When buying a car, people tend to look at two things: the purchase price and the gas mileage. However, these are not the only elements that go into the cost of owning a car! Maintenance is a big one, of course: how much time and/or money will it take to keep the car in good working order? A related one is insurance: how much will that cost? Choosing the right car goes a long way towards being able to find affordable auto insurance.
So what will help you keep your insurance prices down? A safe car that’s unlikely to need expensive repairs is one way to keep the insurance companies happy, as is getting a model that isn’t typically stolen. Another is to convince them that you’re unlikely to get into an accident. While the obvious things like having a good driving record apply, there are also other ways to get discounts that you might not expect. Find out where you are on the credit score scale; insurance companies believe that people with better credit are more responsible and thus are less likely to get into an accident. If your credit is lousy, working to improve it can save you money in a lot of ways! They also like to see good grades in school, another indicator of responsibility.
Another great way to lower your rate, if there are several cars in your family, is to have them all on the same policy; this tends to lead to drastically lower rates. As an example, when the author of this post got married and moved his new wife onto his policy, the new combined policy cost only about as much as she was paying alone! In many cases, you can get a discount for buying different types of insurance (renter’s, personal property, etc) through the same company as well.