Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Car insurance from a different viewpoint

"Car insurance companies will offer somewhat lower rates to their customers simply by driving a car that will cost less to fix if it gets in an accident." http://www.cheapcarinsurance.net/car-insurance-rates-and-damage-susceptibility/

Makes sense! I never thought of it that way, since so much of my insurance is based on age, and location... I wonder how much of my 65 a month is based on what the car stats are for repairs?

"In setting insurance premiums, insurance companies mainly rely on factors that are not directly related to the vehicle itself (except for its value). They mainly consider driver characteristics (such as age, gender, marital status, and driving record), the geographic area in which the vehicle is driven, how many miles are traveled, and how the vehicle is used."
http://www.cheapcarinsurance.net/car-insurance-rates-and-damage-susceptibility-alt/

Ok, those two excerpts seem to conflict a little...

"However, some companies adjust their premiums for personal injury protection and medical payment coverage if the insured vehicle has features that are likely to improve its crashworthiness, or ability to protect occupants from injury or death, such as air bags. " http://www.cheapcarinsurance.net/car-insurance-rates-and-damage-susceptibility-alt/

Ah HA! I was right

For the stats on vehicles, so you can base a car purchase on what your insurance company is likely to charge relative to other purchases...
The luxury "large", and "very large" have the highest "Relative Average Loss Payment Per Insured Vehicle Year" usually twice to three times the ordinary cars

Lotus Elize : 435
Maserati Quattroporte 4dr : 429
BMW M5 4dr : 317
Nissan 350Z : 217

Dodge Caravan : 68
Saturn Outlook 4dr : 33
Jeep Wrangler 4dr : 33
GMC Acadia 4dr 4WD : 30

So boring cars are less paid out than exciting cars... logically.
Thanks to Scott at http://www.cheapcarinsurance.net/