A young man pulled out in front of this winter and I hit him after skidding on the wet road for half the distance between us when he pulled out. I had no chance to stop. His insurance company, Progressive, spent about $4500.00 repairing my car. I got a new hood, new front fenders, new Euro headlight, new turn signal/parking light, paint (I had entire car painted-I was planning on this anyway because of a few surface rust problems and a rusty panel under the license plate which we replaced), and other necessary parts. I showed the insurance company parts bills for upkeep that I had done on the car along with recent sales of similar cars on Ebay. They were very accommodating, but I think we were at the limit they would have paid to repair my car, a 1980 300 CD. By the way, it looks terrific now. Looked good before, but now the little blemishes are taken care of. In some states I would not have been able to get them to repair the car unless I carried full coverage. Investigate your states insurance laws, liability laws, etc., along with estimating the value of your car, before insuring. Instead of getting collision insurance it may be to your advantage to be self-insuring on that. Just investigate thoroughly.

Added with edit: You can also insure for value. You would need an appraisal and perhaps other information for your insurance carrier. I did this several years ago on a 1968 Austin Healy Mark. It was appraised at four times the book value. It was totaled by a drunk and I received very close to the appraised value after a small amount of hassle with her insurance carrier. My insurer went to bat for me.

__________________
Mike

2000 SL500 22,000 miles
1981 300CD 188,000 miles
1979 450 SEL 266,000 miles
2005 Cadillac CTS 25,000 miles