Make and model information and their relation to car insurance pricing are often the subject of questions and theorizing among auto insurance shoppers and policy holders. To give a succinct answer, model and make do impact the price of coverage, just like driving records. But it is not a name so much as the features and the risk factors with any particular vehicle that make it either cheap or expensive to insure. In other words, one car of a certain make and model might most a lot more than another one of from the same model year depending on how they are equipped.
Car Model and Insurance Rates
The make and model of an automobile do matter in terms of the rates we pay for insuring it. Cheaper domestics cost less on average than exotic imports, for example. But we can only go so far with this generalization. That is because as we mentioned, two identical make and model cars can cost very different amounts to insure depending on their features, especially the absence or presence of safety and security features.
Adding features that make a car harder to steal make comprehensive insurance cheaper. Adding safety features that give it more stability in crash tests make collision coverage less expensive. As a car evolves and becomes less of a threat to the owners and to others, it gets cheaper to insure because we're not insuring against all that much anymore. The more time goes by and the older vehicles get, the cheaper they become as well, thanks to our good old friend, depreciation.
Automobile Features and Premium Prices
Make and model affect premiums in many different ways. For example, a certain company might make a sedan that has six air bags, more than any other car in its size category. For this particular model, the premium might be lowered because of those air bags and their tendency to improve crash safety.
But then there could be an SUV that's known as a rollover hazard. In spite of the fact that it's competitively priced with other vehicles in its class, this vehicle could be much more expensive based not so much on the make and model as on the features and characteristics that are peculiar to that make and model. Every vehicle on the road today has multiple sets of such characteristics, from crash test rating to theft rates to popularity among teen drivers. It is not always easy at first glance to discover exactly how a particular model is going to be to insure; sometimes it takes a little bit of extra investigation.
Choose Cheap Cars to Insure
If all else fails, get quotes on a policy with a brand or model you're interested in and find out what it might take to get into an insurance policy with that car before you buy. Choosing cheap cars to insure helps us immensely in terms of giving us the ability to deal with our other monthly bills (such as the car payment). It is not cheating, only planning ahead, to get prices on a policy for cars you're considering buying so you can compare insurance prices.
Make and model of a car do have great effects on the premium price of coverage. However, that exact effect is not always immediately discernable just by looking at the sticker price of the vehicle or checking out what it looks like. Get a better idea by getting free quotes. Use the form at the top of this page and request prices from local insurers for a realistic preview of insurance cost.
