Car Insurance Groups

If you want to save some money and pay less on car insurance, you should really look into ways of getting a cheaper car insurance premium. Seriously, who doesn’t want to save money each month? It’s important to realize that that new shiny sports car, may end up costing you a lot in the end.

Let’s break down how car insurance groups are formed:

  1. A bunch of big wigs sit down and set the insurance rates. This is called the Group Rate Panel.
  2. This panel includes the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Lloyds Market Association (LMA).
  3. The panel meets each month at a swanky hotel conference room and recommends an insurance group for each new passenger built to UK specifications.
  4. 70% of the information used by the panel is based on research provided by the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre (Thatcham).
  5. The panel assign cars into one of twenty groups. Cars in the highest groups are usually made up of high performance models, which tend to cost the insurers the most in claims.
  6. Insurers then consider all the recommendations and make their own groupings. Thatcham has recently introduced a new set of fifty groups.

Whew! That’s a lot of big wigs figuring out how much you pay to insure your car! The prices are based on how much damage and parts would cost to fix the car, so the new shiny cars will cost a lot more.

The groups are divided into these sections:

  1. Damage and parts cost – Covers the likely extent of damage and the cost of parts to repair.
  2. Repair costs and times – The longer it takes to repair a car, the higher the costs and the greater likelihood the rate will be higher. Different paint finishes on modern cars are an important factor to take into account.
  3. New Car Values – The price of a new car is taken into account. Often, the more expensive the car, the higher the cost of repairing and replacement.
  4. Parts Price – A standard list of 23 common parts is used to compare the cost of parts.
  5. Car Performance – Acceleration and top speed are important factors. Insurers know from claim statistics that high performance cars often result in more frequent claims.
  6. Car Security – Features like high security door locks, alarms, glas etching, coded audio equipment, can all have an impact on the cost of insurance.
If you want to get a quote for car insurance search for a free quote here.