Does Your Car Model Affect Your Insurance Premium
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Can the particular car model you select change your insurance rates? You bet it can. There are actually several reasons why the specific choices you make at the car lot has have an effect on what you pay for staying on the road with liability insurance or in other parts of your policy.
Car Cost
It stands to reason that the more features and neat gizmos on a car will increase the car's insurance value, and therefore raise your car's insurance premium. The insurer is looking at what they would have to pay in claims situations, and every bit of value in the vehicle raises that theoretical payout. However, that's just the beginning of how an auto insurance company uses your vehicle data to get a risk rating and premium calculation.
Risk Assessment by Car Model
Another way your car model factors into your rates has to do with the ISO. This is not the same ISO that takes care of business standardization. The Insurance Services Office, operating out of New Jersey, provides a global clientele with specific data on risk assessments. The ISO classifies a specific car model according to all kinds of information like how desirable it is to thieves, and how likely it is to be involved in a collision. These complex algorithms go back to the auto insurance companies, who price your premiums accordingly.
The "Average Driver"
There's yet another way that the ISO and auto insurers value risk on vehicles: they get information about who is most likely to buy a certain type of car. That means if you purchase a hot new car that is usually driven by a young male (a demographic group with higher risk and insurance rates), you may be subject to those rates, even if you are not a young male. The "average driver" for a specific model often gets factored into policies.
What Can You Do?
For a driver who feels that he or she is getting taken for a ride with regard to insurance risk assessments, the best way out is to talk to the insurer about your specifics. The auto insurance world is an open marketplace. That means if you are not happy with your rates, you can go elsewhere. Give insurers specific information about your driving record and overall situation, and see if you can get some savings that way.
The above can help auto insurance buyers to realize how their car can influence what they pay.
