Most of insurance buyers often forget that they are insuring a certain thing and it directly influences the final price of the policy. When speaking about auto insurance, the car you drive is the primary factor that affects your insurance costs and at certain moments the insurance company point of view of the car can be quite surprising to usual drivers. Insurance companies have internal charts and ratings, assessing how much it will cost you to insure any given car make or model. And the primary elements that set the car in this rating are the risk factor and the theft factor of this particular make and model. The risk factor relates to how the car will perform in an accident and how likely it is to end up in one, while the theft factor, eventually, deals with the likelihood of the vehicle to be stolen.
When a new car comes out, it is placed at a certain place within the rating as compared to other similar models and the insurance rates are set accordingly. And as experience with this particular model accumulates in the company's records, the model can be moved in either direction within the rating, making it cheaper or more expensive to insure. Of course, other things like your driving record and credit score also influence the cost of insuring your vehicle, but the car is actually the most important and crucial factor you will have to deal with.
In general, it will be more costly for you to insure sports cars, luxury cars and SUVs. Some companies rate SUVs differently because of their increased safety for the people inside, while others take in regard the fact that these vehicles are likely to cause more collision damage than others. Sports cars are much more likely to end up in a serious or even tragic accident due to their power and speed that is so tempting to be pushed to the limits. And luxury cars are usually the target of auto theft due to their price, and are more expensive to repair because of exclusive parts and costly service.
Car insurance experts state that the most attractive and non-expensive class of vehicles to insure are mid-class and middle sized cars. It is important that the car has good crash-test ratings and additional safety features installed, being safe in case of an accident. Small light-weight cars are cheaper to repair but they get damaged more easily and this may lead to serious injuries to those who are inside of it. The higher is the mass of your vehicle the less damage it will take in case of collision. That's why big SUVs are considered to be quite safe from this point of view.
It is good to see what car insurance rates you can get for different cars before you actually buy the auto. If the question of insurance price really concerns you then choose a vehicle that is cheaper to insure. And if the rates don't bother you much, just buy a car that you really like.