Study: Top ten cheapest, most expensive vehicles to insure
Quotesmith.com has
published its annual findings on what it considers the ten most and least expensive vehicles to insure.
Vehicles in the former category include the Ford F-Series pickup; Honda Civic; and the Ford Focus (pictured). Among the
least expensive? Chrysler's Town & Country, the Chevrolet Cobalt (pictured), and the Dodge Caravan topped the list.
In fact, domestic automakers have a virtual lock on the 'Least Expensive' list, with Toyota's Corolla the only foreign
nameplate to slip onto the list (#10).
The company recommends prospective buyers to check coverage costs
when purchasing new vehicles as insurance is the third largest automobile-related expense (after loan
payments and fuel costs).
Top 10 Most Expensive Vehicles to Insure:
- Ford F-Series Pickup
- Dodge Ram Pickup
- Ford Explorer
- Honda Civic
- Chevrolet Silverado-C/K Pickup
- Toyota Camry
- Honda Accord
- Chevrolet Trailblazer
- Nissan Altima
- Ford Focus
Top 10 Least Expensive Vehicles to Insure:
- Chrysler Town & Country
- Chevrolet Cobalt
- Dodge Caravan
- Chevrolet Impala
- Ford Taurus
- Ford Econoline
- Jeep Grand Cherokee
- Chevrolet Malibu
- GMC Sierra Pickup
- Toyota Corolla
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Michael Karesh 1:22PM (3/27/2006)
The Cobalt suddenly looks a lot better. The insurance rates on my Mazda Protege5 are killing me.
But, wait a second, the "most insured" list looks very fishy. Checking out the not-so-fine print, both lists are entirely composed of the 20 best-selling vehicles. So these are only the most and least expensive to insure among the top 20. Which isn't all that helpful.
Time for some real differences. Whenever I buy a new car, I call my insurance company and get numbers, not just a relative ranking. Unfortunately, when I did this before buying the Mazda the person didn't run the numbers correctly...and then my wife got a couple of tickets, which somehow raises the rates for both of our cars.
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required 1:33PM (3/27/2006)
does anyone find it odd that the Chevy Silverado is in the top 10 most expensive while its sibling the GMC Sierra is in the 10 lowest to insure.
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Steve 1:34PM (3/27/2006)
I have a 2005 Altima SE with the v-6 and the insurance on it is quite reasonable
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Michael Karesh 1:42PM (3/27/2006)
As a rule, expensive to insure cars are not popular, and thus don't make it into the top 20 most popular cars. It's quite possible that insurance costs don't vary much between the F-series and the T&C.
A better way to look at this is as a single list of the 20 best-selling vehicles ranked in order of cost to insure. Just turn the first list upside down then append it to the bottom of the second list, so that the Corolla appears right before the Focus. Yeah, they might just be a few dollars apart, but they're on different lists.
At http://www.truedelta.com I'd do it differently. Lists like these distort perceptions rather than educate.
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Whydrive 1:43PM (3/27/2006)
The reason why the Civic and Camry are on the most expensive list is because of their popularity with thieves.
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James Fabin 1:46PM (3/27/2006)
One important piece of information missing here is how this data localizes. I live in Southern California and was suprised to find out that it was cheaper to insure a BMW 3 series over a Honda Civic (just due to how my insurer rates cars for my area). While this data is helpful, it is always important to check with your local agent and comparison shop for rates.
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Corey W. 1:49PM (3/27/2006)
This coming from personal experience, part of the popularity is also how easy they are to steal, especially Honda.
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the friendly grizzly 1:57PM (3/27/2006)
Required: Maybe the difference is: the Chevy line attracts more of the hot-rodders and customisers than the GMC line. That could be part of the reason for the difference. That, and GMC is in many places more the fleet vehicle driven by a repairman or similar, than a one-off purchase.
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WillDaThrill 1:59PM (3/27/2006)
I think that has a lot to do with theft rates too.
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Graham 2:04PM (3/27/2006)
While the ranking from most to least is probably accurate, the way this press release has presented the data is completely misleading. It's the top 20 selling cars, ranked in order of expense to insure. To call the top 10 the 'most expensive' and the bottom 10 the 'least expensive' is just wrong. I'm not sure if they are deliberately trying to publish misleading info or if they're just inept.
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PJ 2:09PM (3/27/2006)
The "top-20" qualifier indeed greatly reduces the value of this list. But the Cobalt is notably cheap to insure. I was considering the SS Supercharged as a near-future purchase several months back (I changed my mind), and the quotes I looked up were remarkably low. Even the supercharged coupe is cheaper to insure than a Civic or Corolla sedan--at least, in the Bay Area.
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Corey W. 2:27PM (3/27/2006)
Required/Grizzly,
Not sure about this but isn't the C/K an older/different model truck from the current Sierra/Silverado trucks. Silverado I think used to be just a trim, not a truck model. I maybe absolutely wrong on this... ;-)
This list is very "broad" they need to have model years, because ALL Camrys aren't going to be #6 for most expensive....etc.
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Peter G 2:37PM (3/27/2006)
Bottom line: call before you buy. One day my agent was bored so when I called him, he started quoting me all differenct kinds of cars just for fun. Oddle the worse we came across for me was a VW GTI at $3500 annually, meanwhile a Porsche Boxter would have only been $1200.
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robino 3:01PM (3/27/2006)
Insurance costs also depend (at least where I live) upon the number of vehicles you insure, the level of insurance, your geographic location, your age, your sex and your driving record. Some of these are within your control and some are not. One of the cars I insure is a 2006 Infiniti G35 6MT and it cost me approx $US700.00 per year for complete coverage and with a clean driving record. I doubt it would be the same for a 19yr old male in Toronto.
That being said, I have two comments re the lists. Firstly, it is my understanding that the expensive to insure list are vehicles that are popular and a lot of them are on the road. Therefore they are popular with theives as a source for parts. The Civics are popular with tuners I believe and again subject to theft. Secondly, I have a question concerning the pick-up trucks on the expensive to insure list. I travel for a living, logging 60-70000 miles a year in the western US. I come across a lot of accident scenes in my travels and an inordinate nnumber of them are single vehicle incidents involving trucks or SUV's. It has led me to conclude that these are unstable vehicles with poor handling and inadequate brakes. Actually, until the year 2000 I drove a new truck every year for 16 years as my business vehicle, and came to hate their poor handling dynamics as well as being uncomfortable on long trips. They were mostly Fords and Chevys and very unreliable. It was quite a revelation when I started driving Japanese vehicles. By the way, insurance costs don't seem as relevant when your brokedown in Armpit, Montana on Sunday morning with 400miles in front of you to get home.
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apollo322 3:33PM (3/27/2006)
There really is no rhyme or reason to this list. How come an f-150 is the most and a relatively similar pickup is the least?
Why would a Jeep Grand Cherokee be drastially different than a chevy Trailblazer? They are about the same size, price, etc.
Basing your insurance costs on a list like this is useless, so many other factors affect your costs than the type of car ( driving record, credit score, age, etc).
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scooter 3:59PM (3/27/2006)
This list is worthless.
What are the model years? Are they averaging all model years, using 2005 data, 2006? Isn't this list limited to the top 20 selling models?
Although, as someone who pays $1500 annually to insure a 2002 Civic, I tend to agree they are on the high side. One of the reasons I got the car was for its fuel economy compared to my previous car. Well, the higher insurance nearly wiped out any advantage there. Now I know to always get and ins. quote when car shopping.
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Fred D. 4:36PM (3/27/2006)
I pay a little over $600 a year for my 2003 Civic.
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Gunnar Heinrich 5:30PM (3/27/2006)
Where does the Bugatti Veyron rank in this report's findings?
http://www.automobilesdeluxe.blogspot.com
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Howard Kerr 5:56AM (3/28/2006)
I own a '92 Civic and a '92 Integra, and for some reason, the Civic is MORE expensive to insure. For crying out loud, the Civic even has an airbag...which the Integra does not have.
As noted, sometimes where you live can be more important than the model of car you buy, when it comes to insurance costs.
Finally, look at the list of the LEAST expensive to insure, basically it's a couple of minivans and sedans that are....real snoozers in the looks department.
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Car-la 10:45AM (3/28/2006)
Totally useless list. Most likely, the prices for insurance among the top20 vehicles will not be that far apart. This list would make sense, if it contained all the cars in themarket, as it could then help prospective buyers to search a car by insurance costs. In addition, it might have been helpful to add prices to compare (e.g. for a driver with 10 years of experience, no accidents etc.).
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