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What would I miss out on by self insuring my car?
Insurance is to mitigate risk you can't handle yourself.  (All insurance, not just car insurance.)  The expected value of the insurance will always cost more than the expected value of your loss, that's how the insurance company makes money.  But sometimes the known fixed cost is better for your ability to sleep at night than the unknown (though likely lower) variable cost. If you were suddenly hit with a bill the size of your car tomorrow, would you be ok?  If so, then you can handle the risk yourself and don't need insurance.  If not, then you need the insurance. The insurance company sells thousands of policies and it's much easier to predict the number out of 1000 people that will get in an accident tomorrow than the chance that you specifically will get in an accident tomorrow.  So they can manage the risk by making a small amount of money from 999/1000 people and buying the other guy a new car.