I’m sure we’ve all heard this misconception: that if you’re going to slash someone’s tires, slash only three so insurance won’t pay for it. So if you only slash three, you’ll leave them stranded with a big bill to replace the tires. Slash all four, though, and insurance will rescue them from their misfortune.
So let’s get into this.
Will insurance cover slashed tires?
Yes it will, provided your insurance includes it. You typically need comprehensive coverage that includes vandalism, since slashed tires are considered vandalism. So if you don’t have comprehensive coverage, you’re on your own. But you may not be completely out of luck if your insurance will at least pay for a tow to a shop to have the tires replaced. It just means the tires and labor will be out of your pocket.
But if you have comprehensive coverage, that doesn’t mean insurance will still pay for it. Whether they will depends on your deductible.
Replacement cost vs. Your deductible
This is the crux of the matter.
Back in 2007, my car was broken into. Thankfully the only damage to the car was the rear passenger-side window. And my insurance deductible was $500. Replacing a broken window is, obviously, less than $500. It was about $275 out of pocket, if I recall correctly. So my insurance wouldn’t pay for it. Oh well.
So whether insurance will pay for slashed tires is going to depending on the insured’s deductible. If the deductible isn’t substantially more than the cost to replace the tires, then insurance isn’t going to pay for it. But, there’s more…
Other costs
If you slash someone’s tires, the tires aren’t the only cost going into it. Since the vehicle will likely need to be towed, and getting that vehicle towed is going to be harder the larger it is. And with comprehensive insurance coverage, towing is going to be covered. So because of those other costs that go into getting the tires replaced before even getting to the cost of the replacement tires, it’s likely going to be more than someone’s deductible – unless that deductible is sky high.
Plus if you slash three tires, all four still need to be replaced anyway unless the tires are less than about 5,000 miles old. And along with the cost of the tires, there’s also the labor that goes into actually replacing them. Doing a full tire replacement on my wife’s CR-V, for example, came to about $1,500 at Firestone for OEM-equivalents.
And even if only one or two tires are slashed, meaning two to be replaced, there’s still the cost to tow the vehicle and inspect it for other damage.
And speaking of “other damage”, there is also potential damage to the suspension and/or undercarriage that will need to be inspected to determine if additional parts replacements are needed beyond just the tires.
And the cost of all of that which exceeds the deductible would be paid by insurance.
Conclusion
So yeah, the idea that insurance won’t pay out if you slash only three tires is definitely not true unless the insurance coverage doesn’t include vandalism, or the insured has a sky-high deductible.
