
All cars in the UK are categorised into insurance groups. These groups range from group 1 (the cheapest cars to insure), all the way up to group 50 (the most expensive).
The groups are set by the Group Rating Panel and published by Thatcham Research, on behalf of the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
We, along with all other insurers, consider these recommendations when calculating our car insurance prices.
What are car insurance groups based on?
It's not just about value when it comes to the car insurance groups list.
For example, a sports car worth £30,000 is likely to be considered a higher risk than an estate car that’s worth the same, because the estate car is likely to be driven differently.
The fact the estate car is likely to be driven in a certain way means it might go into a lower group.
There are thousands of different car makes and models on the road in the UK, which means it can be complicated working out how much they should cost to insure.
To make things easier and fairer, the insurance industry uses insurance groups for cars.
How many car insurance groups are there?
Currently the groups are on a one to 50 scale, where one is low risk and 50 is high risk.
What car insurance group is my car?
There’s no one size fits all rule when it comes to getting the best car insurance price. With insurance categories, it's not even as simple as choosing a smaller car to guarantee a lower group.
Although cars like Citroen C1s are usually grouped quite low and Ferraris are generally grouped very highly, you might find that a particular variation of a model might be in a completely different group because of its specifications.
Even cars of the same type, like family hatchbacks with similar values, can end up ranking differently.
How are car insurance groups calculated?
We consider Thatcham’s guidance when building our car insurance groups, but we also take into account:
Repair costs and times
The cost of vehicle repairs has a huge impact on the cost of motor claims. So, it makes sense that this is something we consider a lot when organising car insurance groups.
Longer repair times mean higher costs, and a greater likelihood of a higher group rating.
Damage and parts costs
This covers the likely extent of damage to each car model and the cost of the parts needed to repair it. The lower these costs, the likely there is of a lower group rating.
New car values
We consider the prices of new cars, as they’re often a good guide to the cost of replacement and repair.
Parts prices
A standard list of 23 common parts is used to compare the cost of parts from one manufacturer to another.
The lower these costs, the more chance there is of a lower group rating.
Car performance
Acceleration and top speed are important factors. Insurers know from their claims statistics that high performance cars often result in more frequent car insurance claims.
Safety
An Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) system can help reduce low speed front to rear accidents, and so cars fitted with AEB as standard may have a lower rating.
Car security
Sometimes, security features fitted as standard by motor manufacturers can help to reduce insurance claims costs.
These features could include high security door locks, alarm or immobilisation systems or locking devices for alloy wheels.
A member of our Pricing team said: "It's worth bearing in mind that the insurance grouping might not be the only factor used when insurers consider your vehicle. For instance, the vehicle’s value and age might also have an impact".