I want you to participate in a little social experiment with me. When you get home tonight, turn on the television and watch for an hour. I don't care what channel, just so long as it's a channel that has commercials. During the 60 minutes I want you to count how many car insurance commercials you see.
I did this experiment this weekend and during just about every commercial break an auto insurance company told me how much they love me, how badly they need me, and how much I could save if I switched to their service.
In order to persuade me I was presented with magical insurance agents that appear at will when I say the magic words. Pedro Cerrano from the movie "Major League" and one of "The Brothers McMullen" tried to convince me that their companies would provide the best auto insurance for my needs. A sweet lady with a bad haircut named Flo flirted with fictional customers selling them on the benefits of buying insurance from a half man, half horse creature.
Lizards and cavemen were enlisted for my entertainment. I'm was told that they are good neighbors. I'm was told that they are on my side. I was told that I could save 15 percent or more in just 15 minutes.
All of this love and attention. It was enough to make a grown man blush.
If you haven't noticed, the amount of advertising done by insurance companies has grown exponentially. In 2007 the entire industry spent $1.7 billion on advertising. In just the first quarter of 2011 the industry spent $1.5 billion. If that pace keeps up the industry will spend $6 billion this year. More than three times the amount spent just four years ago. Amazing amounts of money being spent trying to convince you to use their services.
I'm not saying that choosing the right insurance company isn't important, but instead of focusing on what insurance company you should use, have you ever thought about what car you should be driving to save money on auto insurance? I did some poking around the Internet and found some research done by Barbara Marquand of the website Insure.com. Marquand examined the annual insurance premiums of all 2011 vehicles and came up with a list of the least and most expensive vehicles to insure.
The cheapest? The Chrysler Town & Country LX 4 Door Wagon. The national average yearly premium is $1,091.80. The next two cheapest to insure are two versions of the Toyota Sienna wagon. Fourth on the list is the Honda Odyssey LX. Rounding out the top five is the Nissa Murano SL. In fact the list is littered with minivans, station wagons and SUV's which I found pretty interesting.
On the other side of the spectrum are the most expensive cars to insure. Topping the list? The Mercedes SL65 AMG two-door sports car. The average annual premium for that car is a whopping $3,543.81. That's more than three times higher than the Chrysler Town and Country.
The five most expensive 2011 cars to insure are all German made. Following the SL65 is the luxury 750i BMW four door sedan and the 750Li BMW sedan hybrid. Next up is the Mercedes SL63 AMG convertible and the Mercedes S65 AMG four door sedan.
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