MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: Holy premium jump, Batman!

> So my son got his driver's license today (congratulations to him, big day), and I
> called my auto insurance to add him...
>
> My 6 month premium went from $200/6mo to $1000/6mo!
>

The rates are determined by matching up the highest risk driver in the household with the most expensive (riskiest) vehicle to insure.

In some states you can get around this in various ways, but is sometimes depends on the insurance company. Some things to try...

1) Get a car specifically for your son to drive and tell the insurance company that he will only ever drive that car.

2) Even better, get your son his own car, and his own insurance policy.

One thing to be aware of is that there is a company called the Insurance Standards Organization (ISO) that determines a numerical rating for every vehicle manufactured. This number ranges from 2 to 17 (the last time I checked) and the higher a the number is, the more expensive it is to insure.

The rule of thumb is that if a vehicle can remotely be considered a "sports car" and/or is desirable to teenage boys, it will cost a lot to insure. For example, as expected, anything by Lamborghini, Ferarri, or Porche is very expensive to insure because they assume that if you drive a car that goes fast, you're more likely to be involved in an accident. However, some cars that you wouldn't expect, like a Honda Civic also cause your rates to go up because they are popular with teenage boys, and therefore more likely to be driven fast, get in accidents, and get stolen for parts.

A good car for a teenage driver is usually some kind of a mid-sized 4-door sedan, like a Toyota Camry. The lower the trim level, the better. Most 4-door vehicles by Saturn were very cheap to insure, because they were popular with middle-aged women. Likewise, most mini-vans are cheap to insure for the same reason.

More info on auto rating symbols...
http://www.iso.com/Products/VINMASTER/Physical-Damage-Rating-Symbols.html

GroovyMAME support forum on BYOAC