Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
Even if said driver has 'zero' demerits?
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Yep. All insurance rates (absent other factors, such as political interference), whether life, car, whatever, are governed by actuarial projections, based on decades of statistics and the likelihood that a given individual will have a claim (be that a car accident, death, illness - whatever the policy happens to be for). And the fact is, statistical anylysis suggests that a "young" person is several times more likely to cause an accident than, say, a 40 year-old. Obviously, there are a ton of other factors, such as what the vehicles is being used for, etc, etc, but basically it is based on statistical analysis of historical data. An actual actuary or someone with insurance industry experience could explain this better and in more detail I am sure.
From the anecdotal standpoint, I've looked at a few thousand accidents myself over the years, and a very substantial proportion are caused by a "20 year-old in a Sunfire"
, with senior citizens being another well represented group.
So, yes, in my mind, it's perfectly reasonable that a given 20 year-old pay 3-5X more for insurance than I do, since he is 3-5x more statistically likely to cause an accident than I am.