually means the vehicle (or others like it) have a history of being involved in:

If a vehicle has much higher premiums than others in its class, you might want to avoid it not only because of the cost difference. It’s also more likely to cause you heartache by being stolen, or worse, by getting in a serious accident. Although two cars may seem the same and may have similar features, the data doesn’t lie, and the car with much higher premiums may be a hazard to your health, and that of your family.

The higher your net worth, the more important insurance becomes. Not only because you have more to lose, but more importantly perhaps, because others may see you as a prime target for lawsuits. That’s why Mitch often recommends higher liability limits for individuals with a net worth over $2 million, including a $5 million umbrella liability policy that can fill gaps you might otherwise have in the liability coverage that comes with your home and auto policies.

For individuals with a net worth over $2 million, Mitch Insurance offers special insurance packages to bundle your home, vehicles, vacation properties and other assets all under one roof, with preferred rates and unrivalled service. Let one of our elite brokers review your insurance needs and recommend an insurer that will best meet them. Call today!

Much has been made about new technologies that are making cars safer, but at the same time that manufacturers are adding lane departure sensors and emergency brake assist to their vehicles, many are also including built-in GPS and a variety of infotainment options that can take your attention away from driving. Add that to crying kids and drive-thru breakfast, and it all equals more accidents and more deaths on our roads.

Small SUVs took a beating in a tougher side crash test carried out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The 2021 Mazda CX-5 was the only one out of 20 vehicles tested that was deemed safe enough to earn a “good” rating. Interestingly, insurance rates for the vehicles in question don’t reflect the findings of the new test.

The safety of small SUVs, including best-sellers like the Ford Escape and the Hyundai Tucson, is being called into question after sub-par results in tougher side impact crash tests. With side impacts accounting for 23% of passenger vehicle deaths in the U.S., the IIHS, an American non-profit, designed a new side impact test that more accurately simulates real-life crash conditions.

The results of the more realistic test suggest that most small SUVs are not as safe as they could be, with only the Mazda CX-5 retaining its “good” rating from previous tests. The Honda HR-V and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross received a “poor” rating, and the rest were deemed either “marginal” or “acceptable”.

Results of side impact crash test

“Good”: Mazda CX-5

“Acceptable”: Audi Q3, Buick Encore, Chevy Trax, Honda CR-V, Nissan Rogue, Subaru Forester, Toyota Rav-4, Toyota Venza, Volvo XC-40

“Marginal”: Chevy Equinox, Ford Escape, GMC Terrain, Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Compass, Jeep Renegade, Kia Sportage, Lincoln Corsair

“Poor”: Honda HR-V, Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross

What’s different about this test?

The new test exerts 82% more impact energy on the vehicle by increasing the speed of the barrier being hurled at it from 31 mph to 37 mph, and increasing the weight of the barrier to 4,180 pounds from 3,300, which puts it more in line with a mid-sized SUV.

The barrier also has a honeycomb striking surface that acts more like a real SUV or pickup truck hitting another vehicle.

So while all 20 small SUV models got good scores on the old test for structural integrity, this new higher energy test saw only half of them retain an acceptable grade in that regard.

What exactly is the problem?

The new, high speed, high impact tests revealed that when the front of a pickup truck or larger SUV strikes the side of the vehicle, it wraps around the so-called B-pillar. The B-pillar is the beam rising from the frame between the front and back doors.

So even when the B-pillar withstood the impact, depressions formed in the front and rear doors, compromising the seating area, or occupant space, and crushing in on the area of the crash test dummies’ pelvis and chest in most models.

In the HR-V, which performed worst in this new test, the B-pillar actually began to break away from the frame, allowing the entire side of the vehicle to crumple inward past the centre of the driver’s seat.

How will this impact the design of small SUVs going forward?

What this means is that in future models of small SUVs, manufacturers are going to have to strengthen the horizontal door beams along the length of the vehicle to reduce that intrusion into the seating area. They will also have to adjust the air bags to provide more coverage and protection to the chest and pelvis.

A study done in 2011 that reviewed 10 years’ worth of crash data revealed that a driver of a vehicle with a “good” rating was 70% less likely to die in a side impact crash. The new, more stringent standard should improve on this number. “Good” news for CX-5 drivers. Maybe a wake-up call for the rest of us.

Do insurance rates reflect the new test results?

In a word, no. See the quotes below.

We used our online auto insurance quoter to run quotes for each of the 20 vehicles in question, using 2 fictional drivers:

We chose one rural and one urban postal code because we wanted to account for less traffic and thus possibly higher speeds in Cornwall vs. Toronto.

All quotes assume full coverage, a winter tire discount, and a $1,000 deductible. All of the SUVs used for the quotes are 2021 models, except the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, which is a 2020 because the 2021 was not sold in Canada.

We found no correlation between the new safety ratings and the premiums being quoted by insurers. The only SUV with a “good” rating got the 6^th best quotes, but the two vehicles with “poor” ratings got the 3^rd and 8^th best quotes. There wasn’t a huge difference between the ranking of the Toronto quotes and those from Cornwall.

Of course, side-impact collisions only account for a small portion of overall claims, so clearly other factors have a greater influence on premiums. This should make you feel better if you drive one of the SUVs being tested. If the safety concerns were leading to significantly higher injury rates in the real world, you would see that reflected in the cost of claims, and consequently, in premiums.

What’s next?

Hopefully the tougher side impact tests can help manufacturers find ways to improve safety in future models. In the meantime, whatever vehicle you drive, if you need insurance, we’ve got you covered. Whether you have insurance and want to look for better rates, or you’re considering your next ride, give Mitch a call at 1-800-731-2228 today. We can’t be beat on price, and we’ll give you the best advice so you know you have the right coverage.