You might think that whatever make or model of car you have, auto insurance claims will be similar – and therefore, so will premiums. We all expect to pay more to insure a $200,000 Lamborghini than an ordinary Chevy or Ford sedan because parts are expensive, the car is likely to get stolen, and you are more likely to have an accident driving it fast.

But surely the cost on insuring one 4.0 liter four-door sedan is the same as another? Not so. Even among ordinary cars and suvs, all autos are not equal when it comes to auto insurance claims. The cost of insurance depends on many things such as:

• The likelihood of you having an accident – suvs that do not handle well will generally get a poor rating compared with modern sedans

• The level of injury you are likely to get in an accident – some cars are much better than others

• The cost of repairing the vehicles

• The liability cost varies from model to model

These factors are taken into account along with auto insurance claims when the premiujms are set by insurers. So which are the autos to avoid, and which are good?

You might expect imports to cost more to insure than cars made in the USA. Not necessarily. For example, Audi and BMW are generally low on the risk of liability in an accident, but the Audi S4 and TT and all BMWs are expensive to repair. Not too many surprises here.

Generally, Chryslers are no so good on liability costs, and the Chevy Cobalt, Colorado and Silverado 3500 are pretty bad. The Ford Mustang is also bad, and the Focus and F350 are not good either.

Among the Japanese, Mazda does not rate highly, and Honda generally rates well, but its Ridgeline truck is not so hot. Toyota ranks highly, although the Prius, Tacoma and Tunda are expensive to repair. So you can see that it is not safe to rely on a certain maker, and assume that all its models rate highly.

Check how auto insurance claims affect the cost of insurance

Therefore, before you buy an auto, check out its ranking for crash and repair damage. Actually, the easiest way to do that is get some quotes from leading insurers, as auto insurance claims are taken into account in deciding the premiums they charge. This way you will be able to find what you need to buy a good price.

What you want here is to get all the quotes for the autos you are thinking of buying at one place. I have found that the best place to do this is at a site where you just key in the details, and up come quotes from many insurers. This solves two problems – you find which is the best auto, and which company offers the best price.