Getting zapped for Prius Insurance

WOW that sounds good to me. I thought you had expensive insurance in the US. I'd be happy to pay those prices in UK£ for private insurance. For my commercial insurance I pay that a month

 

That's per 6 months and doesn't include liability coverage. Pretty normal to me.

 

How long did you keep your last car? Insurance gets cheaper and cheaper as your car ages and become next to worthless - at least in the insurer's eyes. Any new insurance rate hikes are not noticed by you because of the decline of the value of the car. Then you get a new car and it is sticker shock because the loan company want to insure the full replacement, and you get to pay for all the new insurance rate hikes.

That contributes to sticker shock.

I say your rates are pretty good. Certainly less than what I paid as a youngster 20 years ago. I think I paid $1000 back then.

 

What car did you own before the Prius? To my surprise, my insurance actually went down a little bit, despite the increased value of the Prius compared to my 12 yr old Ford Explorer. Your rates don't sound bad to me, but MA is known to have a high cost of insurance.

 

Usually, personal injury liability ($100k+) and similar items account for more than half of the total, and those shouldn't change unless you ask them to (or allow them to).

I went from a car with book value of $6K to a Prius @ $23K - but my insurance only went up about $10/month. I'm sure there are other factors too though - like your history, risk category, deductible, extended coverage, and so on. But compared to the other liabilities, the value of the car is a pretty small percentage - I would check to see if those might have gone up.

 

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Best way to find out is to get quotes from some other insurance companies. My previous car was a 4 year old BMW 3 series and the same coverage on the Prius was about $12 a year less. Even though the Prius was worth a bit more money than the previous car it was cheaper to insure because of a few extra safety features and mostly because of a much lower theft rate.

 

Why no airbag discounts?

Get competitive quotes. Raise the deductible if you can afford it. Put the savings in a reserve fund.

 

OP: clarify "significant" increase in dollars.
Ask your Insurance company what a 2010 would cost using the model you just replaced and your current deductibles and limits. If it is more than you like, start calling other companies.

Definitely consider raising your deductible to $500, if not $1000.

 

Mine went up about $5 per month. Not a surprise. I think car insurance is based on repair costs, car size, drivers record. My insurance company State Farm labeled my car small, I argued but it fell on deaf ears.

 

Hippie, you are paying for a quite a few TV commercials. If you have a good record, consider checking the rates at Amica. Keep in mind that they have been rebating 15 - 20% of premiums for years, although it is not a given. My cars are insured with Amex since they were the cheapest I could find at the time, but my home is with Amica, and the company is well thought of by many.

Erie might also be a company to call.

Rates vary quite a bit just by region, even before driver record is considered. So fwiw, I pay $20/month per car for $100k/$300k liability in New Mexico. No accident, no violation record, safe neighborhood.

 

My GEICO went up about $60 every 6 months with the Prius.. I was disappointed that the insurance industry isn't trying to get people "to go green." oh well... still like the car

 

What time period? 6 months or one year?

Why $250 deductible? That's wasting money.

Our rate is $415 per year for everything including $1,000,000 liability coverage. We have a $1000 deductible. We get discounts for a lot of stuff like good driving records, over 50 and married, multiple policies (3 cars and house), residential location, no kids on the policy, good credit, etc.

For our three cars ('10 Prius, '08 Lexus RX400h, '01 BMW 330Cic) we pay $1400 per year with the max liability limits and $1000 deductible.

 

GEICO is very expensive from my experience. I had them quote, but it wasn't anywhere near what I presently pay.

Tom

 

Allstate saved us BIG $$ on both cars and homeowners. They love low-risk customers like us and reward us with great rates.

 

Why would an Insurance company have any obligation to get people to "go green" any more than anyone else?

 

Farmer's has a discount for hybrids. I got good insurance from them when I switched houses a few years back and bundled the car insurance with them at that time.

Typically insurance goes up with a new car because of value, not because of the type of car.

 

AAA raised it about $280 from my 2007 Prius to the 2010.

 

To the OP, shop around. I've investigated what the my insurance premium increase would be for a Prius and was actually impressed. It was only going to be a few hundred more a year than what I'm currently paying for a 1993 Honda, given the difference in value between the two vehicles I thought The Prius was actually an insurance bargain. I compared a Honda Fit as well, and the Fit cost slightly more, although not enough that I thought it was prohibitive.

I have Amica and a long history with them...so maybe that impacts in the positive.