Many factors play into determining your auto insurance rates: age, driving record, driving experience, gender, and vehicle safety. It’s common sense – the safer your automobile is, the less you will be paying for auto insurance. But how do you know which cars receive the highest safety ratings? And how do you know which safety features to look for when buying a new car?
Many organizations and companies now perform vehicle safety ratings. These safety ratings mainly look at two things: prevention – how well the vehicle is able to avoid accidents – and crash performance – how well the vehicle performs/maintains itself in a crash.
Perhaps the most respected and reliable safety tests are performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The IIHS performs side impact and rollover crash tests and rates vehicles as poor, marginal, acceptable, or good based on their performances in these tests. The IIHS also gives out annual awards to the top performing vehicles. To view their safety ratings and to see which vehicles are the award winners, please visit their vehicle ratings webpage.
Another well known organization dealing in vehicle safety ratings is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Like the IIHS, the NHTSA also provides safety information based on results from crash tests. To view results from the NHTSA, please visit their SafeCar.gov website.
Alternatively, you can also view combined results from the IIHS and the NHTSA crash tests. Informed for Life, a non-profit organization that combines the IIHS and NHSTA results with other factors such as vehicle weight, creates safety scores for each vehicle. To view your vehicle’s safety score, use the form below:
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There are many safety features in vehicles today that will give you automatic deductions on your insurance premium, most notably:
- Electronic stability control
- Front, side, and knee airbags
- Tire pressure monitors
- Brake assist
- Smart headlights
- Accident alert systems
To see which safety deductions you are qualified for, please fill out our quote form at the top of this page. Our agents will get in touch with you to discuss insurance rates for your vehicle.
