{"id":40112,"date":"2025-09-24T05:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T05:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/40112\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T05:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T05:53:07","slug":"whats-driving-up-the-cost-of-car-insurance-in-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/40112\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s driving up the cost of car insurance in Ireland? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shop around, we\u2019re told. Make sure you fill in all your details correctly and truthfully, we are advised. It never seems to help, much. <\/p>\n

Insuring your car<\/a> is always a process that, in Ireland, comes with a distinct sting. Our car insurance<\/a> costs have always been high on this island, and changes to the insurance industry, including competition from large international insurers, which in the 1980s was the supposed Holy Grail of cheaper premiums, never seems to move the dial all that much. <\/p>\n

However, according to a survey by Chill Insurance, there are ways in which you can lower the cost of your insurance. Now, some of these ways involve being born at the right time and having picked the right profession when you left education, but even within the usual strictures, there are a few things you can do to bring your premium down. <\/p>\n

According to Chill, the first thing to do is pick the right car. This seems obvious \u2013 the more power your car has and the more overtly sporting it is, the more it will cost to insure.<\/p>\n

Beyond that obviousness, though, there are specific car brands which are cheaper to insure, and Dacia tops that table, with an average insurance price of \u20ac494.<\/p>\n

Next up, perhaps surprisingly, is Ssangyong (or KGM as it is now) on \u20ac507, followed by MG (\u20ac521), Kia (\u20ac526), Skoda (\u20ac532), Hyundai (\u20ac538), Nissan (\u20ac546), Peugeot (\u20ac546), and Citro\u00ebn (\u20ac560). <\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s not as simple as just picking any Dacia and assuming that will have the lowest insurance cost. <\/p>\n

Actually, going by Chill\u2019s numbers, the individual model with the cheapest insurance is the Kia Sportage SUV, which has an average premium of \u20ac493. <\/p>\n

Next up is the Hyundai Tucson on \u20ac499, and that\u2019s followed by the Skoda Octavia (\u20ac536), Nissan Qashqai (\u20ac544), Toyota Corolla (\u20ac548), Toyota Yaris (\u20ac564), Toyota Avensis (\u20ac567), Toyota Auris (\u20ac573), Hyundai i30 (\u20ac578), and the Audi A6 (\u20ac644). All of these, you will notice, are solidly sensible cars usually bought by solidly sensible types. <\/p>\n

\"KiaKia Sportage <\/p>\n

There is, however, a difference in Irish car insurance compared to that of most other countries, thanks to the fact that here it is the driver\u2019s individual age and circumstances which actually carry a heavier weight than the car itself. <\/p>\n

Age is one of the most significant determining factors, and the sad \u2013 almost horrifying \u2013 fact is that if you\u2019re under the age of 19 you\u2019re looking at an average insurance bill of \u20ac3,944. That drops once you\u2019re in your twenties, but it\u2019s still a four-figure bill at \u20ac1,692, while even those in their thirties still pay a hefty \u20ac1,136 on average. <\/p>\n

Only once you\u2019re in your forties will you be paying three-figures on average (\u20ac878), while those in their fifties will see that drop to \u20ac765. If you\u2019re in your sixties, the average is \u20ac554, while in your early seventies it falls to the lowest possible \u20ac550 on average. <\/p>\n

After 74 of course, it climbs again with average insurance costs of \u20ac746. <\/p>\n

Where you live also has a major determining effect, with Leitrim having the lowest average premium of \u20ac596, while those in Longford pay a whopping \u20ac1,042. <\/p>\n

So, buy a Kia Sportage and live in Leitrim is the answer to cheap insurance, it would seem.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Cost of motor insurance rises at four times rate of inflation, says CSOOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, it also matters what you do for a living and it turns out you actually should have listened to your mother and got a safe job in the Civil Service, as it\u2019s tax inspectors who have the lowest rates, with an average premium of \u20ac415. <\/p>\n

Smallholding farmers are up next, on \u20ac438, followed by literary agents (\u20ac441), mineralogists (\u20ac467), drapers (\u20ac479), hearing therapists (\u20ac480), call evaluators (\u20ac487), pattern weavers (\u20ac488), hat makers (\u20ac556), and gaming club staff (\u20ac551). <\/p>\n

The biggest change you can make to your insurance, though, is to pass your test. That\u2019s not easy at the moment, given the huge backlogs in driver testing, but doing so will knock 27 per cent off your insurance, on average. <\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s something that\u2019s starting to drive up insurance premiums, and there\u2019s absolutely nothing you can do about it. <\/p>\n

Counter-intuitively, it\u2019s electronic in-car safety systems. A recent report by Business Motoring noted: \u201cGrowing vehicle complexity and alternative fuel types may drive up premiums for UK motorists, as insurers face increased challenges in assessing risk and managing claims for high-tech cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basically, all of the high-tech sensors, cameras, and electronic safety nets such as automated emergency braking, lane-keeping steering, and blind spot monitoring might help to keep you safe when you\u2019re behind the wheel, but if it all goes wrong and you do have an accident, then the costs of repair will be considerably higher than for a car without such systems.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe increasing prevalence of in-vehicle technology is likely to continue affecting premiums in the future. Photograph: iStock <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just that the sensors and cameras and so on are expensive items in and of themselves \u2013 they are \u2013 but it\u2019s also that they require very delicate and precise calibration if they\u2019re to work properly once installed. That requires expert dealership technicians and repair specialists, and more time, and all of those costs add up. According to Automotive News, \u201ca sensor misaligned by a single degree \u2013 about the depth of a business card \u2013 can throw it off target by 1,676mm at a distance of 91.4 meters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, it has been estimated that in the UK, automated safety systems have reduced collisions on the road by about 25 per cent, but in the same period the cost of insurance and repair claims rose by 60 per cent. <\/p>\n

Equally, such systems may actually be more trouble than they\u2019re worth. After decades of advising pedestrians and cyclists to wear hi-vis clothing so that they can be more easily seen by drivers, a study published in January by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the US suggests that many automated emergency systems, and the cameras on which they rely, may actually be somehow \u201cblind\u201d to hi-vis, putting vulnerable road users at risk. <\/p>\n

David Harkey, IIHS president, said: \u201cThese results suggest that some automakers need to tweak their pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems. It\u2019s untenable that the clothes that pedestrians, cyclists and roadway workers wear to be safe may make them harder for crash avoidance technology to recognise. This is a worrisome blind spot. To make good on their potential, pedestrian detection systems have to work with the other commonly used safety measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, continued use of high-tech systems will continue to make cars more expensive to insure. We\u2019re already seeing that effect in electric cars which, because of the cost of replacing a battery after a crash, are proving pricier to insure than combustion-engined vehicles. <\/p>\n

Thankfully, Chill has a list for that, too. The cheapest electric car to insure is the original Hyundai Ioniq hatchback, with an average premium of \u20ac488. That\u2019s followed by the Nissan Leaf (\u20ac489-\u20ac500, depending on the version), the Hyundai Kona Electric (\u20ac513), the Kia EV6 (\u20ac551), and the Volkswagen E-Golf (\u20ac563). <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Tesla Model 3 (\u20ac753) and the Tesla Model Y (\u20ac791) are at the pricier end of the insurance range. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shop around, we\u2019re told. Make sure you fill in all your details correctly and truthfully, we are advised.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14365,30476,631,11713,61,5167,60,30478,14835,43,30479,30480,30477],"class_list":{"0":"post-40112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-citroen","9":"tag-dacia","10":"tag-for-you","11":"tag-hyundai","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-insurance","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-kia","16":"tag-motors","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nissan","19":"tag-peugeot","20":"tag-skoda"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}