Insuring a Prius

I don't believe that guy did any research. Hybrids aren't exactly new as Honda & Toyota have been selling them for some 12 or 13 years. Here's an easy comparison everyone can do. Get a quote from your insurance company for a Prius & for another similarly priced car.

 

I pay a little over 120 a year more for the same coverage on my 02 than on my wife's 03 fully loaded with leather camry. Insurance agent said it was due to the high rate of them being totaled.

 

I believe the part about the fact that the parts are expensive. At least, I believe that's the excuse insurance companies use. I recently priced some cars on my insurance, and a 4 door 2012 jeep wrangler priced around $33K was going to be $100 a year less to insure than the prius. So, 2 years newer and 9K more on the sticker and it gets a lower rate.

 

I pay less for the Prius. Also because it is a Prius, I get a 20% discount on all vehicles. Essentially my Prius insurance is "free" because the cost of the insurance is less then the total discounts for all my other vehicles.

 

I pay a little bit less on the Prius (like $10/year) then I do on my 350z.

 

My insurance only went up $90 per half by replacing a 15 year old Accord with 300,000 miles.

 

My insurance went down going from a 2003 Baja to a 2012 Prius....

The best guess from my agent was that Prius drivers are more "cautious" drivers perhaps to the underwriters. The reason sport car owners pay more....

 

Go with Geico. They have pretty cheap Prius rates.

 

Well, from what I understand about the insurance bit is dependent on a few factors:

Cost of replacing/repairing the car. Prius will bump the price up on some areas due to the hybrid system and battery parts are probably the more expensive parts of the car that will need to be replace if the car is not completely totalled.

Age of the driver and driving experience - I believe it is still a demographic concern, as younger drivers are, statistically, more likely to be in accidents than older drivers, as well as experience.

Type of car - Rough profiling based on the type of car leans to personality involved in some cases, again a slight statistic driven profile that adjust rates.

Distance driven - This, I saw happen with my insurance with my car. Based on your annual distance, the rule of thumb being 12,000 miles, so you are averaging about 1000 a month, they use that as a mark. In my case, I average about 500 a month and that brought my insurance down about almost $100 for 6 month premium.

Your driving record - Premiums always go up or down based on your driving record. More tickets, higher risk, premiums go up. According to one insurance guy I spoke with, after 18 months from a traffic violation (Like speeding), with no other violations, your premiums will drop back to normal, but until then, it goes up a little because of the infraction. The more infractions, the higher the premium goes up.

Age of the car in general - Same insurance guy I was dealing with... He compared my father's car at the time, a 1980 Volvo against my 1996 Nissan Sentra. I could have gotten lower insurance if I was driving my dad's Volvo over my Nissan at the time. But again, not above mentioned, type of car also affects it, both were sedans, but some of the examples given here a Baja that is 9 years older than a 2012 Prius where the Baja is a compact SUV in comparison to a newer, expensive sedan. Some cars, such as SUVs, or even compact SUVs, also have statistical weights like safety concerns that will affect the insurance. While the Prius is more expensive than the 9 year old Prius, safety wise, the Prius is probably better than the Baja in some respects.

I'm no insurance person, this is purely from speculation on my part, but like I said for the Driving record part, that comes from experience as well as age as the Insurance person I spoke with was a friend of my father's.

 

The cost from switching out my 2000 Mazda 626 to my 2013 Prius four did cause my insurance to go up each month....it went up $1.53 per month. Not too shabby.

 

The article gave no reference points to validate the author's opinion. I find my Pri's have not been any more or less expensive than other vehicles I have owned - roughly about $650/yr.

 

My thought are scrambled also. I just bought my 2002 Prius and had to take out a new policy. For liability only it is only $16 less than my Full coverage insurance for my 2002 BMW 530i (a $49,000 car when new). It has to be the cost to repair/total versus other cars. I totally thought that liability would be $25/month or so for the Prius.
TomK

 

Edmunds True Cost of Ownership calculations confirm this, at least generally. Their estimates to insure a Prius II runs about $500/year more than to insure a base Camry.

I was a little bit surprised at how much insuring the PiP cost me - it was almost enough to tip the balance in favor of keeping my old car. It's not outrageous, but I didn't expect it.

 

"....For liability only it is only $16 less than my Full coverage insurance for my 2002 BMW 530i (a $49,000 car when new). It has to be the cost to repair/total versus other cars. ...."

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Liability covers does not cover damage to your own vehicle, only damages you caused to other vehicles in an accident. Maybe you should shop around?

 

Yep, I know that liability only covers other vehicles and not my own. If you saw this 2002 Prius you would know why as it is not a looker and has lots of character! No need to repair if damaged, the car only cost me $2300 and I am willing to take the gamble (whole car is a gamble as it is over 11 yrs old with 140,000 miles with battery situation possible) as it takes an accident every three years to pay off in carrying full coverage. Out of my FIVE vehicles the BMW is the only one that has full. Just thought that it would be cheaper for just liability.
TomK

 

When I went from a 2009 TDI Jetta to a 2011 Prius, my insurance was the same. When I replaced the 2011 with the 2012 PiP, my insurance went up about $200. Right now, it's paying off since the car was rear-ended a couple of weeks ago. My insurance is paying for everything, including the rental and is going after the kid's insurance for my $500 deductible.

 

My insurance went up $100/mo from my old 2002 Crown Victoria with only liability to my 2010 Prius with full coverage. I don't think that is too bad.

 

I've been using this insurance estimator below on Insure.com to estimate differences. Seems to show:

• for VA, Prius models about equal to Camry models ~=$1230
• for NJ, Prius $100 cheaper than Camry models at Prius ~= $1550
• for both NJ and VA, PiP about $50 more than Prius Liftback

Interactive tool: Compare car insurance rates for more than 2,400 vehicles | Insure.com

 

I don't know how accurate that is. I typed in 2010 Prius for DC and it said $1766. I pay nowhere near that for full coverage annually with $500/$250 comp/collision, I think $300k injury (or whatever that's called), rental car coverage, glass coverage, etc. Do you pay ~$1230 in NoVA?