Cheaper Car Insurance Rates May Come with Costly Bills for Repair and Replacement

From the 2022 Subaru Forester Wilderness to the Jeep Wrangler Willys Sport, Insure.com has released its list of the 20 cars that are the least expensive to insure this year. As in past years, SUVs and CUVs remain the cheapest vehicles on which to obtain coverage. But vehicles that come with cheaper insurance due to accompanying technology may also come with higher price tags for repairs and replacements.

Photo by Michael Jin on Unsplash

The list sees Insure.com compare car insurance rates in all states for 3,000 different vehicle models. Insurance quotes are then collected from seven major insurance carriers before being averaged. Insure.com writes SUVs and CUVs continue to dominate the list because their loss frequency “tends to be much lower due to the driver risk characteristics of the most frequent drivers and owners of these vehicles.”

“Insurers consider the cost of repairs for a new vehicle and its general safety record as well when pricing the risk,” continues Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the Insurance Information Institute in St. Johns, Fla. “Individual rating factors also play a key role in determining your premium. In general, a cheaper new vehicle means your insurance will cost less than if you purchase a more expensive car.”

Some inclusions in newer vehicles, such as Advanced Drivers Assistance Systems (ADAS), allow for lower insurance rates as the assumption is that those systems increase safety. At the same time, however, those systems and associated cheaper rates could come with higher price tags in the event a repair or replacement is necessary.

For example, the least expensive vehicles to insure in 2022 come with ADAS technology such as lane departure, lane departure, collision warning, blind-spot monitoring and many more assistance systems.

“What is in your car can help with discounts. Safety features like airbags, lane departure, back-up cameras and automatic restraint systems are all factored into an insurance premium and typically get you a discount on your liability insurance,” Insure.com continues. “But the fancier your car’s technology, the more expensive it will be to repair or replace if damaged in an accident.”