Does anyone have the gap insurance for a 350z? Is it worth it?

 

I have it on both my cars. It's up to you when it comes to importance. IF the car is totalled and you owe way more than the actual car is worth then...

 

you better believe it brotha. it is only a couple bucks extra, but could be worth thousands if you have an accident or something happens to the Z.

 

Only if you owe more than the car is worth. If you put a lot down on the car, its not needed.

 

Gap made the differance from a payment in the 600's to the 700's. Sometimes i think i should not have gotten it, then think of paying for a totaled car. Cover your ****

 

depends on how much it costs and what kind of loan you have set up. If you made a huge down payment then its not needed. If you financed for 4 years then the gap will most likely only protect you for a year than after that you most likely will have a small amount of equity in your car since you are making larget payments. I put $5k down on my used Z that I paid well under KBB retail for. 9 months after I bought my car I checked KBB retail and it was still more then what I paid for my car, so if someone would have totalled my car in the first 9 months I had it I would have actually made money, so obviously I didn't get gap insurance.

Edit:

I just checked the retail value of my Z at kbb.com it is $1k more than what I paid for the car 11 months ago.

 

dude that is INSANE!! my payments have always been less than $10 diff for GAP....

 

Let me tell you a little story:

Last summer, I bought a brand new Mazda RX-8. It had all the goodies, and although not as fast in a straight line as the Z, was lots o'fun to drive. However, I DID NOT get gap coverage, thinking that my down payment and monthly payments would render gap coverage useless, especially considering I had NEVER been in an accident in 16 years of driving. Well, on April 30 of this year, I made a run to my local grocery store to get some ice cream for my wife. On my way home, less than 1/4 mile from my house, a 16 year old girl runs a stop sign, T-bones the passenger side, and destroys my car. The car was only 9 months old. She hit me so hard (she ran the sign at roughly 45 mph) that the front wheel flew off and bounced down the road as I turned 360s. Trust me, it wasn't fun. Insurance companies in NC are regulated, and by law, only have to give you "fair market value" for your car. That's a BS term, because fair market value for a car that new should be a new car, especially when it's totalled. Anyway, "fair market value" was $1100 short of payoff for the car, which had to come out of my pocket. Where does "fair market value" come from? In NC, they use 3 different sources, and whichever is least is the "fair market value." In any case, I had to pay that difference out of pocket. I put $5000 down on the 8, and made my payments on time, and I thought that not having gap coverage wasn't going to affect me. I was totally wrong.

Now, I own a 2005 Redline Enthusiast Roadster, which I picked up almost 3 weeks ago. Hell yes, I got the gap coverage. Here's a link to a picture of the RX-8 (what's left of it): http://home.nc.rr.com/doomcue/images/RX8-001.jpg

-djb

 

+1

I have never personally had Gap insurance, never really needed it since I always put 30% or more down on any new car I buy.

Worth it for those that don't put hardly any $ down.

 

Dang dude that sucks but you got the better car now . At least we know the 8 can take a hit

 

Sorry to hear about your rx-8 but that gap insurance would have only saved you $1100. You still would have lost your down payment and if your car was wrecked a year later you would most likely already had equity in the car thus making that $10 a month you pay worthless.

I don't like the idea of paying $10 a month every month I am making a car payment on the off chance it gets totalled the first year I own the car. Sure it would have saved you $1100 that one time but most likely that will never happen again. So you are going to pay $10 a month on the off chance your car gets totalled in the first 2 years of its life and there will be some gap... thats such a small window of opprotunity and if you pay $10 a month for 10 years (say going through two full car loans) you will have already paid more for the insruance than you got out of it.

I really don't think buying this insurance is going to make or break you so you should just think of it as paying for a little peice of mind; however if you think about it w/ logic the math just doesn't add up unless you are really really unlucky.

bottom line anytime you are in wreck even if its not your fault you are going to lose money.

 

If your not putting at least 20% down I would recommend getting gap insurance.

I work for a dealership and a lot of customers put zero down and finance the sales tax. In that case you would be crazy not to get gap insurance! Keep in mind that you don't always have to buy gap insurance from the dealership. Some car insurance companies offer it for an additional premium. So call your insurance company and see if they offer it and how much per year it cost. If you get it with your insurance company then just check the value of your car and how much you owe before you renew your policy each year. Once you owe a few thousand less than its worth, drop the gap. Of course if you added gap to your loan contract you can always cancel it once you owe less than the car is worth. The refund will come off your principal balance.

BTW, I have seen gap claims as high as $9000.00!!! Thats what can happen if you don't put any money down, finance the sales tax, drive 50,000 miles a year, and finance for a long term!!!

 

I dunno...I'd personally pay the $10 a month. Especially if your car is depreciating faster than you're paying it off....and since when you do a 5 year loan, the first year is almost all interest, you're hardly touching the principle, and this is also the time the car is depreciating the most.

So, you buy an '05 Z and pay 34k for it...you total the car and they want to give you $28k a year later for it...lets say you still owe $32k.

Now you're out 4k. This is of course a worse case scenerio, but it could happen. Pay the $10...it's freakin 2 lattes a month.

And refer to this thread:
https://my350z.com/forum/2003-2009-nissan-350z/152135-is-our-z-s-depreciating-that-much-in-one-year-only.html

 

Logic and math tell me that $10/month over a 5 year loan = $600, or $720 over a 6 year loan, which is a helluva lot better than $1100 in one nut. If you're the gambling type, then not going with gap insurance is a 50/50 shot - you're either going to need it or you won't. If you're not the gambling type, then logic and math should tell you that $10/month is a pretty good investment, especially in a case where you might actually need it. I wouldn't call $10/month a waste even if you end up not needing the gap coverage, since peace of mind is worth a lot more than $10/month to most people (well, it is to me, at least). I still spend money on health insurance every year, but I don't get sick every year. Does that make it a bad investment? Logic and math tell me that I should do what I can to protect my investment, whatever that investment might be, whether it's my health or a car's value.

In my particular case, the car was 9 months old. I didn't have to make payments for the first 3 months, so for gap coverage over the time I had my car, I would've spent $10 X 6 months = $60. Let's see, $1100 or $60, which should I have chosen? Now I know....

One reason I can see against gap coverage is if, as others have posted, the car is bought so far below "fair market value" such that equity is always greater than the gap between "fair market value" and the amount owed on the car. Another is that if you can afford to pay the gap and you consider that possible amount, no matter what it is, is to be negligible. Another is if you're the gambling type, willing to risk your investment against the luck of whether or not an accident happens before equity catches up with depreciation. Logic and math tell me that if I don't meet any of those conditions, I should get the gap coverage.

What sucks is that you have to have insurance to protect yourself against morons who run stop signs, and then have another insurance to protect yourself against insurance companies who are more concerned with the bottom line than with doing the "right" thing.

-djb

 

I dont know who wrote your GAP insurance policy but mine was only $199 thru my lender (Credit Union) if you are paying $10 a month you should have shopped around for the best policy. If you are paying more than that you are getting ripped off sounds more like loan insurance than GAP insurance.

 

gap is worth it, go for it, just make sure u cancel it when u get rid of the car.

 

I was assuming you were going to get gap insurance on every other car you ever buy at $10 a month for the rest of your life. But even $600 to get $1100 you would need it to be better than 50/50 that your car gets totaled while you still have no equity in the car. I think I will take my chances and save $10 a month in case one day I do get screwed, but if I don't I will be able to keep that money.

And if you just get one car totaled every 10 years (in the small window where you have a gap in your payment) you break even... I would say the odds of that happening are less than 50/50.

Obviously in your case if you would have gotten the gap insurance that time it would have saved you some money but having your car totalled by a moron is far from normal. I am not arguing you would have saved alot of money if you had the insurance I am just pointing out that its not the greatest risk vs reward... esp since now several car insruance companies include gap insurance... and you could have made the insurance company buy you a used rx8 with similar miles and kept making the same payments.

 

if you make payments, gap is important

 

I hear ya there I was in the same boat, June 22nd of this year I was hit headon by an Ozark Electric truck on a curve a mile from my house and it took everything we had to get what we go from the insurance company and they still have me $6800 less than payoff which I had to pay out of pocket. At the time I hadn't heard of 'Gap' and was never informed of it by my agent. Now my other vehicle has it and when my Z arrives it will have it if I finance it.

 

Some girl runs a stop sign, hits me and then it costs my 1100 bucks, i sue and then the 1100 goes away real quick. No gap insurance just the threat of a law suit and the other insurance company will pay the 2k or so you owe. I was rear-ended in the rain and was found not at fault, yet the girl who hit me sued my insurance company anf they settled for a small amount. That is my plan. It is wrong but I have stopped caring, if people are gonna sue me for no reason, good luck to the person I have a reaosn to sue. I just better not hit anyone, then my plan is a waste