Originally Posted by
schwallie
Yea the two rentals in question will be Georgia and Kentucky.
It appears that KY has
these minimums:
All owners of motor vehicles in Kentucky are required to carry minimum liability coverage. This means liability coverage of $25,000 for all claims for bodily injury damages sustained by any one person and not less than $50.000 for all bodily injury damages sustained by all persons as a result of any one accident, as well as $10,000 for all property damage as a result of any one accident. Alternatively, a policy with a single limit of $60,000 is acceptable.
And Georgia has these requirements:
The minimum limits of liability required under Georgia law are Bodily injury Liability of $25,000 per person, $50,000 per occurrence and Property Damage liability of $25,000 per occurrence.
The above doesn't account for whether KY or GA, similar to CA, allow a rental car company to decline to extend its insurance coverage - which could be self-insurance - to the renter. You may wish to verify that this isn't the case in the states you'll be driving in.
In some states rental car companies may meet the requirements by being self-insured, meaning they do not have an insurance policy to extend to the renter as they accept the risk of paying out for third party liability claims.
You'd have to decide if you feel the rental company's insurance, assuming they extend protection to the renter in the state you're renting from, is sufficient to cover your potential risk. I wouldn't risk it, as a bad accident and hefty lawsuit could easily go over and above those limits.
Even if the rental car company has liability insurance on the car that does not preclude them, their insurance company (if they have insurance), or a third party from suing you personally.