Would your car insurance cover superhero damage?

Saving the world requires sacrifices, for sure. And let’s face it: maximum damage in comic book movies is fun to watch. But did Superman have to sacrifice that poor bystander’s car?

If you’ve ever wondered what your life would be like if you lived in a superhero movie, this is it.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it’s car insurance.

Car insurance coverage depends a lot on your provider and policy, with different tiers offering different levels of cover. 

In Australia, the minimum level of coverage is usually Compulsory Third-Party insurance (depending on where you live), which covers physical injury done to you or others when you’re at fault in a car accident. 

But this is only the bare minimum. Other types of car insurance include:

• Third Party damage insurance (middle tier)
  
• Comprehensive car insurance (top tier)
  
• Seniors car insurance
  
• Rideshare insurance
  
• Business and commercial insurance
  

Each policy will come with different inclusions and exclusions. CTP insurance is the middle ground, while comprehensive car insurance tends to offer the most coverage for the most incidents, with some tailoring available through optional extras such as natural disaster cover. 

Whenever you’re comparing car insurance quotes, always read through the terms and conditions in the product disclosure statement. This way, you know the ins and outs of your coverage, and come claim time, you won't be caught out with sneaky fine print.

So where do superheroes come in with all this? Let’s consider a few different scenarios.

Unfortunately, one-offs like parking lot dings or cracked windshields are the most common kind of damage. While bare minimum coverage like CTP usually won’t cover these incidents, comprehensive usually will.

Same as if someone backs into you (or worse, does a hit and run), if Spider-man lands atop your car while rediscovering his powers, or if Batman zooms by on his bat-bike and polishes off your sideview mirror, most comprehensive policies should have you sorted, depending on your inclusions and extras.

Otherwise, you may have to legally track the culprit down and involve the police. Good luck telling Batman he owes you $1,000 for a new side mirror!

Here’s where it gets extremely tricky. When your car gets completely destroyed (“total loss” or "write off" in insurance lingo), your cover will highly depend on the circumstances and what’s included in your product disclosure statement (PDS).

So if Dr. Strange or Iron Man use your car as a personal shield, or Thor strikes it with lightning, you may not have the insurance protection you think.

Firstly, to be eligible for replacement or any kind of reimbursement for total loss, you will need to have a comprehensive policy in place. Depending on the policy and provider, you may also want to make sure you have certain optional extras, like accident rental car hire, to make the transition period easier.

Secondly, providers generally only offer new-for-old replacements if your car was bought new and has only been driven for a certain period of time or under a certain distance limit (e.g. under two years or under 5,000km, whichever comes first).

Even then, your provider may place limits on the agreed upon market value of the original vehicle, so good luck if the price of your vehicle has been driven up by inflation. 

However, let’s say your car is decently new and you have adequate cover in place. If Shazam throws it off a bridge, will you get a replacement?

It still depends. Why did Shazam throw your car? The destruction usually will need to fall under ‘Acts of God’, which are completely unpreventable, blameless, freak accidents of nature. These are usually included in most comprehensive car insurance policies. 

Other acts of God include bushfires, floods, storms, and hail damage. So if a literal god crushes your car on accident and you have evidence to support your claim, you could be well placed to get a pay out.

But if said god was fighting a destructive battle against aliens? Well, that’s another matter entirely.

Alas, world-ending disasters are a blanket no-go for insurance, so if your car gets crushed by Thanos or blown into space by yet another sky-beam, you’re out of luck.

This is because the sheer volume and expenses of all the claims at once couldn’t be handled by any insurance provider.  

Other unclaimable events include:

• War
  
• Invasion
  
• Acts of foreign enemies
  
• Civil war (sorry, Captain America)
  
• Revolution
  
• Riots
  
• Insurrections
  
• Military coups
  
• Nuclear apocalypse.
  

While it’s a bummer to contemplate, at least we can be grateful superheroes will always save the world. (Just not our cars).

What goes into an insurance policy is at the discretion of the provider, but generally, providers want to offer inclusions that will be valuable to customers without eating into the insurance's risk and profit. 

For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic first began taking off, a lot of travel insurance providers wouldn't reimburse medical or cancellation costs for ill travellers because it was such an unknown, expensive, and risky new thing at the time. Providers couldn't guarantee they'd make their money back, and no one was travelling at the time.

However, now that borders have reopened and travel has resumed, providers have begun offering COVID-19 inclusions in their policies because it's the sort of coverage customers need, and therefore will pay for. 

Because of this line of thought, it's reasonable to assume that if we lived in a world where superheroes regularly wreaked havoc, insurance providers may write specific benefits and inclusions to compensate customers caught in the middle. After all, insurance is more about value than price. 

Looking for a heroic amount of car insurance? Browse policies below. 

You can also check out some award-winning providers or read up on how to keep your premiums cheap.