The Insurance Family Blog

A start up electric car company in Santa Monica, California announced on Tuesday that they will start taking deposits for their new four door sedan, and start delivering the cars in December.

The Coda, the name of the sedan, will be priced at $44,900 will be competing with other electric models that are due out this year. All buyers will be eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit and $5,000 California tax rebate, which brings the price down to $32,400. Coda said it will be eligible for carpool-lane access through 2015.

The all-electric Coda will have a 90- to 120-mile range, depending on driving speed, weather and other factors. The cars will be built in China and based on a design licensed from Mitsubishi but is greatly modified by the Coda company.

People interested in purchasing the electric sedan can visit www.codaautomotive.com. CODA is collecting refundable $500 deposits if you want to reserve a car. Coda plans to offer a three-year or 36,000-mile warranty on the vehicle and a battery warranty of eight-years or 100,000 miles.

The company plans to sell directly to consumers with show rooms to be placed in Santa Monica and the San Francisco Bay Area. Will your California Auto Insurance go down from buying an electric car? Contact Sutherland-Scherff Insurance today for more information on how today’s changing technologies will affect you insurance.

As technology advances so does the way you can pay for parking in California. The City of Los Angeles has been experiencing problems lately with parking meters malfunctioning. As a result they will start installing new meters that take quarters and credit cards as early as this week.

The LA Times reports that about half of the 40,000 parking meters in the city will be replaced, and drivers will be expected to start paying once they are in place. “ Until all the meters are replaced, drivers who find a spot at an old, broken meter will not get a ticket”, says Sean Anderson, a spokesman for the CA Transportation Department. But drivers who park at a new meter that is down will receive a ticket, though the new meters should rarely malfunction .

“That is unlikely to happen,” says Anderson. “With the new meters, you don’t have the reliability issue. There is a less than 1% chance they are ever down”.

Parking next to a meter is less expensive than paying for a parking ticket, a tactic the transportation department is using in hopes people won’t disobey the laws. With meters now taking credit cards, “I didn’t have any quarters,” will not be an understandable excuse.

Don’t let parking tickets pile up, your California Auto Insurance policy could be affected if your license is suspended due to too many violations.