Shop around, we’re told. Make sure you fill in all your details correctly and truthfully, we are advised. It never seems to help, much.
Insuring your car is always a process that, in Ireland, comes with a distinct sting. Our car insurance costs have always been high on this island, and changes to the insurance industry, including competition from large international insurers, which in the 1980s was the supposed Holy Grail of cheaper premiums, never seems to move the dial all that much.
However, according to a survey by Chill Insurance, there are ways in which you can lower the cost of your insurance. Now, some of these ways involve being born at the right time and having picked the right profession when you left education, but even within the usual strictures, there are a few things you can do to bring your premium down.
According to Chill, the first thing to do is pick the right car. This seems obvious – the more power your car has and the more overtly sporting it is, the more it will cost to insure.
RM Block
Beyond that obviousness, though, there are specific car brands which are cheaper to insure, and Dacia tops that table, with an average insurance price of €494.
Next up, perhaps surprisingly, is Ssangyong (or KGM as it is now) on €507, followed by MG (€521), Kia (€526), Skoda (€532), Hyundai (€538), Nissan (€546), Peugeot (€546), and Citroën (€560).
However, it’s not as simple as just picking any Dacia and assuming that will have the lowest insurance cost.
Actually, going by Chill’s numbers, the individual model with the cheapest insurance is the Kia Sportage SUV, which has an average premium of €493.
Next up is the Hyundai Tucson on €499, and that’s followed by the Skoda Octavia (€536), Nissan Qashqai (€544), Toyota Corolla (€548), Toyota Yaris (€564), Toyota Avensis (€567), Toyota Auris (€573), Hyundai i30 (€578), and the Audi A6 (€644). All of these, you will notice, are solidly sensible cars usually bought by solidly sensible types.
There is, however, a difference in Irish car insurance compared to that of most other countries, thanks to the fact that here it is the driver’s individual age and circumstances which actually carry a heavier weight than the car itself.
Age is one of the most significant determining factors, and the sad – almost horrifying – fact is that if you’re under the age of 19 you’re looking at an average insurance bill of €3,944. That drops once you’re in your twenties, but it’s still a four-figure bill at €1,692, while even those in their thirties still pay a hefty €1,136 on average.
Only once you’re in your forties will you be paying three-figures on average (€878), while those in their fifties will see that drop to €765. If you’re in your sixties, the average is €554, while in your early seventies it falls to the lowest possible €550 on average.
After 74 of course, it climbs again with average insurance costs of €746.
Where you live also has a major determining effect, with Leitrim having the lowest average premium of €596, while those in Longford pay a whopping €1,042.
So, buy a Kia Sportage and live in Leitrim is the answer to cheap insurance, it would seem.
[ Cost of motor insurance rises at four times rate of inflation, says CSOOpens in new window ]
However, it also matters what you do for a living and it turns out you actually should have listened to your mother and got a safe job in the Civil Service, as it’s tax inspectors who have the lowest rates, with an average premium of €415.
Smallholding farmers are up next, on €438, followed by literary agents (€441), mineralogists (€467), drapers (€479), hearing therapists (€480), call evaluators (€487), pattern weavers (€488), hat makers (€556), and gaming club staff (€551).
The biggest change you can make to your insurance, though, is to pass your test. That’s not easy at the moment, given the huge backlogs in driver testing, but doing so will knock 27 per cent off your insurance, on average.
However, there’s something that’s starting to drive up insurance premiums, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.
Counter-intuitively, it’s electronic in-car safety systems. A recent report by Business Motoring noted: “Growing vehicle complexity and alternative fuel types may drive up premiums for UK motorists, as insurers face increased challenges in assessing risk and managing claims for high-tech cars.”
Basically, all of the high-tech sensors, cameras, and electronic safety nets such as automated emergency braking, lane-keeping steering, and blind spot monitoring might help to keep you safe when you’re behind the wheel, but if it all goes wrong and you do have an accident, then the costs of repair will be considerably higher than for a car without such systems.
It’s not just that the sensors and cameras and so on are expensive items in and of themselves – they are – but it’s also that they require very delicate and precise calibration if they’re to work properly once installed. That requires expert dealership technicians and repair specialists, and more time, and all of those costs add up. According to Automotive News, “a sensor misaligned by a single degree – about the depth of a business card – can throw it off target by 1,676mm at a distance of 91.4 meters.”
Indeed, it has been estimated that in the UK, automated safety systems have reduced collisions on the road by about 25 per cent, but in the same period the cost of insurance and repair claims rose by 60 per cent.
Equally, such systems may actually be more trouble than they’re worth. After decades of advising pedestrians and cyclists to wear hi-vis clothing so that they can be more easily seen by drivers, a study published in January by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the US suggests that many automated emergency systems, and the cameras on which they rely, may actually be somehow “blind” to hi-vis, putting vulnerable road users at risk.
David Harkey, IIHS president, said: “These results suggest that some automakers need to tweak their pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems. It’s untenable that the clothes that pedestrians, cyclists and roadway workers wear to be safe may make them harder for crash avoidance technology to recognise. This is a worrisome blind spot. To make good on their potential, pedestrian detection systems have to work with the other commonly used safety measures.”
In the meantime, continued use of high-tech systems will continue to make cars more expensive to insure. We’re already seeing that effect in electric cars which, because of the cost of replacing a battery after a crash, are proving pricier to insure than combustion-engined vehicles.
Thankfully, Chill has a list for that, too. The cheapest electric car to insure is the original Hyundai Ioniq hatchback, with an average premium of €488. That’s followed by the Nissan Leaf (€489-€500, depending on the version), the Hyundai Kona Electric (€513), the Kia EV6 (€551), and the Volkswagen E-Golf (€563).
Meanwhile, the Tesla Model 3 (€753) and the Tesla Model Y (€791) are at the pricier end of the insurance range.
