Guide to Insurance Group Ratings

Insurance group ratings are allocated by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and range from 1 to 20. The higher the group, the more relatively expensive it is likely to be to insure the vehicle. (1 is low, 20 is high.)

Insurance group ratings are purely advisory. They are used by many motor insurers as just one of the many input factors in calculating premiums. As such, they can provide a useful indicator of the likely relative cost of insuring a particular vehicle. Insurers are not required to follow the advisory group ratings.

The ABI does not currently allocate Insurance Group Ratings to “special” cars that are constructed for a specialised purpose only (e.g. kit cars), personal imports, or cars which have been converted from the manufacturer’s standard specification.

Security

The insurance industry has established its own criteria against which to evaluate certain security features (e.g. alarms and immobilisers) built into new vehicles. These criteria are generally higher than those required by European legislation. Since 1995, vehicles sold specifically for the UK market have been assessed by the insurance industry’s research centre, Thatcham to establish the level of standard fit security. Manufacturers whose vehicles are fitted with systems that meet the standard Thatcham criteria may benefit from improved insurance group ratings. Older cars may qualify for insurance premium discounts if subsequently fitted with alarms or immobilisers meeting the criteria.

Suffix (A, D, E, U, P, G)

Attached to most of the advisory group ratings is a suffix, which illustrates the level of security fitted as standard to that vehicle. The level is group dependent and the requirements increase along with the group. (The higher the group, the higher the level of security required.) A further explanation of the suffix follows:

A = Meets security requirement for this group.

D = Does not meet the security requirement for a car of this type and the group rating has therefore been increased (e.g. a group 9 car where the security requirement is not up to Thatcham’s minimum standard for that group will be listed as a 10D).

E = Exceeds security requirement for a car of this type and the group rating has therefore been reduced (e.g. a group 9 car where the security requirement exceeds Thatcham’s minimum standard for that group will be listed as an 8E).

(It will be seen from the above that the level of security on a vehicle could result in a two group differential between otherwise identical models.)

P = Provisional - This is used in cases where the data for group rating was incomplete at time of launch.

U = Cases where the level of security for the model concerned is regarded as Unacceptable. This does not mean that the car will be uninsurable but consumers should be aware that individual insurers may insist on the security being upgraded before providing cover.

G = Import - Insurance Group Ratings are currently only allocated to vehicles built for the UK market, although ABI data will list vehicles that are classed as imports. These fall into two categories:

Parallel Imports - these are vehicles that are built for and sold in Europe and will conform to European Whole Vehicle Type Approval requirements.

Grey Imports - these are mainly vehicles that are built specifically for other, non-EU, markets and are unlikely to conform to European Whole Vehicle Type Approval.

Finally there is a security code which indicates that an alarm/immobiliser has been fitted as standard by the manufacturer, and whether that alarm/immobiliser has been submitted to testing at Thatcham. The codes are as follows:

· N2 = An immobiliser that has not been tested by Thatcham

· N1 = An alarm/immobiliser combination that has not been tested by Thatcham

· T2 = An immobiliser that has been judged to comply to the Thatcham criteria.

· T1 = An alarm/immobiliser combination that has been judged to comply to the Thatcham criteria.