What Insurance Group is My Car? | Saga Car Insurance

Understanding how insurance costs are calculated for a specific vehicle can be helpful when choosing your next car.

Just as personal risk factors like your driving history and location influence your car insurance premiums, vehicles are also assessed based on risks. In this guide, we explain everything you need to know about car insurance groups.

What are car insurance groups?

Car insurance groups are a way of classifying every make and model of car on the road to help insurers set the price of your cover.

The risks of your vehicle being involved in an accident or stolen, and the costs associated with that, are calculated from manufacturer data and vehicle-led research. This calculation, or group rating score, places a vehicle in its car insurance group.

How many car insurance groups are there?

There are 50 car insurance groups, each numbered from 1 to 50. Group 1 cars are the lowest risk and the cheapest to insure, while group 50 vehicles represent the highest risk and are the most expensive to buy cover for.

How car insurance groups affect your premium

Choosing a car from a lower insurance group (like group 1) usually means you’ll pay less for insurance. Cars in these groups often have smaller engines and are easier to repair because parts are more available. On the other hand, cars in higher groups have more powerful engines, are harder to fix, and are more appealing to thieves, making their insurance more expensive.

What else affects the cost of my car insurance?

Several other factors automatically affect the cost of your car insurance premium, including:

Driving history
Address
Occupation

There are also some factors where you have more control over your car insurance:

Keeping your annual mileage accurate.
Choosing the right excess amount.
Protecting your No Claims Discount.
Shopping around when it’s time to renew.
Adjusting your level of cover.

If you can’t remember who you’re insured with or when your policy is due for renewal, explore our guide to checking your car insurance.

At Saga, we have three different Comprehensive policies to choose from, all of which include our uninsured driver promise, which means you won’t lose your No Claim Discount, and there’s no excess to pay if you’re hit by a driver who isn’t insured and you provide us with their vehicle details.

List of car insurance groups in the UK

Group	Car type	Examples
Group 1	These cars are among the cheapest to insure.	Citroen C1, Fiat Panda, Vauxhall Corsa
Groups 2-5	Often have more affordable insurance prices because of less powerful engines and low repair costs.	Toyota Aygo, Ford Ka, Peugeot 107
Groups 6-10	Cars with slightly more powerful engines that still often have below-average insurance prices.	Hyundai i10, Toyota Yaris, Citroen Berlingo
Groups 11-20	Cars that have slightly bigger engines. Not the cheapest to insure, but not the most expensive either.	BMW 1 Series, Ford Focus, Land Rover Freelander
Groups 21-30	Cars in this group range are more expensive, and their insurance costs are higher than average.	Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Nissan Qashqai, Audi A3
Groups 31-40	These cars have above-average insurance prices and generally cost more to buy or repair.	Jaguar XF Prestige, Cadillac CTS, Land Rover Range Rover
Groups 41-50	The most expensive cars and the costliest to insure. These are often high-performance vehicles and cars that might be more attractive targets for thieves.	Ford Mustang, Porsche 911, BMW i8

What do the letters mean on car insurance groups?

When you look at car insurance groups, you’ll see letters that tell you about the car’s security features:

A: Security features are acceptable.
D: Security features don’t meet the group’s requirements, raising the group rating.
E: Security features are better than required, lowering the group rating.
P: Provisional data because the car’s rating wasn’t complete at launch.
U: Security features are unacceptable, but insurance might be available if you upgrade the security.
G: The car is imported.

How are car insurance groups decided?

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) uses information from Thatcham Research to decide which of the 50 groups a new car belongs to. Cars are rated based on several factors, including:

Damage and parts costs:

How badly will the car get damaged in an accident, and how much will it cost to fix? The lower the anticipated costs, the lower the insurance rating is likely to be.

New car values:

The price you pay for a new car is a good indicator of the cost of replacement or repair. The higher the value, the higher the car insurance group.

Car security:

What manufacturer security features does your car have? The more difficult it is to break into, the better for the insurance rating.

Repair times:

How long will your car take to repair after an accident? Longer repair times usually mean higher costs and a higher group rating.

Bumper design:

Your bumper performance in an accident is important. Cars with bumpers that are most compatible with insurers’ criteria will receive lower insurance ratings.

Performance:

Fast, powerful cars are often at a greater risk of being involved in insurance claims, so they’ll be heading straight for one of the highest insurance categories.

Safety systems:

Does the car have an Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) system? If it does, it makes it less likely to be involved in low-speed front to rear accidents, which might lower your insurance costs.

How to find your car’s insurance group

Finding out which car insurance group your vehicle belongs to is straightforward. Just follow these steps:

Find a car insurance group checker online.
Enter your vehicle’s details (make, model, year, doors, fuel and transmission).
Discover which car insurance group your car is in. The number you get will be between 1 and 50, and you’ll also see a letter which relates to the car’s level of security features.

It’s safe to assume that a Land Rover Discovery or Audi A6 will be grouped much higher than a Skoda Fabia Classic or a Citroen C1. However, a particular variation of a model can be in a completely different group depending on the specifications.

Bear in mind that these group ratings are only recommendations for insurance providers. Insurers will use the ratings to calculate insurance premiums in combination with the risk of the driver.

Who are Saga's car insurance policies underwritten by?

Saga’s car insurance policies, exclusively for people over 50, are unique products designed by us specifically for our customers. They are underwritten by a number of carefully selected insurers that provide high standards of quality and service.