car insurance groups

seafarers_wife

how do insurance companies classify a car insurance group? ive just read another thread where a car is classed as group 3, so im assuming that the higher the group the higher the insurance?

is it something that most people actually look at before buying a car or do they buy and then deal with the insurance side of things? just a tad confused as looking at getting a 4x4 later this year and whilst the quotes ive done at the moment for one are ok dont want to buy one and get stung for insurance if i buy a say a group 30 (if it goes that high) instead of a group 20.

dogbot

Yes of course! Google Thatcham reasearch to find out more about car grouping and you can search their database to find out what car is in what group and so on.

It used to be that there were 20 groups, but this was clearly not adequate. There are now 50 groups (the 1-20 system is not used much, though some older insurance policies may use it) and also a few "terms" dictated by a letter after the group.

Thatcham rate a vehicle on crash performance (including how much damage they will do to people outside the car, in other cars or not), security levels, costs and times involved in crash repairs, performance etc and then new cars get put into groups.

It is worth using these as a guide - the lowest group the cheaper to insure BUT bear in mind that insurers can still re-group cars as they see fit. For example, Citroen Saxo's are one of the favourite cars of "boy/girl racers" and insurers may have bad claims experience, so while that car may be a certain Thatcham group, an insurer may decide to put it into a catagory or few higher for their own rating.

The problem you get is that in some motor car press and even car dealer materials you still get quoted the 1-20 group, but you can check on the thacham website.

A lot of 4x4 vehicles, being larger, are ok for protection of the occupants, but often they can do a lot of damage to a third party so are grouped higher. Some are also very theft attractive.

Also, if you are getting a car later in the year, then take head of other posts on this website at the moment - motor insurance rates are rising fairly quickly, so quotes you are getting now will be more expensive then you actualy buy.

seafarers_wife

brilliant, thanks for that. im looking at getting it at the end of this month so i dont think the insurance quotes will go up that much which is good. the cars im looking at are group 24 - 30 which is comparable insurance to my current car.

olly300

seafarers_wife wrote: »

brilliant, thanks for that. im looking at getting it at the end of this month so i dont think the insurance quotes will go up that much which is good. the cars im looking at are group 24 - 30 which is comparable insurance to my current car.

You can get a quote now and if you know the exact vehicle you are getting it should be valid until the end of the month as they are normally valid for 30 days.

Though I've noticed insurance premiums tend to go up a bit in October and then down from about 25th November.