One small piece of good news on the HST front.  It appears that private sales of used vehicles will not be affected, and the tax rate will remain at 7% (higher rates for “luxury tax” will presumably still apply) of the purchase price.

Vehicles purchased from dealers will get hit with HST; currently they charge both taxes anyways.

HST will not affect insurance directly as in BC it is not currently subject to GST or PST.  It remains to be seen how it will indirectly affect rates through higher costs to the insurance companies.