How are car insurance groups decided?
Car insurance groups are determined by a specialist panel made up of members of the Association of British Insurers (ABI). They assign cars to an insurance group based on vehicle and technical data collected and analysed by Thatcham Research.
Typically, the higher a car’s perceived insurance risk – for example, an expensive car with hard-to-source parts – the higher the insurance group it’s assigned to. If a car is relatively cheap to repair and replace or has added security features, it will likely be placed in a low insurance group.
Vehicles are scored across a range of criteria, including:
Price – generally, the more expensive the car, the more costly a repair or replacement, which means they’re usually in the higher insurance groups.
Performance and power – more powerful cars with higher top speeds tend to be in the higher insurance groups.
Safety and security features – cars fitted with features like autonomous emergency braking systems, immobilisers and alarms typically have a lower insurance group rating.
Cost of repairs – this takes into account an internationally recognised crash impact test to determine the vehicle’s damage resistance, the cost of parts and the cost required to repair it to its previous condition.
