The Practical Car
If you are serious about getting a cheap car insurance quote and keeping your renewal premiums low year after year, you must consider the category that your vehicle sits in from an insurer’s perspective. This category is rated by a scoring system that means the car will sit in one of twenty groups. The lower the group that your car is in, the cheaper the insurance will be for you.The insurance grouping is generally based on statistics and historical data on key aspects like theft, likelihood of crashing, the cost for replacement parts, and the cost of a brand new replacement. This information is crucial to the insurance companies - and even if you have a brand new model of car, they will find a car of a similar specification to collate their data.
Choosing a car that has a low number of reported thefts and crashes, along with affordable, readily available parts from a well established, mass producing car manufacturer is going to equal a ‘sensible’ car choice - that is never going to make heads turn, but it is going to mean a low insurance group and more money in your pocket.
Unfortunately, as with everything, the devil is in the detail when it comes to selecting a car that sits in a low insurance group. It’s not just the make of the car, it’s also the specific model – as well as the additional optional extras that are included.
If your aim is to get the cheapest quote possible, always opt for the smallest engine size on the most basic of models.
The cars that currently fit into the absolute lowest insurance group and are available in the UK market today are the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 107 and Skoda Fabia.
Always bear in mind that any deviation from the standard specification of the car, will most likely lead to a higher premium – regardless of the car’s initial insurance group. So just because you bought a car that is in group one, if you modify it with bigger alloys, a new exhaust or even tinted windows – these will have to be declared on your policy and you will be even more out of pocket.
Remember that it’s not just the insurance premium you will be saving on if you select the ‘practical car’, as small cars will save you money on fuel due to their weight and smaller engine size, along with the likelihood of them being in the lowest category for road tax. Plus if you do decide to buy new, you have the added bonus that your do not have to MOT the car for the first three years.
Once you have made the first money saving step and purchased your sensible car, you are then ready to save on your policy cost by reading the information relating to the quote itself
