Car insurance groups (2024)

Compare car insurance quotes

How do car insurance groups work?

All cars fall into 1 of 50 insurance groups.

Generally the higher the group your car sits in, the more you pay for your insurance. This is because cars in higher groups are seen as ‘riskier’ to insure.

What group your car sits in depends on things like:

• Its overall value: More expensive cars sit in higher groups.

• Any security features it has: Cars with anti-theft features usually sit in lower groups.

• How much it costs to repair: The more it costs to fix your car, the higher the group your car is likely to sit in.

• Its top speed and acceleration: Faster cars run a higher risk of being involved in a collision, and sit in higher groups as a result.

  See Also

  Car insurance groups - find out what they meanWhat are car insurance groups?What Cars Are In Insurance Group 7?Car insurance group checker UK 2024 | The Independent

• What safety features it has: Things like ABS brakes lower a car’s chances of being involved in a crash. The safer the car, the lower the group it sits in.

Who decides the groups?

The groups themselves are defined by a collection of insurance industry experts known as the Group Rating Panel. This includes members of the Association of British Insurers, Lloyd's Market Association and the insurance research centre, Thatcham.

The panel looks at over 125 data points, and uses these to define the parameters of each group.

These include:

• Repair cost: How long it typically takes to repair a vehicle, and how expensive those repairs tend to be

• Complexity of design: How complex a vehicle is, and how difficult it is to repair as a result

• Performance: The max speed and acceleration of a vehicle

• Security: What security features a vehicle has

• Value: The price tag of a vehicle when bought new

• Safety: What safety features a vehicle a has, which includes things like ABS and airbags

The panel then assigns a group rating to each car produced.

What’s the average insurance cost for each group?

Generally, the higher your car’s group, the more you pay to insure it.

But there are exceptions.

Our data show that the average price for groups 1-5 is actually higher than groups further up the scale.

There may be reasons for this though, such as the fact that younger drivers tend to buy cheaper cars. These cars sit in lower insurance groups and should be cheaper to insure. But as young drivers tend to own them they tend to pay above the average for their insurance. This means the ‘average’ cost to insure them appears higher than groups further up the scale.

Despite this, being aware of how your car insurance is calculated, and how your car’s group fits into that, is still worthwhile.

With this in mind, here’s the average costs of car insurance for each group*:

*Confused.com data, October to December 2023.

Will my car’s insurance group change over time?

In many cases, yes. As your car ages, the parts needed to fix it may become cheaper. It’s also likely to drop in value. This means it’s likely to fall into a lower group the older it gets.

Electric cars are a good example. As they currently cost a fair amount to repair, they tend to sit in higher insurance groups. But as they become more common, the cost to repair them is likely to drop, and the groups they sit in are likely to fall likewise.

Are there groups for vans and motorbikes too?

Yes, but they work a little differently.

Pre-2016, there were only 20 groups for vans. This means that vans produced before 2017 fall into one of these 20 groups.

In 2017, a further 30 groups were added. Vans produced after this are split into groups 1-50.

Despite this, van groups work in a similar way to their car counterparts: the lower the group, the lower your insurance costs tend to be.

For bikes, the groups aren’t so well defined, and different insurers use different group definitions. Some split bikes into 17 groups, for example, while others split them into up to 22.

See all car insurance guides

After buying car insurance, 96% of Confused.com customers would recommend us (based on 157737 Reviews.co.uk respondents - as of 13/10/23). Read our reviews