Lifestyle & Money

What are the cheapest cars to insure in the UK?

Editor

If you are looking for a car with cheap insurance in 2022, here’s what you should be looking for!

Introduction

It is currently a legal requirement to have insurance for your car in the UK.

This is potentially one of the most significant bills you will have over the course of a year and one thing that you very rarely feel like you are seeing anything for it!

The Association of British Insurers grade cars by assigning them a rating from 1 to 50. So, the same car model can vary between groups depending on what kind of trim level and included equipment it has when the insurance group is assigned. Premiums will also be tailored to reflect different factors based on age and value!

Regardless, car insurance is there to keep us, car drivers, from having to shell out masses of money in the case of an accident for repairs and replacement vehicles,

Apart from it being a legal requirement to drive on the roads of the UK, it gives us the assurance that if something was to happen, we would be covered.

Car insurance is variable, and it runs on the onus of risk and vehicle statistics, so the more expensive the car is to initially insure, the more risk has been applied to the underwriting and the possible layout of the insurance company in the case of accident or incident.

When looking for a car, more often than not, you are looking to have a vehicle that is also cheap on insurance, as this needs to be factored into your costs upon purchase; but how do we know which cars are the cheapest to insure?

Let’s have a look at some of the factors about a car that influences the price of the insurance.

Performance

This is something that determines your base insurance, and it will depend on the size of the scale of performance you have in your vehicle.

For instance, if you have a 1 litre Kia Picanto, for example, versus a 4 litre Jeep, you can well imagine that the performance of the Jeep is going to ultimately outweigh the Picanto, therefore will be scaled as more risk for insurance.

This makes it more expensive to insure.

So if you are looking for a relatively cheap car to insure, you will be looking at the lower end of the car’s performance range of vehicles, which tend to be small and suitable for popping into town, short school run, and dotting around the city.

Some good examples of this type of car are:

  • Kia Picanto
  • Kia Rio
  • Nissan Micra
  • Seat Ibiza
  • Skoda Fabia

Safety Technology

Here we are looking at the number of safety features your car has to keep everything as safe as possible and what those things are.

For instance, a car that only has a factory-fitted standard alarm system as the only safety feature may be more expensive to insure versus a vehicle that has everything safety orientated, that has everything from an in car camera to total 360-degree proximity anti-theft devices.

While any security feature on a vehicle is better than none, insurers will be looking for the number of features that enhance the security of that vehicle that reduces the lending risk for them, as there is a reduced chance of the insurance company having to payout.

Security

Insurers will base their insurance risk and quote accordingly on the security of your vehicle that you wish to insure.

While this seems like an obvious point, insurers will look at all the security features or information there is about your car during the underwriting stage to assess the risk of the potential loss that might be put against a claim of theft or intentional damage caused.

For instance, your car will favour more positively if the security features and information is high, such as:

  • Alarm systems
  • Immobilisers
  • Tracking systems
  • Additional features such as steering or wheel locks
  • If the vehicle is stored overnight on a public road or secure garage

All of these things can influence the insurance quote of your vehicle. Obviously, the more security features, the better and cheaper it may be.

Cost of repairs

This is a significant point for insurers when gauging which group to place cars in for insurance purposes.

If the car was to need repairing due to an accident or incident, the insurers would have to lay out for this (if it was within the remit of the policy for you). The price of the repair, parts, and labour, would all be considered.

If, for instance, it was a car that had parts that were not readily available, as in they may need to be imported or the repair is notoriously tricky for a particular vehicle, the repair may be higher. Therefore the insurance may be higher to compensate for that.

Other Considerations.

When you are looking for the cheapest cars to insure in the Uk, you can find that there are plenty more factors that figure out the insurance cost.

We will just go ahead and list some important ones!

  • The age of the care
  • The condition of the vehicle
  • If it has had any previous category write off markers
  • The fuel type
  • The size of the engine
  • Your personal driving circumstances

Not only is the insurance quote you receive for your car weighted on many aspects of the car, but it is also weighed on your driving credentials, as this gives the most holistic underwriting picture to the insurers so they can offer the best cover for both parties.

Conclusion

Overall, we must understand that any insurance quote you receive will be weighted on the amount of risk applied to every specific insurance offer, car, and driver.

Some of the cheapest cars to buy are the ones that are eco-friendly, full of security and safety features, and minor, which is no surprise, really!

However, suppose you personally have driving convictions, points on your license, or some other risk factor such as heart problems. In that case, you may find this insurance quote on an otherwise cheap car to insure significantly higher for you and your circumstances.

Insurance is weighted on risk, so do everything you can to ensure that your risk factor is as low as possible for the best insurance quotes.