Reader question:
I’m looking for a car and I need to get something that’s dependable and that I can get good car insurance rates on. Suggestions?
Monica
Great question.
Car insurance companies have ratings which they use to decide how much they will charge you on your premium for having a certain kind of car in your name. Now, while they do take into account things like safety and rate of theft, they don’t necessarily consider how dependable a car is. However, you can get a car you can rely on and still be able to get lower car insurance rates because of it.
How do you know if a car is dependable or not? Well, as usual, there’s somebody out there determining whether it is or not. J.D. Power and Associates due a Vehicle Dependability Study every year, in which they consider several factors and determine which make and models are the most reliable. They look at three year old autos and measure what kind of problems people have had with them during that time, and then compare the amounts between cars per hundred cars to come up with a rate. Usually, luxury cars come out on top here, but recently the difference between luxury and non luxury was cut in half, as luxury cars are adding improvements that previously had been confined only to cars on the higher end.
So which cars are the most durable on the market right now? Among compact cars,you’ll see the Honda Civic, which isn’t very surprising. Compact sports cars bring the Mazda Miata, and cars in the medium sized range offer the Buick Century. Of the big cars, you’ll find the Mercury Gran Marquis, and on the luxury end of larger cars, the Lexus LS 430. Bigger pickup trucks offers the Toyota Tundra, and in a smaller size the Ford Ranger. In the meantime, the most durable van is the Honda Odyssey.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.