The cost of operating a passenger vehicle seems to go up every year. According to the AAA brochure Your Driving Costs 2010 the national average cost to operate a new car ranges from 37 cents to 93 cents per mile depending on your average annual miles traveled. These days, high gas prices and the price increases of the vehicles themselves seem to get all the ink, but insurance costs represent a significant portion of the operating costs too. Again, according to the AAA brochure, insurance costs run around 7 cents per mile, which is 8% to 19% of the total cost. But this is for the average car; many things determine the cost of an insurance premium, and your choice of vehicle can have a large effect.

People driving high performance cars with lots of horsepower are tempted to drive fast, and tend to get into more accidents. Expensive cars are more costly to repair, and large cars tend to cause more damage (and injuries) to the vehicle they collided with. Large pickup trucks, vans, and SUVs cost relatively less to insure due to their sturdy steel frames and lower repair costs on average. On the other hand, drivers of small cars suffer more injuries (probably because they got hit by that giant SUV or the Ferrari going 150 mph). All of these factors (and more, including the driver’s history and experience, annual mileage, and where the car is driven) are taken into account when an insurance company decides what premium to charge.

The AAA Hawaii AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH CENTER (ARC) undertook an analysis of premiums available to the AAA’s members in Hawaii for popular car, truck, SUV and van models (those with national sales in 2009 over 1000 units). We calculated premiums for a typical driver (so the difference in premium would be reflective of the vehicle) with the following characteristics:

• Safe Driver Discount
• Paid in Full Discount
• Primary Operator
• Prior Insurance Discount
• 5 years of Membership Longevity
• ZIP Code 96800
• 7,500 Annual Miles
• 100/300/100 BIPD Limits
• 30 PIP Limit
• PIP Deductible
• 100/300 UMBI Limits
• Rental Reimbursement ($30)
• 500 COMP & COLL Deductible
• Single Vehicle Policy
• Anti-theft and Airbag Discounts

We divided the results into vehicle categories including passenger cars, pickup trucks, SUVs and minivans. The analysis shows a wide range of premiums: from $782 (Kia Soul and Nissan Cube) to $1865 (Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG AWD). A wise consumer can save significantly by comparing the insurance premiums for a variety of vehicles that meet their needs. The following tables provide the least and most expensive vehicles to insure for these groups using 2010 AA Hawaii insurance rates for 2010 versions of the vehicles.

Passenger cars: sedans, coupes, convertibles, and wagons

The least expensive cars to insure are:

The most expensive cars to insure are:

Pickup Trucks

The least expensive pickup trucks to insure are:

The most expensive pickup trucks to insure are:

Vans

The popularity of vans has waned over the last few years and a number of manufacturers have stopped producing so have reduced the number of variants they offer. Since the field is so small, we only list the 3 least and most expensive vans to insure.

The least expensive vans to insure are:

The most expensive vans to insure are:

Most and Least Expensive to Insure – Hawaii
AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH CENTER
08/27/2010