How Much Does Insurance Cost for a Toyota RAV4 in California?

When writing about shopping for car insurance, the words “cheap” or “affordable” should not be used anywhere in the article. It’s a simple fact that cheap auto insurance for a Toyota RAV4 can seem impossible to find. But don’t let that discourage you, because we are going to show you some ways you can still find auto insurance that doesn’t break your budget.

Finding cheap coverage for a Toyota RAV4 in California relies on a complex rating formula that takes into consideration things like the amount of driving experience you have, your residence address, and blemishes on your driving record. Drivers in California pay an average rate of $1,440 a year to buy insurance for a Toyota RAV4, but that price is an approximation that rates a 30-year-old married female that has full coverage including both comprehensive and collision and $100 deductibles.

This brings up the issue that more than likely you are not a 30-year-old female, maybe you are single instead of married, or maybe you’ve had an at-fault accident or two. Changing even a minor factor in the rating input factors can cause significant differences in how much coverage for a Toyota RAV4 costs.

Every insurance policy is unique to the driver, so the most reliable way to find the most affordable coverage for your Toyota is to regularly compare rates at renewal. Get a free quote now and you will get price quotes from top-rated car insurance companies in California.

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Cost estimates assume married female driver age 30, no speeding tickets, no at-fault accidents, $100 deductibles, and California minimum liability limits. Discounts applied include homeowner, multi-policy, multi-vehicle, safe-driver, and claim-free. Estimates do not factor in specific location information which can affect insurance rates greatly.

Locating low-cost insurance is not easy, and figuring out which companies quote the cheapest insurance rates for a Toyota RAV4 takes additional perseverance.

Each auto insurer has a unique approach for setting rates, so let’s take a look at the lowest cost insurance companies in California.

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USAA may have some of the best car insurance rates in California at around $1,121 each year. Wawanesa, CSAA, Nationwide, and Century National also rank well as some of the lowest-priced California auto insurance companies.

In the above example, if you are a customer of Wawanesa and switched to USAA, you may see an annual premium reduction of upwards of $60. California drivers with CSAA may save as much as $65 a year, and Nationwide policyholders might see rate reductions of $92 a year.

Understand that those prices are averages across all types of insureds and vehicles and and are not figured with a specific rating modification for a Toyota RAV4. So the insurer that can offer you the lowest price may not even be in the above rate chart. That is why you need to get quotes using your own specific driver and vehicle information.

Cost difference between full coverage and liability

Finding cheap insurance for a Toyota RAV4 in California should be important to the majority of people, and an effective way to reduce the cost of insurance is to buy only liability coverage. The information below illustrates the comparison of premium costs with full coverage compared to only the California minimum liability coverage. Data assumes no claims, a clean driving record, $500 deductibles, drivers are not married, and no discounts are applied.

google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawFclqcibChart);function drawFclqcibChart() {var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([[‘Age of Insured’, ‘Full Coverage with $500 Deductibles’, ‘Liability Only’],[‘Age 20’, 4195,1563],[‘Age 30’, 2195,855],[‘Age 40’, 2153,791],[‘Age 50’, 1963,741],[‘Age 60’, 1903,729],[‘Age 70’, 2341,975]]);var options = {title: ‘Full Coverage Rates Versus Liability Only Rates’,titleTextStyle: {color: ‘#333’,fontSize: 17,bold: true},width: ‘100%’,height: 500,’chartArea’: {left:100,top:50,’width’: ‘100%’, ‘height’: ‘70%’},legend: {position: ‘bottom’},colors: [‘#6791b9′,’#98bee2’],hAxis: {title: ‘Annual Insurance Cost for a Toyota RAV4 in California’,minValue: 0,format: ‘$###,###’},vAxis: {title: ‘Age of Insured’}};var formatter = new google.visualization.NumberFormat({fractionDigits: 0,prefix: ‘$’});formatter.format(data,1);formatter.format(data,2);var chart = new google.visualization.BarChart(document.getElementById(‘qcibfcl’));chart.draw(data, options);}

Averaged for all age groups, physical damage coverage on your policy costs an additional $2,458 per year over having just liability coverage. That amount may make you wonder if paying for full coverage is worth it. There isn’t a steadfast formula of when to exclude full coverage, but there is a general guideline you can use. If the annual cost of having full coverage is more than around 10% of the replacement cost minus the deductible, the it may be a good time to stop paying for full coverage.

For example, let’s pretend your vehicle’s replacement cost is $3,000 and you have $1,000 full coverage deductibles. If your vehicle is totaled in an accident, the most your company will settle for is $2,000 after paying your deductible. If you are currently paying more than $200 annually for full coverage, then you might consider buying liability only.

Chances are good that you’re overpaying for RAV4 insurance

California insurance rates are influenced by many factors that can increase the cost of your policy. Simply having another birthday, marrying your spouse, or getting a driving violation can trigger rate changes that can make some companies more affordable than before.

Not only may things change on your end, but companies change rates at least once a year to adjust for heavy claims or excess profits. An unexpected high level of claims can result in additional price hikes, while a profitable period may produce cheaper RAV4 insurance rates.

To help illustrate this point, the chart below shows which company has the cheapest car insurance in California for a 40-year-old male driver with no violations or accidents, and a good credit history. Based on his current situation, USAA quotes the lowest car insurance rates in California at $1,143 per year. This is $508 less than the average premium paid by California drivers of $1,651. Wawanesa, Century National, CSAA, and Nationwide are also included in the cheapest California auto insurance companies.

google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawCAWitcqcibChart);function drawCAWitcqcibChart() {var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([[‘Company’, ‘Rate’, { role: ‘style’ }],[‘USAA’, 1143, ‘#528E00’],[‘Wawanesa’, 1146, ‘#447600’],[‘Century National’, 1178, ‘#386200’],[‘CSAA’, 1222, ‘#2E5100’],[‘Nationwide’, 1226, ‘#264300’]]);var options = {title: ‘Best Cheap Auto Insurance for a Toyota RAV4’,titleTextStyle: {color: ‘#333’, fontSize: 17, bold: true},width: ‘100%’,height: 300,’chartArea’: {left:0,top:50,’width’: ‘100%’, ‘height’: ‘70%’},bar: {groupWidth: “90%”},legend: {position: ‘none’},vAxis: {viewWindowMode:’explicit’,viewWindow:{max:1326,min:0}}};var formatter = new google.visualization.NumberFormat({fractionDigits: 0,prefix: ‘$’});var view = new google.visualization.DataView(data);view.setColumns([0, 1,{ calc: “stringify”,sourceColumn: 1,type: “string”,role: “annotation” },2]);formatter.format(data,1);formatter.format(data,2);var chart = new google.visualization.ColumnChart(document.getElementById(‘qcibwitc’));chart.draw(view, options);}

Let’s now give the driver from the above example a claim, a lower credit score, and an imperfect driving record. Since each company has a proprietary method for setting rates, getting updated rate quotes may now present a slightly different list of the cheapest companies as shown below.

google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawCAWcqcibChart);function drawCAWcqcibChart() {var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([[‘Company’, ‘Rate’, { role: ‘style’ }],[‘Grange’, 1591.7, ‘#F58700’],[‘Progressive’, 1663.2, ‘#CC7000’],[‘Mercury’, 1686.3, ‘#AA5D00’],[‘Allied’, 1711.6, ‘#8D4D00’],[‘Allstate’, 1714.9, ‘#754000’]]);var options = {title: ‘Best Rates with Imperfect Driving Record’,titleTextStyle: {color: ‘#333’,fontSize: 17,bold: true},width: ‘100%’,height: 300,’chartArea’:{left:0,top:50,’width’: ‘100%’, ‘height’: ‘70%’},bar: {groupWidth: “90%”},legend: {position: ‘none’},vAxis: {viewWindowMode:’explicit’,viewWindow:{max:1814.9,min:0}}};var formatter = new google.visualization.NumberFormat({fractionDigits: 0,prefix: ‘$’});var view = new google.visualization.DataView(data);view.setColumns([0, 1,{ calc: “stringify”,sourceColumn: 1,type: “string”,role: “annotation” },2]);formatter.format(data,1);formatter.format(data,2);var chart = new google.visualization.ColumnChart(document.getElementById(‘qcibwc’));chart.draw(view, options);}

Grange now has the cheapest insurance rate in California with Progressive, Mercury, Allied, and Allstate also having competitive pricing. This demonstrates why California drivers need to compare lots of rates when trying to find the cheapest insurance rates for a Toyota RAV4. Insurance rates are influenced by many factors and can increase or decrease at any time, so the best price three years ago may now be priced much higher than other options.

Cheap Toyota RAV4 insurance quotes

Thanks to technology, drivers have a lot of ways to quote cheap insurance rates in California, but the most popular ways are through an exclusive agency such as Auto-Owners or State Farm, a non-exclusive or independent agent, or from a direct company like Progressive or Geico. They all have the same basic principle, but they are slightly different in how they function.

Independent agencies have contracts with many companies and can provide price quotes from every one. These types of agencies are usually affiliated with several companies and can compare multiple rates, which may give you a better chance of finding cheaper coverage. If a cheaper price is found, your policy can be moved and you can keep the same agent.

An agent who is captive is only able to quote rates with a single insurance company such as a Liberty Mutual or State Farm agent. This type of agents cannot compare rates from other companies, so keep that in mind.

The final way is buying direct, which means you skip an exlusive or independent agent and buy from a direct company like Geico. This option may be the best choice families who have fewer assets and know more than average about how insurance works and possible exclusions.

Out of those three methods, which one works best to find cheap insurance for a Toyota RAV4 in California? Most people would assume that buying direct saves the most money because you bypass the middleman, but that turns out to not be true. An argument could also be made that going through an independent agent guarantees the cheapest rates because you have more choices, but that’s not always true, either. In many circumstances, the exclusive agents may have prices that are the lowest in California.

Because there is so much variation in insurance prices, the best method to find out which one is cheapest is to do a thorough rate comparison. Money-saving experts recommend you get price quotes from independent, exclusive, and direct to get an idea of which is cheapest. For a list of companies with some of the cheapest California insurance rates, click here to view.

Find cheap insurance for a Toyota RAV4 in California

The list below summarizes many money-saving ideas that can help you locate cheap coverage.

• Raise deductibles to save money
• Prevent rate increases by staying accident-free
• Do not get tickets or violations
• The safer your car, the less it costs to insure
• Good credit scores may make rates cheaper
• Full coverage may not be needed on older vehicles
• Shop around once a year for cheaper rates

The last suggestion is very vital, as we emphasized in this piece. Insurance prices can change significantly in a year, so don’t be tentative to buy a different policy if a better rate can be found.

Brand loyalty is not necessarily bad, but is isn’t recommended if that inflexibility results in costing you potentially thousands of dollars a year. Now is a great time to compare prices and find cheaper auto insurance for a Toyota RAV4.