25 most expensive cars to insure (3 Lexus models made it)

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

06-25-19, 07:34 AM

#16

mmarshall

Lexus Fanatic

Join Date: Oct 2003

Location: Virginia/D.C. suburbs

Posts: 90,582

Likes: 42

Received 83 Likes on 82 Posts

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sulu

There are, by my count, 7 small cars. This matches my experience when I switched from a Camry to a Corolla a few years back, in an effort to save money -- my insurance costs rose quite noticeably. When I asked my broker about this, it was explained to me that small cars cost more to fix.

While there may be some truth to that statement (depending on the make model), a more honest and accurate answer from your broker, IMO, would be that, all else equal, people are simply more likely to get hurt or killed in smaller, lighter vehicles. The laws of physics often dictate that the larger, heavier vehicle will deform less and suffer less damage in an accident. I suspect that the Smart-for-Two and Scion iQ would be very high on that list except that they didn't sell in high enough numbers foe them to be statistically relevant.

Quote:

There are 3 hybrids on the list, and surprisingly, the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and Kia Optima Hybrid are both more expensive to insure than my ES 300h, which has a more complex hybrid system (with 2 motor-generators compared to only 1 motor-generator in the Korean twins). Perhaps the proliferation of the Toyota Hybrid System makes Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles much cheaper to fix now.

This is just a guess on my past (not necessarily fact) but it is possible (?) that other manufacturers use Toyota hybrid parts under license, as Ford once did. Their factory-replacement parts, for accident-repair, would naturally be more expensive than Toyota's because they have to pay Toyota a royalty for the use of those parts.

Quote:

Also surprising to me is that when I switched from the Corolla to the ES 300h, my insurance costs dropped quite noticeably; my insurer gives me a discount for driving a green car.

That's probably nothing but PR and politics, though...I don't see what that has to do with insurance costs.

Quote:

There are 3 Lexus models, all sedans; no RC or LC coupes; no LX, GX RX, NX or UX SUVs/CUVs (but it may yet be too early to know how much it costs to insure the UX); and no LS!

Probably nobody steals the LS...there isn't much of a black-market for stolen LS vehicles or their parts.....certainly not like for the Honda Accord.

Quote:

The inclusion of the Chrysler 200, a mainstream, mass-market mid-size sedan surprised me. Perhaps the fact that it is so rare and since discontinued makes it expensive to fix.

Don't forget......some FCA products (and I think the 200 is one of them) use Italian-sourced platforms and parts. Many of those parts have to be shipped over from Europe.

Quote:

The inclusion of the 2 large Tesla models does not surprise me, given that Tesla insists on fixing them all rather than allowing independent shops to fix them.

Most independent shops probably wouldn't have the know-how to repair a Tesla. Plus, that's Elon Musk for you....has to control everything.