When buying a new car, you are probably already taking the safety ratings into consideration. A car with a great safety rating will make you and other drivers safer on the road. But driving a safer car doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have lower car insurance payments. Many people buy a car with a higher safety rating just to get a break on car insurance, but that is not the only factor that insurance companies consider when calculating your rate. Here are some of the other, often more important, factors:
- How expensive the car is – When a car is more expensive, it is usually also going to cost more to insure. Why? Because if your vehicle is totaled, the insurance company has to pay for a new car. The higher the market value of that car, the more they will have to pay if your car is stolen or completely destroyed in an accident, so the more you have to pay.
- How expensive your car will be to repair – If you buy a model or from a brand that requires specialized parts, ordered from overseas, or can only be worked on be certain service stations with the right certifications, you might be looking at more expensive insurance payments, even if your vehicle is safer to drive than other vehicles on the road.
- How other drivers have fared with your make and model – Insurance companies do actually adjust your rate depending on what other drivers of your same make and model have forced them to pay out. For example, because the typical minivan driver is a parent driving their children around, they are in fewer accidents and are less expensive to insure than the average sports car, even if you are, objectively, a safer driver than that parent.
In order to be awarded an IIHS Top Safety Pick, a vehicle has to pass four crash tests that evaluate the strength of its roof, how well the restraints and seats protect drivers and passengers from whiplash, how well the driver and passengers are protected when 40% of the car is crashed, and how well the car protects its occupants when hit from the side. Even with one of these awards, however, you might not necessarily be seeing lower car insurance premiums.
