With the advent of green living and more Earth-friendly lifestyles, companies all across the board are featuring and promoting products that follow the green philosophy. All of us are probably familiar with organic markets, reusable water bottles, canvas sacks, and of course, the hybrid car.
The hybrid car is supposedly eco-friendly because it uses less fuel compared to your standard, run of the mill car. When a hybrid car is running and it gets into a certain speed, its batteries come on, therefore consuming less fuel. Of course, the batteries are rechargeable, which is also a nod to reusable energy. It is not uncommon that many families and individuals, in the effort to save money, have switched to hybrid cars in lieu of regular ones.
Despite hybrid cars costing more than regular cars on the market, studies seem to indicate that hybrids promote more savings in the long run, as hybrid car drivers don’t have to refill with gas as often. What about in the realm of insurance? How much would it cost to actually insure a hybrid car? Would a car owner expect to pay more or less? Is it really less expensive to insure a hybrid car? Read on to find out!
First, the bad news: it is actually more expensive to insure a hybrid car. A recent study concluded that hybrid and small cars in general cost more to insure compared to larger, more fuel-hungry counterparts. To name specific examples, a Honda Civic will be about $400 more expensive to insure than a Honda C-RV. To ensure a Toyota Camry hybrid will end up being $600 more expensive than ensuring a regular Toyota Hybrid.
Now, why is this so? It’s not that insurance companies are against hybrids, saving the planet and the green movement in general. At the end of the day, insurance companies run on cost. The cheaper a car is to repair, and the easier its parts are to source, the cheaper the insurance rate for this particular car. In the case of hybrids, there are plenty of reasons why they cost more to insure. First, their repairs are specialized, and you can’t go to them anywhere, which means that you will most probably get a hybrid specialist to repair it in case something goes wrong. Another reason is the parts: hybrids have very specific parts which cost more than the average parts. Lastly, hybrids and generally small cars are more commonly stolen compared to their bigger counterparts. All of these help to add up insurance costs for the hybrid.
If you’re really set on a hybrid, then there are still possible solutions. Perhaps the best thing to do is shop around for insurance companies. Some insurance companies actually provide discounts for vehicles that prove to be fuel-savers. If you manage to find an insurance company like this, then you can count on saving a few bucks on car insurance.
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Sam Briones writes for SafeAuto, covering an array of topics from finding cheap auto insurance to safety tips.
Photo Credit:http://www.automotoportal.com/article/all-you-need-to-know-about-hybrid-cars
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