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I know I’m not alone when I say it was a rude awakening growing up to realize that there were more expenses to owning a car than filling the tank periodically and taking car of unforeseen maintenance. There’s something called car insurance and it’s one the most important factors to consider when you’re in the market for a new whip. Premiums are rates a motorist pays to protect them against accidents, damages, what have you.
The amount a car owner will pay for this protection varies per state, and a new study by insurance information website, Insure.com demonstrates that the disparity can be significant depending on where you live.
You can find the methodology used by the site at the bottom of the post, but a few interesting takeaways:
- The national average this year was $1,365.
- Michigan holds on to the top spot for the FIFTH consecutive year as the most expensive state for car insurance, equaling $874 or 64 percent more expensive than the national average premium.
- Vermont ranks No. 1 with a premium that is $433 less than the national average and $1,337 less than Michigan.
Check out the ranking below, from most expensive to least, courtesy of the folks at Insure:
1 Michigan — $2,239
2 Louisiana — $2,126
3 Florida — $2,050
4 Rhode Island — $1,852
5 Connecticut — $1,831
6 Washington DC — $1,827
7 California — $1,731
8 Georgia — $1,668
9 Delaware — $1,646
10 Texas — $1,589
11 Colorado — $1,547
12 Wyoming — $1,544
13 Oklahoma — $1,531
14 Kentucky — $1,525
15 Arkansas — $1,503
16 Nevada — $1,485
17 Montana — $1,446
18 Maryland — $1,439
19 Mississippi — $1,410
20 West Virginia — $1,408
21 New Jersey — $1,383
22 New York — $1,361
23 Arizona — $1,355
24 New Mexico — $1,352
25 Kansas — $1,332
26 South Carolina — $1,327
27 Washington — $1,309
28 Missouri — $1,256
29 Oregon — $1,250
30 Alabama — $1,235
31 Hawaii — $1,229
32 Illinois — $1,223
33 Minnesota — $1,215
34 Nebraska — $1,214
35 South Dakota — $1,213
36 Tennessee — $1,211
37 Alaska — $1,200
38 Maine — $1,176
38 Massachusetts — $1,176
40 Utah — $1,131
41 Pennsylvania — $1,130
42 North Carolina — $1,104
43 Indiana — $1,091
44 North Dakota — $1,086
45 Wisconsin — $1,084
47 New Hampshire — $1,039
47 Iowa — $1,025
48 Virginia — $1,013
49 Idaho — $989
50 Ohio — $944
51 Vermont — $932
Vermont may seem like the obvious choice to own a car, but when you consider that it takes three tanks of gas just to get to your neighbors house, the game changes a bit.
Methodology:
Insure.com commissioned Quadrant Information Services to calculate auto insurance rates from six large carriers (Allstate, Farmers, GEICO, Nationwide, Progressive and State Farm) in 10 ZIP codes per state.
We averaged rates in each state for the cheapest-to-insure 2018 model-year versions of America’s 20 best-selling vehicles and ranked each state by that average.
Rates are based on full coverage for a single, 40-year-old male who commutes 12 miles to work each day, with policy limits of 100/300/50 ($100,000 for injury liability for one person, $300,000 for all injuries and $50,000 for property damage in an accident) and a $500 deductible on collision and comprehensive coverage.
[h/t Business Insider]