Are you literally a  Sunday driver?  Do you  only take  your  car out on Sundays? Do you work from home or, like me, you take your bike to work and only use your car on weekends to get out of the city? Or maybe like everybody you’re trying to stay away from the pumps because of high gas prices. Well no matter what your reason, you can now toot your own horn, many car insurance companies offer low-mileage discounts. You got it, it’s based on how many miles you drive.

Car insurance companies that offer low-mileage discounts use a scale to determine eligibility and discounts. The less you drive, the less you pay. For example State Farm Mutual Insurance Cos., Travelers Cos. and Farmers Insurance Group reduce premiums from 10% to 12% for less than 7500 miles driven in the period of a year. With State Farm the discounts could be as high as 18%. A study by the Consumer Federation of America, based on 2005 rates, found that decreasing your annual mileage significantly can change your ranking on the scale and earn you a discount of 5% to 15%, and save you $47 to $142 a year, subtract that from the average $949 premium paid!

Two other companies have a different approach. GMAC Insurance from General Motors Corp. and Progressive Group of Insurance Cos. use onboard devices to measure the miles. Progressive goes a step farther too also take other driving habits into account.

MyRate program by Progressive offers discounts in Minnesota, Michigan and Oregon as well as six other states. The discount program can range form 5% to 25%. As their customer they require the onboard installation of a small device on the diagnostic port of your vehicle. Once the device is active the information is downloaded to your home computer and at regular intervals sent to Progressive.

Since 2007, GMAC has offered low-mileage discounts in 34 states. Discounts on premiums range from 54% if you drive less than 2500 miles and 14% if you come in under 15000 miles a year. In addition there’s an automatic 11% discount. In order to establish the number of miles driven, your car must be equipped with Onstar and you must agree to submit monthly odometer readings to your insurer.

No one is saying to be carless but now you know that reducing the use of your car is not only an environmentally sound move but also a cost effective one. So go ahead and use those legs, tune up that old bike, get on the bus Gus or carpool.