Car insurance group

Do you know what car insurance group your vehicle falls into? Or, if you are about to invest in a new car, do you know how the decision you make could alter your premiums?

In total, when new cars are manufactured, the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre performs a series of checks before assigning the new release into one of 50 groups, in a system known as Thatcham. The greater the group number of a categorised car, the higher the likelihood of a car owner making a claim that costs the insurer money, and resultantly, boosting the premiums and generating greater overheads for the consumer.

As you can imagine, driving a Peugeot city car is going to amass far more expense than a Bentley, one of the supercars which would be placed into a higher car insurance group. There are several reasons for this: firstly, as Bentley car parts (and components from the models of other premium manufacturers) tend to be more expensive, specialist, powerful and difficult to source, an insurance provider would have to pay more to their customer than for a generic replacement that many mainstream vehicles rely on.

Due to the high performance of expensive cars, it also means that there can be more things which can go wrong, especially with all of the advanced and innovative features that the vehicle will boast. Quotes from insurance companies will also account for the fact that on average, the repair time for an upmarket car is considerably longer – therefore, the expense of providing a customer with a courtesy car while their existing vehicle is serviced increases substantially.

The reason why car insurance groups have been conceived is to ensure that the insurance market remains viable. At present, approximately half of all the money paid out in claims on a policy is put towards repairing vehicles. In addition, data also shows that people who own more expensive vehicles are likelier to make an insurance claim to protect their investment.

If you find yourself concerned about how this system works, you can find the categorisation of the vehicle you currently own – in addition to the grouping of cars you may be interested in – at thatcham.org. It’s well worth a look.

We always get customers who are surprised by the car insurance group they fall into, and our advice is not to worry, as the quotes that insurers on a car insurance comparison website provide aren’t solely based on the Thatcham system.

For example, if your car has a state-of-the-art security system, or if you are able to provide evidence that you lock your car away in a garage securely every night, then this will reduce your premiums nicely, as it will reduce the risk of a theft or any damage being inflicted on your model.

There are other factors to consider, such as trying to reduce the miles you drive if you have a highly-grouped car, to build up a no-claims discount over time, and lastly, to ensure that you use our comparison service to see what deals you could benefit from.