How the Age of Your Car Affects Insurance Costs
You may think that the age of a car has a lot to do with its insurance rates, but it doesn’t. There isn’t a rule that states that older cars are cheaper to insure than newer cars. Instead, it comes down to the factors that affect the car and the person driving it.
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Keep reading to learn what makes a car ‘cheaper’ to insure.
What’s the Make and Model?
The make and model of a car tell a lot about how much it will cost to insure it. For example, if you have an old sports car and a new sedan, the old sports car may cost more to insure. While it seems backward, it does make sense.
How will the driver of the old sports car drive? Chances are he will speed when given the chance and weave in and out of traffic. In other words, he may drive a little less carefully than the driver of the sedan with two kids in the backseat. That’s why the make and model of the car play such an important role in the cost of a car’s insurance.
What’s the Car’s History?
If you have an older car, chances are that many other drives owned that make and model at some point too. Insurance companies look back at the statistics of the car. Was this make/model stolen often? Is it a car that often gets vandalized? Is there high demand on the market for the car’s parts?
If this is the case, the older car could be more expensive to insure. People may be after it in order to make money. This puts the insurance company at risk of a claim, which typically means higher insurance rates.
How Safe is the Car?
It’s no secret that older cars are not as safe as today’s cars. This could work against you when insuring your car. If you were to get into a car accident in an older car, the risk of serious injuries is high. Today’s cars have many more safety features that help us to get discounts on our insurance because of the lower the risk of serious injury. In fact, some cars even lower the risk of accidents occurring at all with their lane correction features.
How Available are the Parts?
Is your car so old that no one carries the parts any longer? This could increase the insurance rates on it. If you have a claim and the body shop has to pay a lot for the parts, it could greatly increase the cost of your claim.
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What’s the Car’s Value?
Older cars are generally worth much less than newer cars. This does work in your favor when determining the cost of insurance. The insurance company determines how much it costs to replace the car and that’s what they base your premiums on. If you have an older car that isn’t worth much, you can save in that area, but you still have the above factors at play.
What’s Your Driving History?
Don’t forget, your own history plays a role in the cost to insure a car, whether new or old. If you have a poor driving history or you have a lot of past auto insurance claims, your insurance will be higher no matter the car you drive.
Who you put on the insurance will matter too. If you have a teenage driver, for example, you could expect insurance rates that are double what they would cost if you were alone on the policy. Driving an older car and having a teenage driver is a recipe for sky-high insurance rates for sure.
Whether or not an older car is cheaper to insure than a newer car really depends on the situation. Talk with your insurance agent about the car you want to insure to see where you stand. You may find that you will pay more for insurance on an older car just because of its lack of safety or its hard-to-find parts.
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