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Cheapest (and Most Costly) Cars to Insure

The cost of your auto insurance depends on more than your driving record and where

Mazda Tribute
you live. It also is affected by the car you drive.

That's partly because some cars are more expensive than others to repair or are favorites among thieves, according to Insure.com, which has just updated it's listing of cheapest and most expensive cars to cover. Then too, if you happen to get in an accident, the passengers in some cars fare considerably worse than others.

And then there's the maniac factor. Insurers have statistically proven that an otherwise reasonable 40-year-old male becomes inexplicably overwhelmed by testosterone the moment he climbs into a Porsche Carrera, which renders him incapable of driving the speed limit. Put the same guy in a Honda Accord and he'll drive like your grandmother. In the Porsche Carrera, he's a bat out of hell. (Really. They've proven this in lab tests.)

So what does that mean to you? It's only going to cost you an average of $90 a month to insure your Mazda Tribute, 4-door utility vehicle, that ranked as Insure.com's least expensive car to insure. But it would cost roughly three times as much to insure that Porsche -- the most expensive car to insure. (Yes, I know. The Porsche will also cost about four times more to buy, so the 40-year-old maniac may be price insensitive here.)

Okay, so that's no surprise. But did you know it's going to cost about $200 more annually to insure a Ford Fusion than a Ford Escape? And that it costs a bit more to insure a Honda Civic than the considerably more expensive Honda Accord?

All other things being equal, experts recommend that you check on the cost of coverage before buying a car. Two relatively similar vehicles might have a significantly different cost to insure. (Consider: It costs roughly $2,400 to insure an Audi S8 Quattro sedan, but just $2,100 to insure a BMW 750li, which costs nearly $20,000 more to buy.)

Want to compare? Insure.com has a cool little widget that lets you check out the average cost of coverage for your vehicle and compare that cost to similar cars.

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