Lets stop dancing around it and just lay the cards on the table.

Liability Only
What you get: Pays when YOU hurt someone else or wreck their property. Does NOTHING for your own car.
Average added cost: $0 extra (it’s the base, everything else is optional on top).
Full-year example (2025 national average for clean 35-year-old): around $650-$750.
Pros: Dirt cheap, keeps you legal, protects your paycheck from lawsuits.
Cons: Your car gets smashed? You pay every penny to fix or replace it.
Who this is actually fine for:
- People driving a $3,000-$5,000 beater they can afford to lose
- Anyone with a fat emergency fund who wants to self-insure the car itself

Liability + Collision
Adds: Pays to fix YOUR car when you crash, no matter who’s at fault.
Average extra cost: +$550-$750 per year (depends on car value and deductible).
Same driver from above now pays roughly $1,250-$1,500 total.
Pros: You’re covered if you slide into a ditch or someone hits you and runs.
Cons: Still zero help for theft, hail, deer, fire, flood.
Who needs it:
- You’re still paying off the car (lender forces it anyway)
- Car is worth $10k+ and you’d be screwed replacing it

Liability + Comprehensive (no Collision)
Adds: Theft, hail, animal hits, cracked windshield, fire, vandalism, etc.
Average extra cost: +$200-$350 per year (usually cheaper than collision).
Total bill lands around $900-$1,100.
Pros: Surprisingly cheap way to protect against the random expensive stuff.
Cons: Crash it yourself? Still 100% on you.
Who picks this weird combo:
- People in hail-prone states (Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma)
- Owners of older but valuable cars that rarely crash but sit outside
- Folks in cities with high theft/vandalism

Full Coverage (Liability + Collision + Comprehensive)
What you get: Pretty much everything short of acts of war.
Average total cost 2025: $1,800-$2,400 a year for a normal driver, way more if you’re young or drive something fast.
Pros: Sleep like a baby. Total the car, stolen, hail storm, deer, whatever, you’re covered minus deductible.
Cons: Expensive, and if you never claim it you just lit money on fire for years.
Who should just bite the bullet and get it:
- New or leased car (required anyway)
- Car worth $15k+
- You have a family and can’t risk a $12,000 surprise bill
- You live where weather or crime is brutal

Real talk from quotes I pulled last week:
2019 Honda CR-V, 40-year-old clean driver in Ohio
- Liability only: $612/year
- Add comprehensive ($500 ded): +$214
- Add collision ($500 ded): +$618
- Full package: $1,444 total

That $832 jump from bare minimum to full coverage is less than $70 a month. For a lot of people that’s two dinners out or half a phone bill. Worth it or not is your call, but now you actually know what you’re choosing between instead of just guessing.

Pick the one that lets you sleep at night without waking up broke. That’s the right answer.