How Does Car Make and Model Affect Insurance Rates?

Last Updated on September 28, 2026 by James Shaffer

Your car’s make and model can have a meaningful effect on how much you pay for auto insurance. Insurers consider the vehicle itself because different cars have different repair costs, values, theft rates, safety equipment, performance characteristics, and real-world insurance loss histories.

That does not mean one brand is always expensive or another is always cheap to insure. Rates can vary substantially between models and even between different versions of the same model. Your vehicle is also only one part of the calculation: your driving record, location, coverage selections, deductibles, mileage, and other rating factors can all affect the final premium.

How Do Car Insurance Companies Determine Your Rates?

Auto insurers estimate how much it is likely to cost to insure a particular driver and vehicle. Although each company uses its own approved rating system, New York insurers can consider factors such as the type of vehicle, the driver’s age and experience, mileage, geographic rating territory, driving history, and other permitted characteristics.

The New York Department of Financial Services notes that insurers classify drivers using factors that include age, geographical location, mileage, and type of vehicle. Your driving history, age, and where you live in New York can therefore affect your rate along with the vehicle you drive.

Drivers and vehicles associated with higher expected insurance losses generally cost more to insure. However, being considered a higher-risk driver is different from simply owning a vehicle that costs more to repair. Your premium reflects multiple rating factors rather than one simple measure of risk.

Why Does Your Car’s Make and Model Affect Insurance?

Vehicle-specific insurance costs are based partly on loss experience. The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), publishes insurance loss results by make and model covering collision, comprehensive, property damage liability, bodily injury liability, personal injury protection, and medical payments.

Those results show why broad rules such as “all small cars are expensive to insure” or “all SUVs are cheap to insure” are misleading. Claim frequency and claim severity can differ significantly among individual vehicles, even when they belong to the same general size or vehicle class.

Vehicle Factor	Why It Can Matter	Coverage Most Directly Affected
Vehicle value	A higher-value vehicle can cost more to repair or replace after a covered loss.	Collision and comprehensive
Repair costs	Specialized parts, electronics, sensors, labor, and calibration can increase claim severity.	Collision and comprehensive
Theft losses	Models with unfavorable theft experience can generate higher comprehensive losses.	Comprehensive
Crash and claim history	Some models generate more frequent or more expensive insurance claims than others.	Multiple coverages
Performance	Powerful or specialized vehicles may have different loss patterns and replacement costs.	Multiple coverages
Safety and anti-theft equipment	Qualifying equipment can reduce losses or trigger New York insurance discounts.	Varies by feature and coverage

What Types of Cars Can Cost More to Insure?

There is no category of vehicle that is guaranteed to have the highest premium for every driver. However, some vehicle characteristics can lead to higher insurance costs. Our guide to the most expensive cars to insure explains this in more detail.

Expensive and Luxury Vehicles

Higher-priced vehicles generally cost more to insure for physical damage coverage because an insurer may face a larger bill if the car is damaged or declared a total loss. New York DFS specifically notes that premiums for collision and comprehensive coverage are based on the expected cost of future claims and that higher-priced vehicles generally cost more to insure.

Luxury vehicles can also use costly body panels, lighting systems, cameras, radar units, electronic components, specialty materials, and manufacturer-specific repair procedures. Even relatively minor damage can therefore result in a substantial repair bill.

Sports and High-Performance Cars

Performance models may have higher insurance losses than more conventional versions of a vehicle, but you should not assume every sports car receives the same insurance treatment. Insurers can consider the loss experience associated with the specific vehicle, and higher-performance trims can differ significantly from a base model.

High-performance vehicles may also cost more to repair or replace because of specialized engines, brakes, wheels, suspension components, bodywork, and other equipment.

Vehicles With High Theft Losses

A vehicle’s theft history can affect the cost and availability of physical damage coverage. New York DFS maintains guidance on vehicles that can be difficult to insure and notes that insurers may be reluctant to cover certain vehicles because of unfavorable loss experience, expensive or difficult-to-find replacement parts, or high theft records.

Comprehensive insurance generally covers a vehicle when it is stolen, subject to the terms of the policy and deductible. A model that generates unusually high theft losses can therefore present a different comprehensive risk than a model with relatively low theft losses.

Newer and Higher-Value Cars

A newer car is not automatically more expensive to insure in every situation, but a higher vehicle value can increase the cost of collision and comprehensive coverage. If a nearly new vehicle is badly damaged or declared a total loss, the insurer may face a larger covered loss than it would with a lower-value older vehicle.

Modern vehicles can also contain expensive cameras, radar sensors, headlights, displays, and driver-assistance hardware. Damage to a bumper or windshield may require not only replacement parts but also recalibration of safety systems.

On the other hand, newer vehicles may have crash-avoidance equipment that reduces the frequency of certain claims. IIHS and HLDI research has found that some driver-assistance technologies reduce claim frequency even though vehicles equipped with those systems can be more expensive to repair when a crash does occur.

Different Trim Levels of the Same Model

The exact version of your vehicle can matter, not just the model name. A base model and a high-performance or luxury trim may have different values, engines, wheels, electronics, safety technology, and repair costs.

Insurers collect detailed vehicle information, including the year, make, model, and Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). Because the VIN identifies the specific vehicle configuration, you should use the exact vehicle you are considering when requesting an insurance quote rather than assuming every trim of a particular model will cost the same.

Are Small Cars More Expensive to Insure?

Not necessarily. Vehicle size by itself does not determine whether a car will be cheap or expensive to insure. The more useful question is how a particular make and model performs in real-world insurance losses.

HLDI data show considerable differences in claim frequency, severity, and overall insurance losses among individual cars, SUVs, pickups, and vans. Even two vehicles in the same size class can produce very different insurance results.

For that reason, you should not choose a midsize vehicle simply because of a general assumption that midsize cars are always cheapest to insure. Get quotes for the specific vehicles you are considering.

Do Safety Features Lower Car Insurance Rates?

Some safety and anti-theft features can reduce insurance costs, but the effect depends on the feature and the coverage involved. New York requires insurers to provide certain discounts for qualifying equipment and driver-safety programs.

New York DFS identifies required discounts associated with qualifying anti-theft devices, anti-lock brakes, daytime running lamps, passive restraints, and certain other equipment. You can review current information through the New York Department of Financial Services insurance discounts guide.

Our guides to car insurance discounts for safety features and anti-theft device discounts explain these savings in more detail.

How to Check Insurance Costs Before Buying a Car

The best time to find out that a vehicle is expensive to insure is before you buy it. Insurance can meaningfully change the long-term cost of owning a car, so it makes sense to include premiums in your shopping budget.

Get Quotes for the Exact Vehicle

Ask insurers to quote the exact year, make, model, and trim you are considering. If you already have the VIN, provide it. This reduces the chance that you are comparing a generic version of the vehicle with one that has substantially different equipment or value.

New York DFS specifically recommends obtaining an insurance quote before purchasing a new vehicle. This is particularly useful for expensive, high-performance, theft-prone, or unusual models that could cost substantially more to insure than another vehicle on your shopping list.

Check Real-World Insurance Losses

IIHS and HLDI are useful resources when comparing vehicles. HLDI publishes insurance loss information for hundreds of models, allowing you to see whether a particular vehicle has historically produced collision, comprehensive, injury, or liability losses above or below the average.

This is different from a crash-test score. Crash tests tell you important information about occupant protection and crash avoidance, while insurance loss data show what has actually happened in insured claims.

Compare the Same Coverage With Multiple Insurers

Insurance companies do not all price the same vehicle identically. One insurer may have more favorable loss experience or a different rating approach for a particular model than another.

Get quotes from several companies and keep the liability limits, deductibles, collision and comprehensive coverage, and other options consistent. Otherwise, a cheaper quote might simply provide less coverage.

If comparing several companies yourself becomes overwhelming, an independent insurance agent or broker can help you obtain quotes from multiple insurers.

Other Ways to Keep Your Car Insurance Costs Down

Your vehicle matters, but you do not need to choose a car based on insurance cost alone. There are other ways to control your premium.

• Maintain a safe driving record and avoid chargeable accidents and violations.
• Ask about all discounts for which you qualify.
• Compare quotes periodically rather than assuming your current insurer remains the least expensive.
• Consider whether a higher collision or comprehensive deductible makes sense for your finances.
• Make sure your insurer has accurate information about your mileage, garaging location, vehicle, and drivers.
• For an older low-value car, consider whether continuing to pay for collision and comprehensive coverage makes financial sense.

Your vehicle is only one piece of your premium. The combination of the car, the drivers, location, coverage choices, and insurer determines what you ultimately pay.

The Bottom Line

Your car’s make and model can affect your insurance rates because insurers see different claim costs among different vehicles. Vehicle value, repair costs, theft experience, safety and anti-theft equipment, performance, and historical insurance losses can all play a role.

Avoid relying on broad assumptions such as luxury cars always being the most expensive, small cars always costing more, or newer cars always costing more. Insurance losses can vary significantly from one model to another. If you are deciding between vehicles, getting insurance quotes for each one before you buy is the simplest way to see the real difference.

FAQs on Car Make, Model, and Insurance Rates