Insuring a Jaguar

When the name Jaguar comes up, superior luxury and old-world elegance immediately spring to mind. While the automaker has gone through many changes, ups and downs through the years, it has always managed to maintain its reputation for producing impeccable, gorgeous vehicles that are unbeatably refined too. If there's one thing that Jaguar vehicles aren't, it's affordable. These cars typically come with hefty price tags that preclude most people from buying them. Since the cost of a vehicle has a dramatic impact on its insurance rates, these vehicles are very expensive to insure too. The average yearly cost to insure a Jaguar is $2,594.67, which ranks it 34th on a list of 36 vehicles. If you have the means to buy a Jaguar, make sure that you have the means to pay its monthly premium too.

Brief History

Jaguar began as a sidecar company in Blackpool, England. It was originally called the Swallow Sidecar Company, and it was founded in 1922 by William Walmsley and Bill Lyons. The duo decided to start producing automobiles about a decade later, and the company was renamed SS Cars Ltd. in 1933. The first car with the Jaguar name was the SS Jaguar 100, and it debuted in 1933. When World War II ended, the company needed a new name. The term "SS" had very negative connotations. It adopted the name Jaguar at that time. At one point, a Jaguar vehicle - the XK 120 - was the fastest in the world. Jaguar was purchased by Ford in 1990 and by Indian company Tata in 2008.

Exorbitant MSRPs Create Sky-High Insurance Premiums

When an insurance company calculates premiums for an expensive luxury car, it does so with the knowledge that any claims that are filed will be very expensive. As a result, insurance premiums for expensive cars tend to be very high. Jaguar vehicles are expensive. The XF, for example, has a starting MSRP of $53,000, and it is the "cheapest" one on the road today. The XJ has a starting MSRP of $73,700, and the XK convertible's starting MSRP is $90,500.

Jaguars aren't Stolen Frequently

There aren't very many Jaguars on the road, especially when you compare them to the number of other makes that are out there. As a result, they aren't stolen very frequently either. Insurance providers take theft rates into account when calculating premiums, so this fact helps Jaguar to some degree. Of course, it doesn't help enough to make these vehicles affordable to insure. There's not a single Jaguar on the top-ten lists that are published by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Impeccable Safety Features Help

Safety ratings aren't available for today's most popular Jaguars. People who buy Jaguars don't buy them because they are safe, and these aren't popular vehicles with families. However, that's not to say that Jaguar vehicles aren't safe. They are jam-packed with top-notch safety features. Jaguar also tends to include cutting-edge safety features on its most popular vehicles. For example, some of today's Jaguar vehicles include blind-spot warning system. Adaptive cruise control is also standard on some of the most popular Jaguars. Just don't look for ratings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or the U.S. government because you won't find them.

The typical cost to insure popular Jaguar vehicles is as follows:

• XF 8-Cylinder Sedan - $1,809.00
• XK 8-Cylinder Convertible - $2,415.00
• XJ 8-Cylinder Sedan - $2,049.00