5 Cheapest Cars to Insure in 2016 Are Not Actually Cars!

It's no secret that insuring a car - especially a new car - is never cheap. As drivers and vehicle owners, we all have to strike a balance between having the coverage we need and having a premium we can afford.

As any insurance agent will tell you, one way to maximize your insurance dollar is to choose a vehicle that won't cost a fortune to cover, before you ever shop for actual coverage. Conveniently, every year Insure.com compiles their list of the most and least expensive vehicles to insure.

This year, none of the five most affordable cars to insure are actually cars. Instead, they are a collection of crossovers and minivans. Here's the list:

1. Toyota Sienna LE ($1,113): This car has several safety and security features that insurance companies really dig, like an engine immobilizer that makes theft nearly impossible.




2. Toyota Sienna (base model) ($1,114): This is a four cylinder Sienna, making it a bit slower than the LE, and therefore slightly cheaper to insure.

3. Jeep Patriot Sport ($1,116): It's not terribly flashy, but it's a comfortable Jeep, and rugged enough for the kinds of in-town driving that most of its owners actually do.

4. Jeep Compass ($1,118): The sibling of the Jeep Patriot, the Compass Sport is another four-cylinder vehicle (its powertrain only offers 158 hp), which helps to keep its insurance cost pretty low.

5. GMC Sierra K1500 Regular Cab ($1,121): Rounding out the top five, and only $7 more expensive to insure than the cheapest vehicle, the GMC Sierra is really just a rebadged Chevrolet Silverado. In fact, the only difference is that this truck has a different front grille, and a slightly lower cost of insurance.

So, why are these vehicles considered the most affordable to insure? In addition to safety features, all are designed to be fairly stable - minivans don't generally roll over, for example - and most aren't driven in situations that would appeal to reckless drivers. You just don't tend to take hairpin curves at high speeds in a pickup, after all. It's also worth mentioning that none of these vehicles has an MSRP over $30,000.

How did Insure.com come up with these numbers? They used the stats for a single, male, forty-year-old driver with a clean record and good credit, and came up with an average annual cost of insurance. As the saying goes, these are only average costs. Your mileage may vary.

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