Are There Special Auto Insurance Plans For Sports Cars
While it’s true that special insurance plans exist for sports cars and that some insurance companies hold themselves out as specializing in this particular niche, the basic anatomy of a sports car insurance policy is not so different from that of any other vehicle. In the realm of underwriting risk, the main reason that sports cars are so distinct is that they have the capacity to produce inordinately more expensive claims than ordinary vehicles. In many cases, drivers of these cars are also more likely to exhibit more risky driving behavior than drivers of minivans do. For this reason, most insurance carriers simply do not like sports cars. It’s nothing personal, but simply a matter of statistics. That’s why insurance companies will consider a number of factors in offering auto insurance quotes for sports cars.
A major factor in the pricing of sports car auto insurance will be the car itself and how well it fares in nationally recognized statistics for accidents. Not all sports cars perform the same way in these statistics. Sports cars that appeal to younger male audiences are recognized for having a higher propensity for being driven fast and getting into accidents. It isn’t a bias or unfair form of profiling. Cars that get into expensive accidents more often than other cars will be more expensive to insure than other cars. These facts are just the impartial and impersonal data from nationwide statistics. A sports car’s physical attributes – such as how fast they go from zero to 60 mph and the size of the engine – are another factor in setting auto insurance premiums. Although physical performance is not necessarily an attribute that every driver will exploit, it is a given’in the insurance industry that cars that can GO fast tend to be DRIVEN fast.
But there are factors outside of the driver demographics that make sports cars expensive to insure. For example, sports cars tend to be driven in more heavily populated metropolitan areas where auto insurance rates of any kind are naturally higher. Plus, most of these populated areas have a higher rate of car theft, which also automatically raises the auto insurance rate. Additionally, sports cars tend to be more expensive to repair. Expensive sticker prices for parts tend to lead to expensive repairs.
Although sports car insurance can be ruinously expensive for the ordinary enthusiast, there are measures that a driver can take to lower premiums. Higher deductibles can reduce premiums, as well as the installation of alarms and other security measures. However, despite taking these measures, owners of sports cars should be prepared to pay a higher auto insurance premium than they would if they were driving a conventional vehicle.