Mileage on gravel adds up the same way mileage on pavement does, but it wears a car in other places. Dust gets into air filters. Stones hit the underside and the lower edge of the bumper. Suspension parts and tires take hits that a paved commute never gives them. A household that drives mostly unpaved roads should match its contract to that driving before it matches the contract to the odometer.
What to list before you compare
Write down the driving first. Note the surface, the distance to the nearest shop, the weather, and whether the car tows, carries heavy loads, or sits outdoors. Then list the people who drive it and how often.
- Share of trips on unpaved surfaces, and how long those trips run.
- Distance to the nearest shop that will open the hood on a weekday.
- Whether the car is parked outside, in a barn, or under cover.
- Who drives it, and who would need to make a claim call if the car fails away from home.
What to check in the paper
- Whether the contract names the parts it covers, or lists what it leaves out.
- Whether road damage such as stone strikes or washboard wear is named as excluded, or left unstated.
- Whether the repair must happen at a particular type of shop, and how far that shop is from your road.
- Whether there is a waiting period before the first claim, and what happens if the first breakdown lands inside that window.
- Whether the contract asks for a copy of the service record, and what the owner must keep on file.
Where the list ends
A list cannot tell you what a particular company's contract covers. Only the contract can. Compare the paper against the list line by line. The published figures on this site show the printed terms of the companies we track, and the threshold pages set out the questions to bring to a quote. Use those tables to check your list, not to skip it.