When faced with the prospect of losing access to a vehicle for an extended time, millennial drivers in particular say they would rather go without social media for a week (50%), lose an extra hour of sleep each day (41%), and skip one meal a day (39%), according to a survey by Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

“Many drivers might not know it, but if they’re involved in one of the millions of auto accidents per year and their car needs to be repaired, the average repair time is two weeks,” said Mary Mahoney, vice president North American insurance replacement division for Enterprise. “What would you do without access to a vehicle for two weeks? And how would it make you feel? That’s a question we wanted to explore as a way to shed light on the importance of rental car reimbursement coverage – insurance coverage that pays for the cost of a rental when your car is in the shop. It turns out that drivers would go to great extremes to maintain access to a vehicle. But there’s a simple action they can take today to eliminate that risk. They can call their insurance agent to make sure they’re covered for rental car reimbursement.”

Only 32 percent indicated that they are “very confident” that they are aware of everything in their auto insurance policies, and fewer than four in 10 say they are familiar with the term “rental reimbursement coverage,” according to the survey. In addition, more than half of U.S. drivers (53%) say they do not read their entire policy before purchasing auto insurance.

Among millennials, one of the biggest barriers to obtaining rental car reimbursement coverage may be the fact that they view it as an “adulting” activity. And when it comes to adulting, nearly two out of three millennials say they procrastinate as often as possible. Additionally, a third (32%) of millennials say that adulting makes them feel exhausted, according to the survey.

Other findings from the Enterprise survey include:

    - More than half of millennials (52%) admit that if they lost access to their vehicle for an extended period of time, they’d be forced to beg their friends and family members for rides.

    - Nearly half (49%) of millennials say the ability to drive to work is the thing they value most about having access to a vehicle.

    - More than one-third (34%) of U.S. drivers say they drive an average of three to four places per day.

    - When asked how they would feel if they had to borrow a friend or family member’s car for an extended period of time, top responses among U.S. drivers were: “awkward” (51%) and “anxious” (35%).

    - Anxiety associated with borrowing a friend or family member’s car over an extended period of time also decreased with age: 45% of those ages 21-34 indicated they’d be anxious compared to 30% of those ages 45-54.

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