Auto-insurance spending

The amount Americans pay for auto insurance has been slowly declining, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

The decline comes mainly from safer vehicles, diminished tolerance for drunken driving, antifraud efforts, and competition among insurers. Such factors drove down overall rates by 2.8 percent in 1999.

But, how much Americans spend on auto insurance for each vehicle lags the overall decline in rates because so many people have bought new cars in the past two years, says an institute spokesperson.

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