SUV Owners Pay More for Insurance
Hortencia Privett is like thousands of other owners of SportsUtility Vehicles (SUVs). Privett admits that she loves what shedrives, a silver 2002 Jeep Liberty, but insurance expertscaution that she and other SUV owners have to pay considerablymore for insurance than those tooling around town in smallercars.The cost to insure an SUV is generally 10 to 20 percent morethan a car, depending of course on a driver's location, claimsexperience, credit history and other factors, confirms LorettaL. Worters, vice president of communications for the InsuranceInformation Institute, in New York. "Yes auto rates for SUVs aregenerally higher than for automobiles," says Worters. "Rates ofcourse correlate to risk -- and there are a lot of risk factorswith SUVs. Not so much what affects them, but what they do toother vehicles."Cutting to specifics, Worters pointed out that an SUV's"potential for liability and medical payments coverage losses isa real concern to the industry. Pedestrians hit by SUVs have a300 percent higher risk of serious injury than if they werestruck by a passenger car. There's also greater injury in carsthat are hit by SUVs than it would be with another car."Privett acknowledges that she has to pay more for coverage, butthat's okay with her under the circumstances. "I feel safer inmy SUV," explains Privett, an office secretary in Illinois."I've had an SUV for three years, and I wouldn't go back. Eventhough I have to pay more for insurance, it's worth the addedcost to me."Privett's SUV sentiments are hardly unique. It's been reportedthat SUVs accounted for upwards of 24 percent of all new-vehiclesales in the United States for 2003 and, with well over 20million on the road today, SUVs represent almost 12 percent ofall registered vehicles in the U.S.The safety reputation of an SUV or other vehicle type certainlyhas a bearing on insurance costs. On the subject of SUV safety,a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety(IIHS) brings up what he considers to be a misconception aboutSUVs. "The misconception is that many people think that SUVs are saferthan cars, and they're not," says IIHS's Russ Rader. "Vehiclecrash statistics that we compile each year show that pound forpound, if you're comparing vehicles of a similar weight, SUVstend to be less safe than cars."Rader says that cost of repair is a big issue from an insurancestandpoint. "SUVs can be costly to repair in minor crashes,because they don't have to meet the federal government'sstandards set for bumpers on cars in terms of withstandingcrashes in commuter traffic or parking lots," explains Rader.Says Rader: "Most SUVs aren't built like cars and don't drivelike them. Yes, they're higher and you can see the road aheadbetter, but that height also gives them a higher center ofgravity, which makes them less balanced than sedans -- and morelikely to flip."Insurance trade organization officer Dan Kummer focuses on highliability claims costs involving large SUVs in vehicularaccidents. "If you have a large SUV and you hit a mid-sized orsmaller vehicle, you are likely to pay higher liability costswhen your policy comes up for renewal," says Kummer, director ofpersonal lines for the Property Casualty Insurers Association ofAmerica, in Des Plaines, Ill.For more information about auto insurance please go to: Insurance.com
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