How Car Safety Ratings Can Lower Your Insurance Rate

Car safety is one of the determining factors of your car insurance premium. Car insurance companies determine car insurance rates based on age, gender, driving record, driving experience, credit score, insured location and many other factors, including car safety features. Since car insurance companies determine a car insurance premium for the risk they undertake to insure a vehicle, car safety features lower the possibility of bodily injuries and theft and consequently the risk undertaken by your car insurer. On the contrary, if your car lacks safety features, the risk undertaken by your car insurer increases and as a result you are charged with a higher car insurance premium. In other words, the safer your car is, the lower your car insurance premium.

IIHS Crash Testing

Vehicle safety ratings are performed to assess a vehicle's ability to avoid accidents (prevention) and a vehicle's ability to maintain itself in a crash (crash performance).

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) performs reliable crash tests on all types of cars, vans, SUVs and trucks to determine their safety. Based on their performances in side impact and rollover crash tests, vehicles are rated as poor, marginal, acceptable, or good. The vehicles that earn the higher crash test rating are considered the less risky and therefore are assigned the lower insurance rate. Moreover, the IIHS performs bumper evaluations by applying front and rear full-width impacts at 6 mph and front and rear corner impacts at 3 mph to assess the types and amounts of damage that regularly occur in low-speed collisions.

The criteria based on which the IIHS decides on car safety and publishes the annual Top Safety Picks list include high ratings in:

• 40 mph frontal offset crash tests to assess a vehicle's structural design.
• Side crash tests to assess a SUVs' or pickups' occupant protection when struck in the side.
• Rollover ratings to assess a vehicle's roof strength in the event of a rollover crash.
• Rear crash protection/head restraint ratings to assess the protection efficiency of seat/head restraint combinations against whiplash injury.
• Electronic Stability Control that measures the degree to which a driver can maintain control of the vehicle when it spins out.

Car Safety Features

Different types of cars have different safety features by default. Typically, car manufacturers include seat belts, car alarms, daytime running lights (DRL), tracking devices, anti-lock brakes (ABS), tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), frontal air bags, side airbags, electronic stability control (ESC) and any other feature that can make a car safer and more unlikely to steal.

Some car models have advanced car safety features, while others have only the minimum safety requirements according to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and Regulations, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). These Federal safety standards aim at guaranteeing the minimum safety performance for vehicles as well as protecting the public against "unreasonable risk of crashes occurring as a result of the design, construction, or performance of motor vehicles and unreasonable risk of death or injury in the event crashes do occur."

Wrap Up

In general, your car insurance rates will be lower if your car has advanced safety features. If you have a model with the minimum number of airbags or accelerator control systems, your insurance premium will be higher compared with a more expensive model that has advanced safety features and therefore is less likely to be stolen or damaged. Car insurance companies adjust their insurance rates and offer discounts for vehicles that have 5-Star Rating, which means that there is only 10% or less possibility of bodily injuries for those riding those vehicles. On the contrary, a 1- Star Rating means 46% or higher possibility of bodily injuries. So, the higher the Star Safety rating, the lower the car insurance rate.

Sources

http://www.money-zine.com/Financial-Planning/Leasing-or-Buying-a-Car/Car-Safety-Features/

http://www.4autoinsurancequote.org/learning-center/car-safety-ratings-and-auto-insurance/

http://www.insurancerates.com/rate-resources/safety-ratings-car-insurance.html