Auto Dealers Insurance
Running a repair shop or used auto dealership is a journey—sometimes it’s a smooth ride, but other times you have to navigate unexpected bumps in the road from accidents or weather incidents.
What is Auto Dealers Insurance?
Auto Dealers Insurance helps protect your dealership from the everyday risks that come with selling, servicing and storing vehicles. It can help cover your inventory, test drives and more—so you can focus on running your business with confidence.
Who Does Haulers Cover?
Haulers specializes in Non-Franchised Auto Dealers with a need for property coverage up to $500,000, though higher limits can be considered.
Clients with industry experience who are embarking on their own new venture are welcome at Haulers. Even if you’re just starting your own shop or dealership, you’re eligible to apply based on our New Venture Guidelines. We’re here for the long haul, so let’s map out a coverage plan that will keep your business rolling strong and steady.
Coverage Options
We offer a competitive suite of liability coverages including Garage Liability, Garage Keepers, Medical Payments, and Broadened Coverage. We'll even consider incidental towing when it supports the applicant's main dealership or repair operation.
What’s Included
Garage Liability
Helps cover situations such as a customer or mechanic hitting a pedestrian while test driving a car or a customer slipping and falling in the waiting room. However, it generally excludes damage to vehicles your mechanics are working on.
Liability Coverage
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UM/UIM)
Test drivers and employees driving dealership cars on company time can encounter uninsured or underinsured drivers. If an accident occurs with an uninsured/underinsured driver, UM/UIM coverage helps protect employees or customers who are driving dealer vehicles. Please note: Uninsured Motorist Coverage is required in Virginia.
Dealers Physical Damage (for Scheduled Auto)
This insurance covers risks of damage to cars on the lot, as well as theft and vandalism. It also helps auto dealers avoid financial losses if something unexpected happens to their inventory or an incident occurs during daily operations.
Garage Keepers
This is coverage for vehicles that are left with your shop for services like repair, storage, or parking. This coverage is on a “Direct Primary” basis, which means that if something happens to the vehicle while it is in your care—such as damage or theft—this policy will help pay for the loss, even if the vehicle owner has their own insurance.
Medical Payments
If someone gets hurt along the way as a result of a covered incident, this coverage helps pay for medical bills, so your company can keep moving forward.
Physical Damage Open Lot
This coverage helps you repair and recover from unexpected scrapes, dings, and collisions, so your business isn’t stalled for long.
Broadened Coverage
This coverage gives you a wider lane of protection, keeping your customers (and your reputation) safe along the way.
Drive Away Collision Coverage
Lets you send cars down the road with confidence, knowing accidents at the start of the journey won’t put the brakes on your business. This coverage is required if you have Dealer’s Physical Damage Coverage.
False Pretense
This coverage shields you from tricky situations where someone tries to take you for a ride. It helps protect you against losses from fraudulent acts.
Extended Physical Damage Coverage
This broadens protection for covered shop or dealership vehicles such as ATVs, watercraft, golf carts and trailers. This does not include vehicles held for consignment.
Driver Other Car Coverage
Protects employees or owners of an auto dealership or repair shop when they drive vehicles that don’t belong to the business, such as personal cars or rental vehicles. It helps cover them if they cause an accident while using their own car or truck for business purposes.
Hired & Non-Owned Liability
Many businesses use vehicles not owned by the company. Hired and non-owned auto coverage is a type of commercial auto insurance that protects your business when you or employees use rented, leased, borrowed, or personal vehicles for work.
- Hired coverage applies to vehicles your business rents, leases, or borrows.
- Non-owned auto coverage extends liability protection when employees use their own cars for business purposes.
- Only available if you have insured a business auto with Haulers.
What’s Optional
Garage Liability with Extended Coverage
This coverage includes:
- Truth in Lending Errors & Omissions Coverage — Protects dealerships against claims of mistakes or omissions in consumer credit disclosures for vehicle financing or leasing, such as finance charges, APR, payment terms, and odometer disclosures, as well as lien or filing errors. It covers defense costs and, if applicable, damages or settlements related to those claims.
- Security Interest Errors & Omissions Coverage — This coverage helps protect the dealership if there is a mistake or oversight related to the paperwork when selling vehicles, especially with financing and legal ownership. For example, if the dealer accidentally fails to properly record a security interest on a car (like a lien) and this causes a financial loss, this policy will help cover those costs.
- Odometer & Prior Damage Disclosure Errors and Omissions — This coverage helps protect auto dealers if they accidentally give incorrect information about a vehicle’s mileage or past damages. If a dealer makes a mistake or forgets to disclose something and a customer suffers a loss as a result, this insurance can help you cover legal costs and financial damages.
Additional Coverage For Your Peace of Mind
Towing Operations (Repair Garage)
Incidental Towing (Auto Service Operations)
Whether you’re providing roadside assistance or moving vehicles between service bays, our coverage protects your garage operations from unexpected mishaps. We provide the security you need to handle incidental tows with confidence, keeping your business running smoothly. We can provide insurance protection for occasional towing instances if this is part of the service you provide to your customers. Just add Towing coverage (not available to New Ventures).
Don't Overlook Garage Keepers Coverage
Don't Overlook Garage Keepers Coverage
Auto dealers and garage keepers have something in common—they both have cars on their lots that are regularly driven by employees who do not own them. In these cases, Garage Keepers Coverage provides critical liability protection if an accident occurs while your employee is behind the wheel. In addition, many auto dealers have repair shops on site that may need the same coverage.
Other Commercial Insurance Products from Haulers
Business Auto
Don’t let an accident stall your progress. Haulers provide robust coverage specifically designed to keep auto dealers, garages, and artisan contractors in motion, ensuring that the unexpected doesn’t take your business off course.
Garage Keepers Liability
When customers trust you with their vehicles, give them—and yourself—total peace of mind. Our liability solutions protect your repair shop from the risks of handling client property, so you can focus on the work under the hood.
General Liability
In a litigious world, consider this your professional safety net. We help you navigate the costs of lawsuits involving injury, property damage, or advertising claims, acting as a guardrail so one mistake doesn’t derail your future.
Property
Your workspace is your second home. Whether you own the building or the gear inside, Haulers offers comprehensive protection to ensure your physical assets are as resilient as your work ethic.
Why Choose Haulers for Auto Dealers Insurance?
Haulers Insurance gives auto dealers the protection they need to keep their business moving, from the lot to the showroom and everywhere in between. With dependable coverage, competitive pricing, and a team that understands the pace of dealership operations, Haulers helps you stay focused on serving customers and driving sales.
Ready to Protect Your Dealership?
Ready to Protect Your Dealership?
Now that you’ve seen why Haulers is a strong choice for your Auto Dealer insurance needs, the next step is to connect with a local agent who offers Haulers and can answer your remaining questions, to help steer you toward the right policy.
Commercial Auto Insurance FAQs
What is the difference between Auto Dealers Insurance and a Standard Commercial Auto Policy?
A Standard Commercial Auto Policy covers specific vehicles a business owns or leases for everyday operations. Auto Dealers Insurance is designed for the way dealerships operate. It helps cover changing inventory, test drives and customer vehicles in your care.
Does Auto Dealers Insurance cover vehicles during a test drive?
In most cases, the dealership’s insurance covers damage during a test drive. The customer’s insurance may only come into play if the damage exceeds the dealership’s coverage limits.
What is Dealers Open Lot Coverage and what does it protect against?
Dealers Open Lot (DOL) Coverage helps protect a dealership’s inventory from risks like theft, vandalism, weather, fire, and collision.
Am I covered if a customer's vehicle is damaged while on my lot?
Yes—but only if you have a Garage Keepers Liability Endorsement. This coverage is designed for customer vehicles in your care (such as when they are on your lot for repairs, detailing, or storage), and may help pay for damage from things like fire, theft, or vandalism. Keep in mind that many policies do not cover weather-related damage like hail or flooding, and Dealers Open Lot Insurance applies to vehicles you own for sale—not a customer’s car.
Do I need separate coverage for my dealership's building and equipment?
Yes. A Standard Auto Dealer policy usually covers liability and vehicle-related risks, not damage to your building or business property, so you need a Commercial Property Insurance Policy for your dealership’s building, contents and equipment. Commercial Property Insurance can help protect against losses from fire, storms, theft, or vandalism.
What happens if one of my employees gets into an accident while driving a vehicle from the lot?
Normally, if an employee causes an accident in a company-owned vehicle, the employer is financially and legally responsible as long as the employee was acting within the scope of employment (e.g. test driving with a customer, running a dealer errand, or moving lot inventory) and the vehicle is listed or classified under your policy.
Does Haulers Auto Dealers insurance cover both new and used vehicle inventory?
Haulers’ auto dealer policy only provides coverage for used vehicle inventory.