My 2016 RDX Advanced costs less to insure than my wife's 2016 Mazda 3 GTS. Both have all the safety features, e.g. crash avoidance, lane change warning, rear camera and warning, etc. etc. But her car costs more to insure than the RDX and this has been true every year since we purchased. I find it odd since the RDX has a bigger engine, bigger body, and greater replacement cost if totaled. I Can't explain it and don't understand it it. Chalk it up to one more plus for the RDX?

 

Mazda 3 is popular among younger drivers. SUV is more family oriented and the driver group is relatively more mature, thus tend to be safer. That's why.

 

Actually I need to edit my post--the Mazda is a 2014. The RDX is a 2016. Sorry. But that's another thing that leaves me scratching my head on the higher cost for insuring the Mazda 3.

 

not trying be a debbie downer, but there are a whole LIST of criteria that we(common folk) dont know about.

why not give your insurance company a call and see if they can explain to you why?
(cuz we dont know and any attempts will just be arm-chair quarter-backing)

 

one is a SUV and one is a small car...

things they consider

cost of repair

likelihood of injury

where you live

age

etc...

 

credit

accident history

used vs new

and so on and so on

 

Both bought new. No accidents. They're on the same policy. But to your earlier post justnspace--I see you're now playing along. Hmmm. This is an Acura site. All kinds of issues and questions are addressed here. It could be said for many of the posts "Go ask a dealer" or "Go ask a mechanic" or "Go ask a tire store." Etc.

 

I'm just not one to speculate....because we could speculate and guess ALL day.
and unless we have an insurance employee, here on acurazine... there is no DIRECT answer to your questions

but yes! chalk it up for +1 to the RDX!

 

Unfortunately, the Mazda 3 is considered a sports car. As you can imagine, there are implied risks, for an insurance company, when insuring a sports car. Now, why in the world is it classified a sports car? IDK.

Is there a turbocharged version of the Mazda 3? The one I drove was slow, slow, slow. So, to me, for that car to be classified as a sports car, is odd.

My wife writes insurance policies for a living, I'll ask her if she has any information, with regards to the Mazda 3, if you want?

 

Beak14--thanks for the post. It's a puzzle to me. Our Mazda is not a turbo--but is considered a sports car of sorts (Grand Touring Sport is the model). It was two years old when I got the new Acura and the Acura's insurance was lower from day one! I'm not in need of having this investigated--I just wondered if others had any insights.

 

Gotta go with what Kareshi says......as a licensed insurance agent (no company affiliation...I used it to give advice legally), I can tell you that a lot of it is based upon the demographics of the vehicle and the general accident statistics surrounding it. If younger people who are more apt to get tickets and get into accidents are driving the vehicle (not the RDX demo, for sure), then the rates will be higher, period, even if you are not in the demo that gets into trouble....

 

 

When I got my '17 RDX, my insurance went down considerably over my '14 Ford Escape. I also cross-shopped many other suv's and quoted the insurance and each one (Lexus, Audi, BMW, Jeep, MB, and especially Inifiniti) was considerably more than the RDX.

 

In going from a 2012 Accord to a 2016 RDX Advance, my insurance costs only went up $60 a year. Mainly due to all the safety features. Insurance agent said, "It's pretty hard to kill yourself in one of those things."

 

It's easy. Just turn the safety features off and it will happen.

 

So...I posed this question to my auto insurance folks, "Why does is cost more to insure an [x] car than it does a [y] car; they're both 2005 4-door sedans, V6 engines, leather interior, similar miles?" I was told, as part of a long list, the biggest item is cost of comparable repairs resulting from an accident. Total cost of repair parts and labor were a major factor in insurance costs.

The 2013 RDX was the same to insure as a 2011 Honda CRV. Couldn't figure that one out, though...

Sidenote: A car I used to have was at the shop for regular maintenance. One of the workers "accidentally" ran into it and caused a "small ding"; It cost 5k to repair. Part of the repair was getting a door assembly from Germany. 5K!? We didn't pay anything, but still...5K for a door!]

I agree with justnspace: call your insurance agent. Glad I did. The conversation helped me narrow my list down to the Acura RDX.

Happy researching.

 

There are 26598 different calculations that go into an insurance quote - broken down into you (your record, education, credit score, marital status, job etc.), where you live (quotes can differ from block to block), your car (repair costs, frequency of claims, demographics of owners and so forth) and a boatload of other things. Interestingly enough, the percentage difference between two cars can change quite dramatically. A few years ago we moved from a single family home on a large lot but on a main road to a townhouse community literally two miles down the road. Both homes had garages.Neither of us had any claims for many years, no tickets, decent jobs, near 850 credit scores and so forth. My Audi S6 went up, my wife's Civic went down. When we most recently moved from MD to VA, my wife's Civic went down by $5 while my TSX wagon dropped by 50%

 

It's interesting that responses from those who contacted insurance agents have varying sets of explanations. I'm confident that if we ask ten more--we'll get an ever expanded set of explanations. That said, from all the contributions to this thread reveal, the answer(s) to my original question are complicated, I.e., no simple answers. Thank you for all the productive responses. I have a sound answer/explanation to my query. And they were provided by insurance folks and non-insurance folks alike.

 

When my GF traded her 2013 Mazda 3 Touring for a 2016 RDX Advanced her rates went down too. Obviously the insurance companies classify the 3 as a higher risk car. They are going to charge whatever it takes to make money on the deal. To answer your earlier question, they DID make a turbo model for several years, the Mazdaspeed 3. It was a pretty badass car. Hopefully they will release one again now that they have the 2.5 Turbo available.

 

I don't use credit and my insurance rates are low... the BIGGEST factor is paying your bill in full and not giving them up to $200 extra in installment fees. Been with Progressive for 13 years and it is $831 every 6 mo for 2 cars a 2003 and 2014 Subaru Legacy with 100/300/100 full coverage, glass and roadside on each.. I live in crapville USA and want to move to a more sedate place..

 

Several states no longer allow credit to be a factor in insurance rates....there is a small correlation between excellent credit and responsible driving/responsible home ownership; however, the downside is horrid where people who are safe drivers/responsible home owners get totally screwed due to less than perfect credit. That downside only allows some insurance companies to screw people for profit.

I also agree with your comment regarding paying the bill in full, if you can. The fees can be ridiculous. Worse case, if you can't pay the bill in full, is to put it on a credit card with a zero pct interest offer and pay that monthly, still allowing you to save the exorbitant fees.

 

1st timer poster just wanting to share our experience so far with our acuras:

Our insurance went down too, but looking at various carriers its really hard not to find a discount. We had a 2014 crv traded in for 17 rdx advance awd, Our insurance went down about 30 or 40 bucks a month.

Not sure if anyone cares to know:
A few months back my 3-4 month pregnant wife driving her 17 rdx awd advance and got hit by a minivan while she was at a dead stop in traffic. The van was going about 40mph. The impact she was actually ready for as she saw the van travelling fast and approaching her car in the rear view. Anyway, the rdx took the impact like a champ. She suffered injuries from bracing her arms and legs into the car with anticipation of the impact and she described the accident to me as traumatic but also she was very thankful that she felt her car was so strong in the collision and that it kept her from really getting hurt or causing harm to our baby. Mostly, it was her being a heads up driver and bracing impact but still, if she felt the car took the collision well I feel it was an excellent choice choosing this car. I do not see many threads on accidents, I don't want to bring anyone bad luck but we had a REALLY unlucky 2016. Unfortunately with the lkas and front collision warning the advance has, it cannot help you from getting hit from behind lol. Hope this helps anyone wondering if and how this particular model takes a big hit from a bigger car. My friend once told me the acura bumpers are strong, he was not kidding..