What will global financial crisis mean for car insurance?

Happy New Year! I was asked by a guy (whilst trying to buy a kayak paddle) what I did. I said I was a 'strategic/creative consultant' for a car insurance company called Youi. After asking me what that meant he asked me how we were feeling about the coming year and what the impact of the financial crisis would be. I assured him that people will always need car insurance and that because we had a very real competitive advantage we would be okay. I also told him that luckily we were new and weren't sitting with massive overheads and huge staff numbers.

But maybe it's more than that...

Yes, we're part of a massive financial group but I do feel that we're the little hungry guys doing it differently to benefit consumers. We're not fat cats and do everything possible to do it all ourselves. (for instance, we don't have a huge fat cat ad agency...I do it...from strategy through to creative ideas and then I go off and direct the commercials myself.) I do have to catch myself when our Chairman arrives late and because our limited parking is first come first serve he ends up parking around the corner on the street. Can't see that happening in the big car insurance companies. Perhaps survival of this crisis is about being humble again and not thinking you're important. Let's just work smarter and respect one another....