Car Insurance Groups Explained

What are Car Insurance Groups?

Car insurance groups provide a lot of confusion for motorists. It is easy enough to research what kind of cars are in which car insurance groups in order to keep insurance costs low, but why are the various makes and models of cars placed in groups and what criteria are those groups based upon?

Although you insure your car, did you know that if your car is written off or stolen, your insurance company payout will be based on the value of your car at the time of the accident or theft, NOT the value when you bought it?

Believe it or not, the answers to both questions are the same. There are a number of factors that classify every single model of car and place them squarely in certain car insurance groups.

The following are the criteria used to classify each into one of twenty groups, which determines your premium:

• How much damage will be caused to the car in a run of the mill accident and how much it will actually cost to repair the car itself in terms of parts.
• How easy it is to repair the car after an accident, including how long mechanics will be working on it and how complex the design of the bodywork is in itself.
• The total cost of the car to replace if the original is written off within the first year.
• The availability of parts and how long it will take to get a hold of those parts
• The likelihood that the car will be involved in an accident, taking into account the top speed and general performance.
• The system installed in the car as security, including locking, alarms, immobilisers, ID numbers, wheel locks and so on.

All of the above count towards car insurance group allocation in differing weightings. It is the weighting that determines the cost of the premiums for the individual cars. With this in mind, you can make a good guess as to how much it would actually cost to insure the car of your dreams!