<ol>
<li><p>Shop around different insurance companies. Use the same levels of insurance to compare with each insurance company. Many now have quotes on their web sites.</p></li>
<li><p>Before buying a car, check insurance prices for each of the possible cars (including year, make, model, and submodel/options). Sometimes, the insurance prices vary significantly between two similar cars, probably due to driver demographics (e.g. a Ford versus a similar Mercury may have different insurance loss characteristics and therefore different insurance rates).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Note that, according to [HLDI:</a> Insurance losses by make and model](<a href=“http://www.iihs.org/research/hldi/composite]HLDI:”>http://www.iihs.org/research/hldi/composite) , a 2005 Mazda 3 has a relatively high collision loss rate (141-145, where 100 is average). The Ford Focus (especially the wagon), Toyota Prius, Toyota Corolla, and Honda Civic have lower collision loss rates.</p>
<p>As a class, minivans tend to have the lowest insurance loss rates.</p>
<p>OP, what state are you in? I know New jersey is expensive.</p>
<p>Different insurance companies do it in different ways. When I started driving and didn’t have a car, (parents had 3 and I shared for the first few months) our insurance company figured out rates for me on all the cars and told my mom to assign me to the cheapest one. We still could drive any of the cars. Once I bought my car, I was assigned to that one. </p>
<p>When I went to college, I was shocked to see that people with cars older then mine, and coverage worse then mine, from NJ, were paying 2x what I was paying. As a teenager I paid about 75 a month. When I turned 18 or 21 that went down to like 60 a month. I have a much nicer car now and it runs about 600 a year.</p>
<p>emilybee- we were told the same thing by our auto insurance broker. Told no reason to put kids on as all drivers (in my house and if I lend anyone our cars) are automatically insured. I think most people are not told this as insurance out there to protect us, but for insurance companies to make money. </p>
<p>Whoever wrote that emilybee is scamming the system is incorrect. It’s those that make false claims and get money for false injuries that are scamming the system and increasing rates.</p>
<p>The best and easiest way to cut down on your premium is by taking an online safety driving course by each member of your family. I did that few years ago on a very boring Sun afternoon and I was able to bring our premium down by a lot. Both H and D1 had few moving violations. With the online course credit, we were able to bring our premium down. </p>
<p>Another thing to consider is the kind of car you buy. We had some high end cars, but with very good safety features, they were a lot cheaper to insure than some less expensive, easily stolen cars.</p>
<p>This thread reminded me to call to see about a distance discount, they made the change today, so it went from a 10% good student discount to 15% for both. Every little bit helps.</p>
<p>TranquilMind. First I live in an urban area. Second we have full coverage on all cars. I think many folks tend to discontinue collision on older cars, but we have found it worthwhile. Plus we have separate liability coverage which mandates full coverage on our cars.</p>
<p>Called our I insurance co. For 4 of us, 2 adults, a 19 year old, and a 17 year old (both male), 3 cars, 19 year old attending college far away, one small accident in the last many years, have homeowners with them also, Erie is going to be $4,600. If we increase our deductibles, we can get it down to just below 4,000. I will be checking with other providers soon.</p>
<p>Yikes. We pay about $1,650 for 3 cars, 4 drivers. Two are young male, off at college, but it wasn’t much more when they were home. A few fender benders, no property insurance with them, urban area.</p>