Brazil: Insurance Another Hurdle to Car Ownership

Another hurdle to overcome in order to stick that shiny metal blob of your dreams in your garage is insurance. Relatively low coverage, relatively high theft rates and lots and lots of accidents are the excuses insurance companies use to get quite a chunk of change out of their customers’ pockets and into their own. As you can see from the video, even those who should protect you, can be out to get you.

Webmotors, a well-know Brazilian enthusiast site, recently did a run down of just how much it costs to insure the top ten most sold vehicles this year. They used the profile of a 40 year old male living in the South Zone of São Paulo. The beloved VW Gol, the most sold car in Brazil for over 25 years and going, will force its owner to fork over almost 10 percent of the car’s price in order to get it insured. Just one of a myriad of reasons I have for never, ever, contributing my hard-earned money to keep this legend alive.

Below is a table showing the lowest annual insurance premium Webmotors was able to find for popular Brazilian entry models. The premiums were converted to US dollars at today’s rate of $.48 to the Brazilian real.