The Cheapest Auto Insurance – Who Should Get it?

Posted by Lauren Moss on August 19, 2010 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

Anyone who carries out research these days can be certain of one thing: at some point, someone else is going to do the same research and come to an entirely different conclusion. Case in point: who deserves the cheapest auto insurance – seniors over the age of sixty, or thirty-somethings?

The Common Wisdom

Insurance underwriters have long gone by the assumption – backed by actuarial statistics – that younger drivers are more likely to take risks, are more distracted, less experienced and generally more prone to accidents, while older drivers have more experience and are more cautious behind the wheel by nature.

It’s true that young people often consider themselves indestructible and see nothing wrong with chatting on cell phones while driving, swigging away at their favorite (hopefully non-alcoholic) beverage, fiddling with the sound system and carrying on conversations with passengers – all while attempting to operate their vehicle in heavy traffic. It’s why cheap car insurance for young drivers can be a challenge to find.

But is this fair and accurate?

The KSU Study

Earlier this year, researchers at Kansas State University released the findings of their own study indicating that statistically, elderly drivers posed a much greater hazard to others on the road than their youthful counterparts. According to the KSU study, the reason that seniors have fewer accidents is simply because they drive less. However, when seniors are involved in an accident, it is more likely to involve one or more other vehicles – and the results are usually much deadlier.

With younger drivers (particularly teens), accidents tend more often to be single-car crashes with a stationary object, resulting from loss of control of the vehicle. It might be concluded that because they are primarily a hazard to themselves and not others, younger drivers should get the best car insurance rates.

The IIHS Study

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently came to some very different conclusions. Drawing on data collected between 1997 and 2008, IIHS researchers found that accidents involving drivers between the ages of 60 and 70 had gone down by over 30% more than those involving drivers between 35 and 54.

With the “graying” of America, this will come as good news to the elderly who, within the next ten years, will make up the majority of the U.S. population. An older driver can further be assured of a cheap car insurance rate by taking a defensive driving course.