Burning money as well as rubber; 'hot-hatches' can double insurance premiums
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Credit crunched drivers with a taste for flash motors are paying twice as much to insure their sporty cars compared to standard models of the same vehicle, according to online insurer swiftcover.com.
Even a 30 year old man with five years no claims discount could be shelling out over £1,000 for a VW Golf GTi, whereas the more standard Golf S would attract an insurance premium of less than half that. In fact swiftcover.com found that drivers could save on average £513 on their car insurance cover if they opted for calmer versions of their favourite 'hot-hatches'.
Many people, particularly younger drivers, are tempted by the style and good looks of sports versions of leading cars, even though they are unlikely to enjoy the extra performance during day-to-day driving and commuting. However, because of their higher performance, insurance claims figures show that these types of vehicle are more likely to be involved in accidents, cost more to repair and more often fall prey to thieves, all of which pushes up the premiums of even the safest drivers.
swiftcover.com's figures reveal the extra cost of owning a 'hot-hatch'
| 'Hot-hatch' |
Standard model |
Extra cost for a 'hot-hatch' |
Volkswagen Golf GTI
£1,002 |
Volkswagen Golf S
£476 |
£526 |
Honda Civic Type R
£974 |
Honda Civic S
£507 |
£467 |
Seat Leon Cupra
£1,031 |
Seat Leon S
£485 |
£546 |
All quotes from swiftcover.com and are for a 30 year old male business professional living in Birmingham with five years no claims bonus and a £250 voluntary excess insuring 2010 models.
Choosing a more standard car is also one of the best ways of making motor insurance more affordable for younger drivers, such as Kerry Wood, who, despite being only 25, managed to drive her annual car insurance premium down to just £122 with swiftcover.com.
Kerry, an accountant from Aberdeen who drives a Toyota Corolla, has a strong no claims history having never claimed in her eight years of driving. She switched to swiftcover.com when she received a renewal notice for £286 from her existing insurer.
Kerry says: "I know I am a fairly young driver and insurance policies are traditionally expensive the younger you are, but I did think £286 seemed expensive for my policy. I decided to research online and was really impressed to find a quote from swiftcover.com for less than half the price of my existing renewal."
"Having always driven carefully and built up a maximum no claims bonus it's great to have this recognised with a cheap policy."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For press enquiries please contact:
Joshua Van Raalte or Paul Beadle
Brazil (PR agency for swiftcover.com)
01865 556 000
swiftcover@agencybrazil.com
About Swiftcover:
Based in Send, near Guildford and employing over 250 people, www.swiftcover.com was born out of a desire to revolutionise the general insurance market. Swiftcover started trading in June 2005, jointly owned by the founding management team and international insurer Primary Group.
Swiftcover offers car, travel and pet insurance online, and is Britain's only insurance company without call centres, which means that the cost savings can be passed directly onto the customer and premiums are kept low. In 2008 swiftcover.com featured as the cheapest insurance quote on the comparison website moneysupermarket.com more often than any other insurer.
This powerful operating model combined with successful marketing and competitive pricing has proven to be a tremendous success. This year Swiftcover has over half a million live policies and is considered to be the fastest growing insurer in the UK.
In 2007, AXA UK acquired Swiftcover. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of AXA Insurance UK PLC which forms part of AXA Group.
About AXA:
AXA UK is a part of the AXA Group. AXA is a world leader in financial protection. AXA's operations are diverse with major operations in Western Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. AXA employs 120,000 staff and tied agents and, as of June 30 2006, had €1,091 billion in assets under management. AXA reported total IFRS revenues of €72 billion and IFRS underlying earnings of €3,258 million for the full year 2005. Our previous company performance is not a guide to how we may perform in the future.
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