>Why is the Toyota Prius expensive to insure? While contemplating a new car
>purchase this fact has come to my attention (this is in the USA, I think
>I've heard other places the Prius is cheap to insure).
>Below you can see the Prius is near the very top of all cars in the general
>class of smaller 4-door sedans.
>Edmunds.com total cost of ownership, first year of insurance:
>$522 08 kia rio (!)
>$497 08 Prius
>$393 08 VW Jetta
>$384 08 Toyota Corolla
>$332 08 Mercury Milan
>$323 08 Honda Fit
>$179 08 Chrysler Town and Country
>$168 08 Chrysler PT Cruiser
>I did not rely on these figures alone but have been checking my prospective
>cars out with various insurance companies, including Geico, my current
>company (not Geico) and a couple others.
>While all these companies had some different ideas about cars in the middle
>of the list, with significant variations, **they all agree** that the Prius
>belonged near the very top for most expensive cars to insure (btw, the kia
>as well seemed to consistently do extremely poorly in this comparison).
>And the difference was *significant*, similar to the above edmunds listing.
>I would have though the Prius would be relatively cheap to insure, so this
>seems quite irritating. It has anti-theft technology built-in, it is a
>"family car" largely, it is relatively slow and hence noone is going to buy
>it to drive it fast at all, etc etc.
>Of course the high insurance detracts from the long-term money saving
>appeal of the car.
>Anyone know why it's so expensive? The only valid reason I can think of
>might be high resale value, leading to high replacement cost value, but
>frankly I don't really believe that because other cars that go for more,
>like that Town and Country up there, are very cheap to insure. Of course
>I've also learned that minivans are about the cheapest vehicles on earth to
>insure...
>Anyone know more about this phenomenon? Are people out here generally
>aware of this? Anyone think of any aspects of the car that would lead it
>to have much higher rates?
My cousin the insurance agent gave me an answer that probably fits
your case. Insurance companies go by two major factors when
determining rates. First is how much it costs to repair the 'average'
accident damage, and 2nd is how badly passengers are injured in
accidents. He told me that over 50% of Prius involved in what would be
a moderate collision in another vehicle are total losses because
repair costs exceed book value of the vehicle. Any damage to the
$,000 battery pack requires replacing it. Even if it's not directly
hit in the collision cell terminals crack and cause problems. Add in
substatntial body damage and it's cheaper to junk it.
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>purchase this fact has come to my attention (this is in the USA, I think
>I've heard other places the Prius is cheap to insure).
>Below you can see the Prius is near the very top of all cars in the general
>class of smaller 4-door sedans.
>Edmunds.com total cost of ownership, first year of insurance:
>$522 08 kia rio (!)
>$497 08 Prius
>$393 08 VW Jetta
>$384 08 Toyota Corolla
>$332 08 Mercury Milan
>$323 08 Honda Fit
>$179 08 Chrysler Town and Country
>$168 08 Chrysler PT Cruiser
>I did not rely on these figures alone but have been checking my prospective
>cars out with various insurance companies, including Geico, my current
>company (not Geico) and a couple others.
>While all these companies had some different ideas about cars in the middle
>of the list, with significant variations, **they all agree** that the Prius
>belonged near the very top for most expensive cars to insure (btw, the kia
>as well seemed to consistently do extremely poorly in this comparison).
>And the difference was *significant*, similar to the above edmunds listing.
>I would have though the Prius would be relatively cheap to insure, so this
>seems quite irritating. It has anti-theft technology built-in, it is a
>"family car" largely, it is relatively slow and hence noone is going to buy
>it to drive it fast at all, etc etc.
>Of course the high insurance detracts from the long-term money saving
>appeal of the car.
>Anyone know why it's so expensive? The only valid reason I can think of
>might be high resale value, leading to high replacement cost value, but
>frankly I don't really believe that because other cars that go for more,
>like that Town and Country up there, are very cheap to insure. Of course
>I've also learned that minivans are about the cheapest vehicles on earth to
>insure...
>Anyone know more about this phenomenon? Are people out here generally
>aware of this? Anyone think of any aspects of the car that would lead it
>to have much higher rates?