Colorado · A new car is not a new-car endorsement
A new Colorado car is usually settled at actual cash value after a total loss, unless a new-car or gap endorsement says otherwise. “Cheap” is a higher deductible or a dropped line. This page will not invent how long a new-car window lasts.
CRS 10-4-620 requires liability: $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 per accident, and $15,000 property damage. Collision and comprehensive are not in that section. The state does not require them on a paid-off car. A lender on a new car usually does, and it can cap the deductible. Collision is a crash. Comprehensive is theft, hail, flood to the car, vandalism, and many animal strikes. The deductibles are separate. A total theft or total loss is usually actual cash value. That value is often less than the loan in the first years. Gap pays the difference between actual cash value and the loan only if you bought it. It does not pay your deductible, and it does not replace the car with a new one. A new-car endorsement, if the form has one, is a separate promise with its own time limit. Do not assume a number of months.
The pieces: Colorado options, liability, collision, comprehensive, and gap. What the state does not require: is collision required. The nickname: full coverage and why cheap is not a coverage. The law: staying legal.
