When it comes to paying the premiums vehicle insurance can give you a very bad headache, especially if you have a costly vehicle to insure. And "costly" doesn't necessarily mean "expensive". You may ride a cheap car that will cost you hundreds of dollars more to insure than a large SUV. It may seem illogic at first, but you will have to understand the way insurance companies asses risk in order to find the perfect car to lower your insurance costs with.
Insurance companies analyze a set of elements regarding each car make and model before giving you a quote. It's not that insurance providers have prejudice against certain makes. Each car is analyzed and evaluated by how risky it is to insure. The factors that will influence a car's insurance rating include: passenger safety; damage and injury scores; theft rates; repair costs. These factors vary significantly between car types and within types as well. So let's look closer at these elements.
Passenger safety. It's evident that if a car has low passenger safety it will be costlier to insure. Why? Because the insurance company is more likely to pay for the injuries a passenger (or driver) will sustain in this car and they want to cover their risks respectively. So before you buy a new or used car, take some time to analyze its crash test scores and if they are low don't even bother buying it, no matter how cheap it may be. Besides saving your life you will also free yourself from high premiums with such a ride.
Damage and injury. Somewhat similar to passenger safety, this factor also analyzes how much damage the car is likely to deliver to another vehicle, its passengers or infrastructure. That is, if a car is quite big to ruin a concrete wall or total the other car it had collision with it is likely to be more costly to insure. That's quite often the other side of the coin of having a big SUV car that is safe for the people who are inside it.
Theft rates. Quite obviously, if the car is likely to be stolen in your area your auto insurance company will charge you more for insuring it. So if you are dreaming about a luxury car that you will have to hire a swat team to guard - forget about cheap auto insurance. Ask your insurance agent about theft rates according to car makes and models in your area and choose a vehicle that is very unlikely to be stolen if you want auto insurance quotes.
Repair costs. Different cars have different costs when it comes to repair. And the insurance company won't be quite happy to pay thousands of dollars every now and then for repairing your car at the body shop. If you want to find a car that is cheap to repair and doesn't needs frequent services you might want to ask a local repair shop for a little information. You can also check magazines and the Internet for a comparison of different car makes and models with respect to repair rates. Do this before you buy your car, or otherwise you will have both constant visits to the shop and high insurance rates.