The Vehicle Words on Your Policy

When an agent asks a question about your car that seems oddly specific, this is usually why.

VIN

The seventeen-character vehicle identification number. It encodes the exact configuration — engine, body, restraint systems, plant — and settles every question about what your car actually is. Found on the registration, the insurance card, and the driver's-side dash at the windshield.

Trim

The specific variant of a model. It changes equipment, weight, performance and repair cost, and carriers rate different trims differently. Guessing here is a common source of a quote that changes later.

Rating symbol

The shorthand insurers use to group vehicles by expected claim cost, drawing on repair costs, theft data and loss history. It's why two cars with similar prices can rate quite differently.

Actual cash value

What your vehicle is worth immediately before a loss, with depreciation, condition and mileage accounted for. The basis for a total-loss payout.

Salvage title and rebuilt title

Brands on a title indicating the vehicle was declared a total loss, and in the rebuilt case repaired and re-registered. Both affect insurability, available coverage and resale value. If you're buying one, ask about coverage before you buy, not after.

Garaging address

Where the vehicle is kept overnight — which is the address that matters for rating, not necessarily your mailing address. Getting this wrong, even innocently, is a real problem at claim time.

Lienholder

The lender with a financial interest in the vehicle, listed on the policy so they're notified of changes and included on payouts.

A few more you will meet at the dealership

GVWR — gross vehicle weight rating, the maximum loaded weight the manufacturer specifies. It is one of the things that separates a personal pickup from a vehicle an insurer treats as commercial. OEM, aftermarket and recycled parts — parts made by the manufacturer, made by someone else, or salvaged from another vehicle. Your policy language decides which a repair may use. Annual mileage — how far you actually drive in a year, which California requires insurers to weigh as one of the primary rating factors. Curb weight — the vehicle's weight unloaded, which feeds into how it behaves in a collision and therefore into the injury side of the claim data.

Unsure about any of these on your car? Ask us.