Cheapest Cars to Insure - The Low Cost & Insurance Friendly

One of the best ways to pay less for car insurance is to switch to a car that's cheap to insure. Rule of the thumb says that the cheaper the car, the less the insurance will cost but rates will, of course, vary from one driver to another and depend on your personal profile and driving records. However, it pays up to know which cars cost the least to insure since you might base your buying decision on this classification.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not always that the smallest cars are cheapest to insure. Ford Ka, Citroen C1 and Smart Fortwo, three of the smallest cars that come to my mind as I'm writing this, aren't even among the top cheapest cars to insure in 2011. According to a list built by Insure com, six of the topmost ten cars are minivans with an engine of 2L or more. The reasons for them being so cheap are some fantastic safety ratings, excellent crash test scores, out of factory anti-theft devices and low theft rates. Here are the cars on the list:

1. Chrysler Town and Country LX
2. Toyota Sienna 4 cylinder
3. Toyota Sienna LE
4. Honda Odyssey LX
5. Nissan Murano SL
6. Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport
7. Honda Odyssey EX
8. Toyota Sienna 6 cylinder
9. Ford Escape XLS
10. Toyota Highlander

A 40 year old male driver with a good driving history, no claims for the past year and a 100/300/50 liability policy will pay a premium of around $1,100 a year for any of these cars. The "competition" among these ten is very tight, the difference in median yearly premiums between the first and the tenth on the list being of only $62.00. Divide this by twelve and you will get a monthly difference so insignificant that you can hardly base your decision solely on the insurance premium.

If you are shopping around for a new car, you shouldn't limit your search to these ten vehicles though. There are many other cars with an affordable retail price and also cheap to insure, even though they didn't make it to Insurance com's list. In no particular order, here are several other models you might want to have a look at:

• Chevrolet Spark. Equipped with a 1.0 or 1.2L engine, this Chevy has a low retail price and is also cheap to insure.
• Citroen C1 is yet another small car that's perfect for crowded cities. It takes little space to park, has low fuel consumption and doesn't cost an arm and a leg to insure.
• Ford Fiesta is roomy yet small enough to be amongst the top cheapest cars to insure.

With the huge number of car models on today's market it's virtually impossible to build an exhaustive list of all models that are cheap to insure. However, the lists shown in this article should be a good starting point for anyone looking to buy a new car.