If you’re in the market for a sports car, you may think you’re going to pay an arm and a leg for insurance. But that’s not necessarily true. Yes, a Porsche 911 may cost quite a bit more than you pay now, but the Mazda MX5 Miata is even more affordable than some sedans.
As always, premiums are based primarily on your driving history, but for some of the more expensive sports cars on the list, the price of the car has a clear impact on the price of the insurance.
Key findings:
Of the top 10 selling sports cars in Canada:
- The MX5 Miata is by far the most affordable to insure
- The Porsche 911 and BMW 8-series are the most expensive to insure
- The value of the vehicle has a lot to do with the cost of insurance (911 and 8-series have the highest MSRP, MX5 has the second-lowest)
- The Porsche 718 and Chevy Corvette seem to be the best insurance values, as they produce lower premiums than other cars with much lower MSRPs
- It appears that insurance companies will not offer coverage on a $100,000+ vehicle if you have a recent serious conviction like impaired driving. (This doesn’t have anything specifically to do with sports cars, but we thought we’d mention it since it applies to several vehicles on the list)
We’ve all heard the myth that if you drive a red sports car, you’ll pay a lot more for auto insurance. Although there is zero truth to that one (we don’t even ask the colour of the vehicle), there are certainly reasons why some sports cars (of any colour) might be difficult to insure, resulting in higher premiums.
The reality is that insurance rates are always based on the same factors regardless of whether you drive a van, a Volvo or a Dodge Viper. The main elements that affect your premiums are historical. That is, the accident and theft history of that type of car, and your own driving and insurance history.
Still, other factors do come into play, and one of them is the value of the vehicle being insured. Because 90% of all vehicles insured in Ontario have a value between $20,000 and $50,000, we don’t often talk about it, but if you’re driving a car that costs more than $100,000, that can’t help but affect how much you’ll pay for insurance.
To illustrate all of the above rating factors, we ran quotes for Canada’s top 10 selling sports cars, using a variety of driver profiles (age, gender, location, driving experience), in our online auto insurance quoter. The results might help you decide which sports car you buy. If not, at least it will give you a better understanding of how insurance rates are determined.
Comparative quotes
Whenever we run comparative quotes, we try to focus on one rating factor. In this case, we want to see how a particular make and model of sports car affects premiums. To make sure that other factors aren’t affecting the results, we run quotes for drivers of different ages, in different locations, with different driving records etc.
In this case we ran quotes for the following four fictional drivers:
- Rewa, 69, windowed female, one minor at-fault claim in 2019, Cornwall (K6J)
- Joshua, 22, single male, one speeding ticket in 2020, Pembroke (K8A)
- Shannon, 41, divorced female, clean record, Scarborough (M1B)
- Yu, 54, married male, impaired driving conviction in 2018, Newmarket (L3X)
All of the quotes are based on the following assumptions:
- No multi-line or multi-vehicle discounts
- Winter tire discount applied
- All drivers have been licensed since they turned 16
- All drivers commute 10 km to work, and drive about 10,000 km a year
- Coverage (The following reflects the coverage sought when we run the quote. Often if a driver has tickets or at-faults, the insurer will modify the exact terms of the coverage being offered):
- $1 million liability limit (we recommend $2 million)
- $1,000 deductible for collision and comprehensive claims (unless otherwise specified)
- Zero deductible for direct compensation claims (meaning another driver is at fault)
- $1,500 in loss of use coverage (rental car if your car is being repaired)
- Waiver of depreciation where available (vehicle insured for the dollar value you originally paid)
- Accident forgiveness where available (typically not available for drivers with recent claims or tickets)
- $50,000 coverage if you damage a vehicle you don’t own (e.g., rental, loaner)
- Family protection endorsement included where available. That’s extra coverage if you or your family are injured by an at-fault driver with no insurance.
| 2021 Cdn sales to date1 | MSRP | Rewa’s price | Joshua’s price | Shannon’s price | Yu’s price | Avg price | |
| Mazda MX-5 Miata (MX5 GS CONVERTIBLE) | 937 | $34,860 | $690 | $1,761 | $1,547 | $2,464 | $1,616 |
| BMW 2-Series (228i GRAN COUPE 4DR) | 1,177 | $40,940 | $863 | $2,469 | $1,924 | $3,182 | $2,110 |
| Chevrolet Camaro (LS 2DR) | 610 | $31,844 | $888 | $2,452 | $2,001 | $3,312 | $2,163 |
| Porsche 718 (CAYMAN 2DR) | 337 | $69,720 | $930 | $2,692 | $1,939 | $3,250 | $2,203 |
| Dodge Challenger (SXT 2DR) | 1,050 | $36,640 | $942 | $2,675 | $2,111 | $3,520 | $2,312 |
| Ford Mustang (2DR) | 2,659 | $40,052 | $948 | $2,793 | $2,038 | $3,478 | $2,314 |
| Chevrolet Corvette (STINGRAY 2DR COUPE) | 1,154 | $80,182 | $1,058 | $2,758 | $2,142 | $3,700 | $2,415 |
| Audi A5 (KOMFORT 2.0 TFSI QUATTRO 2DR) | 1,842 | $53,235 | $1,047 | $3,344 | $2,190 | $3,978 | $2,640 |
| Porsche 9112 (CARRERA 2 2DR COUPE) | 746 | $118,650 | $1,133 | $4,499 | $2,270 | $8,874 | $4,194 |
| BMW 8-Series (M850i xDrive GRAN COUPE 4DR AWD) | 339 | $128,205 | $1,173 | $4,530 | $2,310 | $9,106 | $4,280 |
The cars on the list have MSRPs (the base price) between $31,000 and $129,000. That’s a really big range. And those prices clearly factor into the results. The second cheapest car (MX5 Miata) is by far the most affordable to insure, and the two most expensive ones on the list (Porsche 911 and BMW 8-series) produce premiums that dwarf the rest.
Also note that Yu, with an impaired driving conviction, is still able to get fairly reasonable rates from regular insurers for most of the cars on the list, but for the vehicles valued over $100,000, he can only get insurance through Facility Association (the insurer of last resort), and has to pay significantly higher premiums as a result.
Does it matter that it’s a sports car?
It bears repeating that insurance companies really don’t care if you drive a sports car, much less a red one. What they care about is how often cars like yours are stolen, how often they crash, and whether people are seriously injured when they do crash. To reinforce the point, we ran an extra quote for Yu, with a sedan (the Mazda 6 GS-L 4DR), that has a similar MSRP to the MX5 Miata.
| MSRP | Yu’s price | |
| Mazda MX-5 Miata (MX5 GS CONVERTIBLE) | $34,860 | $2,464 |
| Mazda 6 (GS-L 4DR) | $33,233 | $3,395 |
Yu would pay $931 more per year to insure a sedan than he would to insure a sports car of similar value. The moral of the story is clear. Sports cars don’t necessarily cost more to insure. Although it is probably true that a more powerful engine is likely to lead to more serious crashes, and consequently to higher premiums, it certainly has nothing to do with how sporty the car looks or if it’s marketed as a sports car.
Call for a quote today on these and other vehicles
You don’t need to buy a car to know how much it will cost you in premiums. If you’re planning to treat yourself to one of the sporty models on the top 10 list, feel free to call Mitch before you make up your mind. We’ll give you quotes for one, two, or all of the cars on the list. All it takes is a 10-minute phone call. Our expert brokers will make sure you get the coverage you need and let you compare apples to apples before you choose the car you want. There’s no obligation when you get quotes, but if you like one of them, we can get you all set up and on the road in no time.
1 Sales figures from GoodCarBadCar.net.
2 Most insurers require a higher deductible for high-value cars (MSRP over $100,000). The deductible quoted for the Porsche 911 and BMW M850i was $2,500.
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