The cost of owning a car falls into several categories. Among them are monthly payments to buy the car (few people pay cash at the start of their ownership). Fuel is among the highest costs. With prices at all-time highs, gasoline costs can be more than monthly car payments. The third large cost is car insurance. For drivers with particularly good records (free of tickets and accidents) who drive cars with many safety features, the cost of insurance can be well under $100 a month. Several models have insurance costs well above that.
For the model years 2017 to 2019, it cost insurance companies an average of $963 to insure a vehicle for one year. These costs directly affect how much drivers must pay to keep their vehicles insured. There are 25 different cars for which coverage costs $1,250 or more per year.
To determine the car with the highest insurance cost for insurance companies, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on insurance claim payments insurers made by make and model from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a nonprofit research organization funded by auto insurers.
One main factor driving up car insurance prices is the price of the car itself. More expensive cars tend to have more expensive parts and higher costs of repair. Faster and sportier cars also tend to have higher insurance costs because drivers of these vehicles often drive at higher speeds, which increases the chance of accidents.
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However, insurance costs do not depend only on the car itself. States require different levels of coverage for drivers, not to mention that drivers in urban areas have higher rates because car theft is more likely there than in other places. Young drivers also cost more to insure because of potentially reckless behavior and a lack of experience behind the wheel.
In determining the car with the highest insurance costs, we looked at the six types of insurance: collision, property damage, comprehensive, personal injury, medical payment and bodily injury. The model that is most expensive to insure has the highest overall average cost to the insurer per year. These data are for 308 vehicles of 2017 to 2019 model years sold in the United States. Average annual insurance payments account for both the frequency of accidents, as well as the average payment made by model.
The IIHS breaks down the data for models to sometimes include certain safety-relevant features, such as all-wheel drive and driver assistance technology. To avoid repetition, each model nameplate was listed only once, and the more expensive version to insure was listed. We also excluded those vehicles where a relative cost figure was not included by the IIHS for all six payout categories.
The current retail model price came from auto industry data resource Kelley Blue Book and represents the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the most recent model year. Some of the models on our list have been discontinued. In those cases, the most recently available resale value of a previous model year was listed.
The most expensive car to insure was the Tesla Model X electric 4WD. Here are the details:
- Annual average cost to insurer: $1,974
- Annual average collision cost to insurer: $1,389
- Type: Large luxury SUV
- Current model retail price: $91,190
Click here to read about all 25 most expensive cars to insure.
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