Makes And Models

By Author: Marcus Stalder
Total Articles: 491
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Insurance is all about the numbers. If the evidence proves there's a higher risk, you pay a higher premium rate. This can be a judgement about the quality of your driving. Perhaps your eyesight is poor or you are epileptic. Whatever the reason, you are potentially dangerous on the road and, if the insurance company discovers this fact, it will either cancel your policy or demand you pay an extravagant premium. More often, the problem is with the vehicle itself. It may be a target for every car thief in your neighborhood, or it may roll over if you corner too fast. The actuaries collect details of every recorded accident and can tell you which makes and models are most likely to be totaled and why.

Every year, groups publish lists of unsafe vehicles. The government runs crash tests and liaises with manufacturers to decide when unsafe vehicles must be recalled. As will be obvious from the problems with Toyota, this process does not always work as well as it should. There are also independent groups that analyze the data and tell you which vehicles to avoid. In the most recent surveys, it seems the quality of the vehicles ...
... manufactured by US companies has been improving. If you go back twenty years, US quality fell off a cliff, allowing both European and Asian companies to get an ever stronger foothold in our markets. Now Consumer Reports confirms a significant improvement. In performance and reliability studies, Ford has emerged with vehicles to match those designed and manufactured by foreign companies. Sadly, General Motors and Chrysler continue to make the worst. In making this judgement, the Consumer Reports assessed both physical safety and value for money. If a vehicle is expensive to buy, maintain and fuel, it will be rated badly. So many trucks and SUVs are very poor value but equally, very safe because there's a lot of metal between you and all the other vehicles on the road. Unfortunately, even though something like a Jeep looks cool, it's unreliable and costs a small fortune to run. It's the same when it comes to the Cadillac Escalade and many of the Chevrolet brands. They have been rated as the worst cars on the road for some years.

So, before you think seriously about buying something like the Cadillac Escalade, whether new or secondhand, remember it's had the worst safety performance for some years. If you want independent confirmation of the problems, get some car insurance quotes and discover how much more it costs to insure this make and model than many other brands on the market. Getting the more affordable premium rates starts with your choice of make and model. Pick something that's safe in most road conditions, handles well and absorbs impact to protect the driver and passengers. If the same vehicle is also difficult to steal, this completes the picture of the perfect car to own. All companies will reward your choice with car insurance rates at the bottom end of the scale. So, unless money is no object, never buy a vehicle because of its ability to out-accelerate a low-flying fighter plane. Buy something safe, that's cheap to repair and doesn't cost you a fortune when you go to put gas into the tank.