In days past, before the Internet came along, people only dealt with their local insurance agents when trying to find auto insurance. You could only rely on their quotes and advice when trying to compare auto insurance policies. Maybe you went to two local agents or not, but nonetheless your options were limited.
Now a days with the Internet, shopping for affordable auto insurance is ridiculously easy. Just login on to any one of thousands of sites dedicated to providing car insurance quotes, and you will be on your way in no time. Rather than going to each site one by one, make use of one of these comparison sites to speed up your search. You will still get quotes from GEICO, Progressive, etc with a quote aggregator.