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Ten years ago, "online car insurance quotes" meant that the agents you called had email addresses, and sent quotes to prospective clients that way, rather than a bundle of paper sent through the post office. Still, though, the process started with at least a voice-to-voice telephone conversation if not a personal appointment.

If a potential client wouldn't personally come in to the office for a meeting, most insurance agents, back then, wouldn't even consider giving them a quote. It used to be ridiculous to consider that agents wouldn't use their greatest strategy for obtaining customers.

That has all changed. Relationship-focused agents are more and more being replaced by price-focused, highly automated website sales. This sea change to the Internet serves the young and urban, the groups that tend to prefer the web over all other media. As companies turn their attention more to web sales, older and less technologically sophisticated customers will be pushed to the web as their agents become less and less effective in comparison.

With people becoming busier and busier, online car insurance quotes have steadily increased in popularity. Clients are now more willing to make big purchases without ever seeing a salesperson and more aware of the terminology involved and the options they can purchase. In short, clients demand more self-service than in previous years.

The result of all of this is that previously unknown car insurance providers have become household names almost overnight. Millions of customers seek out a free auto insurance quote and inexpensive insurance that the largest companies would not provide. The market leaders found that they had to play catch up because small companies had found a way to become major players.

Now that the huge market leaders have caught up, every insurance company in the US seems to offer online car insurance quotes. Only now, there seem to be more of them than ever before. This is, of course, not a bad thing. Competition is in the consumer's best interest.

The role of technology has changed in the search for discount car insurance, but because pronouncements of "big savings" and "free quotes" have become the norm, it is important to remember how long it used to take, just ten years ago, and spend a little bit of time comparing the offers. There are still great companies out there fighting for your business, looking to make a name for themselves.

Online car insurance quotes have come a long way in the past decade. What started as a way to get paperwork to consumers more quickly while still providing customer service has transformed into an online phenomenon. Free auto insurance quotes through traditional and discount car insurance companies have taken the salesperson out of the picture more and more. Consumers should still take the time to carefully compare quotes and customer service and remember that just because it can be done quickly, it doesn't mean that it should be a snap decision.