Car Insurance in Nevada: Vegas, Reno, and Beyond

Despite its relatively high costs, Nevada’s auto insurance requirements are pretty minimal. It only requires drivers to have liability insurance coverage, which breaks down into bodily injury coverage and property damage coverage. These are the liability limits:

• Bodily injury per person: $25,000
• Bodily injury per accident: $50,000
• Property damage: $20,000¹

How much car insurance do you need? The answer is, as much as you can afford, up to $500,000 for medical payments coverage and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and your car’s actual market value for collision and comprehensive coverage. With full-coverage car insurance, you can get compensation for your injuries and damages, whether or not you caused the accident.

Car insurance costs in Nevada are 19 percent higher than the national average. The average driver in Nevada pays $1,247 a year for car insurance:

• Liability cost: $899
• Collision cost: $341
• Comprehensive cost:  $116²

That being said, you can expect to pay anywhere from $640 all the way up to $8,947.28 a year for car insurance.

Here are the car insurance companies available in the Silver State:

• AAA
• Allied
• Allstate
• American Family
• CSAA
• Farmers
• GEICO
• Mercury
• MetLife
• Nationwide
• Progressive
• Safeco
• State Farm
• Travelers
• USAA

Since car insurance in Nevada is expensive, you’re probably looking for ways to save. From discounts to bundling, we’ve got you covered.

Dropping Coverages

You can drop any coverages you don’t legally need, which, in Nevada, is any coverage aside from liability. The cheapest car insurance in Nevada would be the minimum coverage.

Raising Your Deductible

You can also raise your deductible to lower your premiums, but remember you’ll owe that amount if you have a covered collision or comprehensive claim.

Driving without proof of insurance in Nevada is illegal, and it’ll cost you both financially and legally.

Now that you know about the importance of insurance, read up on Nevada’s other laws surrounding car insurance and driving.

At-Fault System

Nevada is an at-fault state, meaning that the person at fault in an accident pays for the other party’s injuries and property damage. The state also has a modified comparative negligence system, which says that accident victims can recover money in an accident even if they were partially negligible. However, your compensation will be reduced by your percentage of fault, so if you were found to be 15 percent at fault, your compensation would reduce by 15 percent.

Drivers Without Insurance

In Nevada, insurance companies aren’t required to offer uninsured motorist coverage, nor does the state require customers to have it. Maybe that’s partially due to the fact that only 1 in 10 drivers in Nevada lack car insurance, 20 percent less than the national average.³

However, if you have uninsured motorist coverage on multiple cars, you can multiply the limit by your number of cars and reach a new, “stacked” limit.

DUIs

Nevada takes drunk driving very seriously: DUIs will stay on your record for seven years. For the first offense, you’ll face a 90-day license suspension, although you could get some driving privileges back, like commuting to work, after 45 days. DUI interlocks are mandatory for all convictions. For first and second offenses, you’ll need to install an interlock for three to six months, which turns into 12 to 36 months for the third and subsequent offenses.

Penalties are even worse if you have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.18 percent or above. If that’s the case, even for a first offense, you’ll face 12 to 36 months with an interlock plus mandatory alcohol treatment.

Seat Belt Laws

Nevada requires people ages 6 and older in all seats to wear seat belts. However, the law is under secondary enforcement, so police officers can’t pull you over for this offense alone; it needs to be accompanied by another traffic violation.

Distracted Driving Laws

Unlike its seat belt laws, Nevada’s distracted driving laws are under primary enforcement, including a handheld ban for all drivers. You’ll face these penalties for distracted driving, which includes the ever-popular texting and driving:

• First offense: $50 fine
• Second offense within seven years of the first: $100 fine, four points on your driving record
• Subsequent offenses: $250 fine, four points on your driving record⁴

Teen Driver Laws

It’s no surprise that new drivers are more likely to get into accidents and have covered claims, which is why car insurance for teens costs more. In the same vein, Nevada places more restrictions on teen drivers.

• Who they can transport: Teen drivers can’t transport anyone under 18, unless they’re immediate family members, for the first six months of their licenses.
• When they can drive: Nevada imposes a statewide curfew for drivers under 18 from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., except for driving to and from scheduled events and jobs (you’ll need evidence of the event or job with you). Depending on where you live, you might face additional curfews.

• Driving under the influence: The maximum BAC drivers under 21 can legally drive with is 0.02 percent. If the driver has any detectable amount of a prohibited or controlled substance, they can be arrested.⁵

Claims Statute of Limitations

In Nevada, you have three years from the date of the accident to file property damage claims and two years for personal injury claims. Beyond these statutes of limitations, you might not get your losses covered.

Notification Laws for Cancellation and Non-Renewal

If a company wants to cancel your insurance policy midterm, it has 30 days to alert you before the expiration date, or 10 if the cancellation is due to nonpayment. If a company doesn’t want to renew your policy at the end of its term, it has 30 days to alert you so you can find a new policy and avoid a gap in coverage.

Self-Insurance

Nevada allows its residents to self-insure their cars — if they have over 10 cars and the required collateral, that is. You can pay either 130 percent of your average annual claims in the previous three years or an amount based on the number of vehicles you’re insuring.

Inspection Requirements

If you buy a car from a dealer, whether that dealer is in Nevada or in another state, you’ll need to pass an emissions test. Emissions tests are also necessary for private-party sales, family sales, new residents to the state, and cars received as gifts. Basically, if you have a gas or diesel truck or car from 1968 or later, in most areas of Las Vegas and Reno, you’ll need an emissions test. These are some possible exceptions:

• New vehicles until their fourth registrations
• Hybrid vehicles for the first five model years
• Diesel vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) over 14,000 pounds
• Motorcycles
• Mopeds

You’ll need to get an emissions test every 90 days for cars you bought out of state, or 180 days for cars from Nevada dealerships. You can find a testing site here: https://dmvapp.nv.gov/DMV/OBL/Business_Reports/Pages/BusinessLicenses.aspx?LT=EPES.

Make sure to have your vehicle identification number (VIN) handy when you go to your local DMV (contact information below).

SR-22s

Say you were caught driving without insurance, and you haven’t purchased minimum coverage within one day for a first offense. You would then need to carry an SR-22, a form that proves minimum insurance, for three years. For the second offense, if you were found driving without insurance for more than 90 days, a three-year SR-22 would also apply.

Defensive Driving

Nevada doesn’t have overarching rules about defensive driving courses, their lengths, or the number of points they remove from your driving record. Defensive driving courses are handled at the city level, so check your city’s website to find one.

Civil Suit Thresholds

There’s no monetary or serious injury threshold you need to reach to file a civil suit against someone you got into a car accident with in Nevada. That means you can sue for both economic (medical expenses, lost wages, etc.) and noneconomic damages (pain, suffering, anxiety, etc.), no matter the amount you lost or how severe your injuries were.

Accident Reporting Requirements

If you get into a car crash in Nevada, you’ll need to report it immediately or face a one-year maximum suspension of driving privileges, according to the state’s legislation.

Pricing Discriminations: Are They Legal?

Nevada doesn’t have laws preventing car insurance providers from determining prices based on credit scores or gender. That’s bad news for people with poor credit and men, who pay more for insurance than people with good credit and women if all else is equal.

Total Loss

Let’s say someone hits your car. You bring it to the repair shop, where the mechanic tells you that the car’s repairs will cost 70 percent of its actual market value (AMV). In Nevada, your car would be considered a total loss, so if you had collision coverage, you’d be reimbursed for your car’s AMV, as the total loss threshold is 65 percent. In other words, if repairs cost at least 65 percent more than your car’s AMV, it’s a total loss.

Here we’ve compiled the information for the Nevada DMV offices and Department of Insurance.

How to Register Your Car

You can register your car or renew your registration online, or visit a DMV office in person.

• Register online: https://dmvapp.nv.gov/dmv/vr/edrs_online_reg/vehreginit.aspx
• Renew your registration online: https://dmvapp.nv.gov/DMV/VR/RegRenewal/VRRenewal/VR_Ren_Input.aspx
• Visit a DMV office in person: Find your closest location below.

How to Get a Duplicate Car Title

To get a duplicate car title, you’ll need to fill out a physical form and get it to a DMV office, as there’s no online option.

1. Get the form. Print out the Application for Duplicate Nevada Certificate of Title at https://dmv.nv.gov/pdfforms/vp012.pdf or pick it up from your local DMV.
2. Fill out the form. You’ll need to provide your VIN, car make, model number, year, and basic contact information.
3. Get $20. Your duplicate title fee is $20, so be sure to include that with your completed form.
4. Get the form notarized. Whether you’re the vehicle owner or not, the form needs to be notarized.
5. Send the form. Either drop the form off at your local DMV or mail it to any DMV office.

How to Contact the Nevada Department of Insurance

There are three ways to contact Nevada’s DOI.

• Website: https://doi.nv.gov/
• Phone number: 775-687-0700
• Mailing address:
  • Nevada Department of Insurance
    1818 E. College Parkway, Suite 103
    Carson City, NV 89706

According to CarMD, car repairs in Nevada cost 3 percent more than the national average at $395.85. That’s $251.99 for parts and $143.85 for labor, in case you’re wondering.

Auto theft exists everywhere, but Nevada has high rates compared to the rest of the country. The opposite is true for traffic fatality rates, however.

Car Theft

In Nevada, there are 336 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 inhabitants in a year, which is 27 percent higher than the rest of the country. However, Las Vegas seems to have an outsize influence on the theft rate, as it’s the only Nevada city with a motor vehicle theft rate over the state average. Rates are lower in Reno and Carson City, for example.

Traffic Fatalities

On the brighter side, Nevada has 133 percent fewer traffic fatalities than the rest of the country: 304 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

To learn more about car insurance in Nevada, read our car insurance FAQs below, or learn about car insurance in other states in our state car insurance guide.