The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.
What Does it Cost to Insure the UK's Most Popular Vehicles?
Get cheap car insurance quotes for your vehicle
Quickly compare more than 100 UK insurance providers. You could save up to £504.*
The price you pay for car insurance will depend on a number of factors, one of which is the car you drive. In fact, some cars can cost hundreds of pounds more to insure than others, due to differences in repair/replacement costs, standard anti-theft features, safety records, etc. We've gathered quotes for the top 5 selling cars so far in 2018, as of April, to get an idea of what most new car owners will pay to insure their car.
What are the Most Popular Cars in the UK?
According to the SMMT, the best selling vehicle in the UK year-to-date through April 2018 is the Ford Fiesta. The Fiesta is the clear winner, selling 50% more cars than the runner up, the VW Golf. Unfortunately as you'll see in the next section, the Ford Fiesta is also the most expensive to insure.
| Rank | Car Name | Sales Jan - April 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford Fiesta | 40,619 |
| 2 | Volkswagen Golf | 26,685 |
| 3 | Nissan Qashqai | 21,171 |
| 4 | Ford Focus | 19,344 |
| 5 | Vauxhall Corsa | 17,995 |
Which is the Cheapest Popular UK Car to Insure?
Of the 5 most popular UK cars, we found the cheapest car to insure is the Ford Focus. To analyze each car we gathered quotes from multiple companies for a sample 30-year-old driver. The following table ranks the top 5 from least to most expensive to insure.
| Rank | Car Name | Average Yearly Insurance Price | Average Excess | OTR Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford Focus | £741 | £600 | £20,141 |
| 2 | Vauxhall Corsa | £790 | £425 | £11,045 |
| 3 | Volkswagen Golf | £853 | £435 | £18,235 |
| 4 | Nissan Qashqai | £900 | £455 | £19,300 |
| 5 | Ford Fiesta | £937 | £545 | £13,715 |
While you might expect that the most expensive cars cost the most to insure, the data shows that this is not always the case. For example, the starting price of the Ford Focus is 47% higher than the Ford Fiesta, yet costs 21% less to insure. Perhaps this is due to the Fiesta being a more-likely target of car thieves—we are currently waiting on car theft data from the Home Office to shed more light on this possibility.
Methodology
Online comprehensive car insurance quotes were gathered from around a dozen insurance brokers for a 30-year old male car owner with a clean record, who expects to drive 8,000 miles per year, lives in London and keeps their car in the driveway of their home, using the entry-level models for each car. Prices for older or younger drivers would differ, as you can read about in our article on the average cost of car insurance. Starting on-the-road (OTR) prices were gathered for the entry level models from each car company's website.