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Why is Prius insurance so damn expensive??

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by bachelors_student18, Nov 29, 2017.

  1. bachelors_student18

    bachelors_student18 New Member

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    Hey all, I hope you guys are well :)

    I have been looing around on comparison websites here in the UK and I have noticed that to insure the gen 2 Prius it can be so damn expensiv often costing £1600 upwards for the whole year.

    I do understand that yeah I'm a young driver who git my licence in July 2017 but the car that I am trying to insure isn't really made for racing. Furthermore, I do also get that the fact that the Prius has a 1.5 l 1500 cc engine but it's not exactly turbo charged. Even if I have a telematics box in the car, the insurance Is still way too expensive to afford. I currently have a Seat Arosa with a measly 1 l engine but that's a sports variant and that even costs less than the Prius!

    I would have thought by now that insurance companies and associated underwriters would have at the very least thought "hey, guess people trying to insure a prius aren't looking to go down a 30 road doing 50 mph."

    What are your guy's thoughts?

    I also quoted prices on a second hand 2011 Nissan Leaf but the insurance premiums would exceed the price of the car which would be pointless.

    @insurance companies what are y'all doing!?
     
  2. Kevin_Denver

    Kevin_Denver Active Member

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    I can't speak for the UK, but in the US, if you're a male in your teens or early 20's, insurance is expensive, no matter the car. Good job on shopping for insurance before you buy a car. I'd get quotes from at least 3 companies; when I shopped some were 2x the cost of others!

    I also don't know if it's an option in the UK, but here we can buy liability insurance only, which means that if I was at fault in an accident, my car would not be covered, only the car(s) I hit. This is often half the cost of "normal" insurance and usually worth the risk if you're driving a car that doesn't have much value. When I was in my early 20's I bought a car for $3k and the difference for full insurance would have been more than $3k over two years so I went liability only.

    If the Prius truly is more expensive to insure than other options, I would get a different car; don't know that there's a lot more to say. 'Round here minivans are often the cheapest to insure, even for young drivers, as they're usually driven by moms and dads driving families around, and so are some of the safest drivers.
     
  3. egg_salad

    egg_salad Active Member

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    It costs me more to insure my '08 Prius than it did for my '13 Chevrolet Sonic. Then again, the Prius cost more.

    And it's still under $70/month for full coverage.
     
  4. LEVE

    LEVE Member

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    It's the high cost of OEM parts and repair by the Dealer labor that drives up the cost of insurance for a Prius. It's not just the risk pool of drivers insured. Not every shop is capable of Prius repair.
     
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  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Maybe your rates will go down with a few claim-free years? That's how it works here, and I don't think they use age/sex demographics, but not 100% sure on that.

    We do get a discount for my being 65+. :whistle:
     
  6. Lucifer

    Lucifer Senior Member

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    Age and location seem to be the issue, trust me, don’t move here to save money on insurance, well, for a few years;)
     
  7. bachelors_student18

    bachelors_student18 New Member

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    Yeah, it's the same here. Being as young as I am (18), insurance seems to exceed the price of a car which can be frustrating especially if you're a student like me and money can be hard. I did shop for quotes but generally, they were in the 200's per month so I guess I ain't got much luck.

    It is an option, it's third-party only insurance here for us but I think that can be even more expensive at times.

    I do have a car ATM, a small city car (Seat Arosa) but it's really uncomfortable to drive sometimes and the fuel cost is pretty high seeing as though my commute to and from university is around 40 miles daily and with traffic.

    The general consensus for me seems to be a car that will be a less risk of liability to the insurers i.e. a crappy old one
     
  8. bachelors_student18

    bachelors_student18 New Member

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    The Prius I was looking to insure was the second gen classic. It didn't cost more than £1000
     
  9. bachelors_student18

    bachelors_student18 New Member

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    You rarely see a Prius in for repair. Even then, so many are in scrapyards that parts can probably be found for dirt cheap too.
     
  10. bachelors_student18

    bachelors_student18 New Member

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    Maybe? The car that I have now I don't like so much, it's small and on a 50mph road I feel really unsafe.

    They use age demographics here so being a young male, my insurance is comparably higher compared to a female who's the same age as me.
     
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  11. bachelors_student18

    bachelors_student18 New Member

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    Ha, few years and the running costs of my car now will have exceeded its value.
     
  12. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Go with just 3rd party property damage then - oh, and drive carefully. :D

    BTW. I'm assuming that third party personal injury cover is already mandatory with your registration or whatever.

    Third party property damage is usually way lower cost (often less than 1/4 the price) than full comprehensive insurance. You've got to back yourself to not have an at fault accident though. :)
     
  13. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    Top Gear (the good kind) did quite a bit of coverage on this about 7/8 years ago. The "Teenage Challenge" I think. Buy a car for 2500GBP and get it insured as a 17yo. All of them found that the annual insurance premiums were more expensive than the car itself.

    That has almost always been true. My first car I bought for something like $700 USD. Completely rusted out with over 200k miles on it. Cost me over $200/mo to insure the $700 vehicle with only basic coverage. Not full by any means.

    The Prius is usually a cheaper car to insure. And in my case not only was it much cheaper to insure ($180/mo for full coverage) but they dropped the rates for all my vehicles by 20% for the "hybrid discount". Funnily enough my pure electric car has no such "electric discount" but as long as I keep the Toyota hybrids, I get 20% off...
     
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  14. Prodigyplace

    Prodigyplace Senior Member

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    Please name your insurance company.
    I use The Hartford and my Prius premium is much higher than the 2008 Corolla or 2000 Tundra. No hybrid discount either.
     
  15. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    I use Travelers for automotive insurance. I believe Travelers, Farmers, and Geico all offer such discounts but I don't know what the differences are.

    I used to also get a discount for occupation and education level but that stopped a few years ago, not sure why. I still get my "engineers discount" in Canada though.
     
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  16. bachelors_student18

    bachelors_student18 New Member

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    Yeah, I may have to. I drive carefully anyway, it's nit like I'll be racing in a Prius lol.
    Generally, I would use the Prius as a commuter going to and from university so it would be good to save fuel since my current car is costing me 20GBP a week which can probably be significantly reduced with the Prius.

    They generally don't have things like 'hybrid discount' in the lovely UK. We have the 5K GBP subsidiary for electric cars but I haven't heard insurance companies giving eco-car drivers any benefits.

    It does suck a lot when it comes to young driver insurance, mainly because they tend to assume a lot that we're going to be zooming all over the place when in reality I don't have the time (or energy to).
     
  17. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    Student, does your insurance company offer a discount for completing a driver training program? More likely the insurance company assumes young folks don't have a lot of experience and a heightened belief in their invulnerability. I'm sure every one of us has a story about some dumb a$$ thing we did with or in a car.

    There are a few of us that will autocross with a Prius. I beat a 1996 Mazda Miata. (I don't claim that I'm good--I'm just happy to be "not last".)
     
  18. bachelors_student18

    bachelors_student18 New Member

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    Now that you point that out, some insurance companies will reduce your premiums if you have done a thing called "pass plus". You have to pay for it and the price is dependent on the driving instructor you pick.

    For me, I haven't done anything stupid in a car or with one lol. I've just stalled when I was just getting used to the car that I have now and maybe scraped a car when the other one was blocking me in. Though, nobody made a claim on me when I did scrape the car lol.

    If I'm last, oh . It'll be me who's getting the gas savings and not them.