If you really want a car that's inexpensive to insure, go down the middle of the road when it comes to buying your next car. Cars likely to have the lowest claims rate of injury, theft and collision are going to get the best rates. Go for a model that is big enough to provide protection to you and your passengers, but not so big as to cause excessive damage in a wreck. Bigger cars provide better protection, but cost more in liability claims because they do more damage to others. The opposite is true for little cars: They don't do much damage to cars they collide with, but their passengers are not as well protected.

Runzheimer International, a Rochester, Wis., consulting firm, studied insurance costs on vehicles priced under $40,000. Below is its list of the least-expensive cars to insure in 2004.

Model	Annual Premium	Value
Saturn Ion	$1,127	$11,975
Saturn L300	$1,158	$16,995
Chevrolet Colorado	$1,158	$16,330
Chevrolet Aveo	$1,216	$11,785
Ford Escape XLS	$1,216	$19,300
Mazda 3	$1,216	$14,200
Dodge Caravan	$1,250	$21,795
Honda Accord DX	$1,250	$17,190
Hyundai Santa Fe	$1,250	$19,359
Toyota Corolla	$1,250	$14,885

(Rate estimates are based on liability coverage of $100,000 per person, $300,000 per incident for bodily injury and $50,000 for property damage; $100,000 and $300,000 for uninsured motorist coverage; and deductibles of $250 for comprehensive coverage and $500 for collision.)

8/3/04
Prakash Gandhi
Bankrate.com