why i dont understand insurance

[Adz86]

after looking tirelessly to find insurance on my car (52 vectra gsi) the best quote i got was £1200 full comp.... as its my day off today im rather bored and was looking at what car i might consider next.. new focus rs springs to mind.. so i decided to see what insurance would be for me at the current moment.. so with same details as what it took to insure the vectra i other than the fact its £20,000 more than the vectra i got a quote back of £1231... how can a car much higher in performance and worth give me just £31 difference a year?? im really confused

[m8internet]

The insurance is based on a large number of factors, the vehicle itself is about 20% of the risk (compare a new car at £25K, a five year old car at £5K, a ten year old car at £1K, and a twenty year old car at £0)
When comparing insurance policy quotes, get a quote with NO NCB applied, this gives you the true cost

Other variable factors :

At 25 or over the only major change is the excess drops
Most drivers under 25 don't have much NCB, so the quote tends to be higher

The higher the voluntary excess the lower the quote, so always compare like with like (I myself have a nil excess)

Vehicle use, from simple social right through to SDP with Class 1 business use
Vehicle annual mileage

Obviously some things won't change, like the address and where it is parked

The number of drivers may increase a premium, but the cost per driver is lower
Equally, some of these drivers may be seen as better risks than others (example two adults aged 50 and one adult aged 25)
Furthermore, limiting the number of drivers can also reduce a premium (in my own case I am the only named driver)

Claims history, if you have protected NCB on the policy then normally this will ignore any minor claims (up to £5K) in the last three years

and so on...

When I am looking for a new car I take a look at what cars are available, then compare quotes for a simple change of vehicle
The 1.9 CDTI 150 was £650 and the 3.0 V6 CDTI was £665, yet my previous Mondeo TDCI was £646
Transferring the policy would have cost me £45, so I simply took out a new policy at £530

[PauloMcGuinee]

Also if you are fully comp you are also covered against hitting other peoples cars, caravans, houses, Grandma's... In this case the payout and any legal costs needs to be covered and could be tens even hundreds of thousands. I am guessing that your insurance company think you are just as likely to crash in the GSI as an RS. However if you are driving a Micra then you probably are not the sort of person to be speeding about on country lanes!

[m8internet]

er, Third Party cover already has that
In other words if the brakes fail, or the application is insufficient, and you impact a fence, then impact a house, also damaging your vehicle
The Third Party component of the insurance pays for the impact damage to the fence and house
You remain liable for the damage repair costs to your vehicle

I think you are confusing Comprehensive cover where you want the resultant damage also covered
This can be useful where you have a high value vehicle and have a habit of having accidents
Once your vehicle value is less than the cost of repair there is no point in having Comprehensive cover, hence why I tend to dispose of a car once it is valued at less than £1000

Equally, if the third party makes a legal claim against you, you would be covered in most cases
You only need legal cover where you are likely to claim against another party (example, reclaiming your excess costs as a result of another vehicle impacting yours)

[PauloMcGuinee]

er, Third Party cover already has that

Of course it does, my mistake... my real point was more to say that the cost of damaging your own car is only the tip of the iceburg!

[rob 2.2dti]

also how good the vehicles security is and how much it costs to fix