An automotive dealership in Kelowna has offered its opinions on the Insurance Corporation of B.C.’s (ICBC) recent decision to drop insurance coverage for luxury cars that cost over $150,000, arguing that the public insurer seems to be missing the point as to how and why consumers drive luxury vehicles, and that the decision could hurt the province fiscally.
B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone on Wednesday announced that the province would soon drop the luxury car rate class. The decision was an effort to take mounting pressure off basic rates, sparing the average ratepayer from subsidizing steep costs. The provincial government and the ICBC have said that they will start working on the changes to the policy immediately.
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“We want to ensure that the regular everyday driver is not paying for the additional repair costs of these cars through their insurance rates,” Stone commented in a statement.
To Matt August of August Luxury Motorcars in Kelowna, the decision is something that would anger the province’s car enthusiasts.
“It doesn’t make any sense to us why this is happening,” August told
CBC News. “ICBC doesn’t understand 80% of these cars don’t get driven. They get driven once a month and out of that once a month, what is the risk of driving your car and getting into an accident? Not much.”
August also believes that the cancellation of luxury car coverage would lead to financial loss for B.C.
“Most of these people, if they have a business in Alberta, where are they going to register their cars? They’re going to register them in Alberta. B.C. is going to lose the tax and B.C. is going to lose the insurance premium. It’s simple.”
“I just think as a taxpayer, myself, that it’s absolutely ridiculous that they can just stop insuring something, because they think it’s costing them too much,” August reasoned.
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