Auto insurance:
why your costs
may be going up

You still drive the same car. So why might your auto insurance premiums go up?

When it comes to insurance, prices are based on both your risk and expected costs to cover claims. Although Farmers® works hard to keep rates competitive, there are times when the costs of paying claims and other expenses make it necessary to increase rates.

So even if everything in your life stays the same, the costs may change due to outside factors like these:

1,020,729
Vehicles stolen

(2023)***

Car Theft Stays High
Car thefts topped 1 million for the first time in 2022 and rose again in 2023, up 1% to 1,020,729. Thieves are using advanced technology to bypass vehicle security systems and other increasingly sophisticated methods, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

  • 2,820 vehicles stolen every day
  • 1 vehicle stolen every 30.8 seconds

car theft illustration

40,990
Traffic
fatalities

(2023)**

Texting, cellphones and GPS
Distracted driving was involved in crashes that killed 3,308 people in 2022, part of a surge of unsafe driving that led to a record number of car crash fatalities from 2020 to 2022. 

Since 2022, overall fatalities have seen a slight downward trend. But at 40,990 in 2023, they remain higher than their pre-surge peak of 39,007 in 2019.

accident illustration

11.6%
Increase in
car repair costs
(March 2023 - March 2024)*

High-Tech, High-Cost Cars
The cost of repairing today’s technologically complex cars soared again in 2023 and into 2024.

New car prices have moderated after their inflation-driven leap in 2022-23 — but settled at a higher level than before the surge.

car supply illustration

3.5%
Annual rate
of inflation
(March 2023 - March 2024)*

INFLATION HIKES
Effects of the recent surge in inflation are still rippling through the economy. Inflation, which sent the price of goods and services soaring higher in 2022 than in any year since the early 1980s, has moderated. But the rate remains above its annual level of 0.1% to 2.4% from 2012 to 2020.

Insurance premiums may increase in connection with the rising cost to repair, replace or rebuild insured items that are lost, stolen or damaged.

inflation illustration

* Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index
** Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
*** Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau, preliminary data