Driving.ca posts an annual list of the year’s top selling vehicles. The rides on 2022’s list made up one third of all the automobiles sold in Canada last year. These models are very popular, and in fact, you might be looking into buying one right now. If you are considering one of these beauties, you might want to know how much it would cost to insure it. So we decided to run some quotes for you.
Here’s our top 10 list, ranked from lowest premiums to highest. (The number in parentheses is the spread in premiums between that vehicle and the GMC Sierra):
- GMC Sierra (–)
- Ram Pickup (–)
- Chevrolet Silverado (+1%)
- Ford F-Series (+2%)
- Hyundai Kona (+8%)
- Honda CR-V (+22%)
- Toyota RAV4 (+25%)
- Hyundai Elantra (+33%)
- Toyota Corolla (+36%)
- Honda Civic (+59%)
How do the rankings work?
We used our online auto insurance quoter to run insurance quotes for each of the vehicles on the list, and ranked their premiums from cheapest to most expensive. The quotes below represent the best rates that we were able to get for the statutory minimum accident benefits, $1 million liability, collision and comprehensive coverage for the most basic models of these vehicles. To give a good sense of how premiums can vary based on your age, gender, relationship status, location and driving history, we ran quotes for each of the vehicles using seven different driver profiles, including two that would be considered high-risk.
The drivers
Here are the drivers we used for the quote comparison. They are not real people, but the quotes reflect what someone of the same age, gender and relationship status, with the same postal code and driving history, would pay for auto insurance:
- Thomas, Male, 22, single, Burlington (L7P), clean record
- Kara, Female, 35, married, Whitby (L1N), minor at-fault claim in 2021
- Bartosz, Male, 43, divorced, Cornwall (K6K), conviction for following too close in 2022
- Corazon, Female, 54, widowed, Scarborough (M1G), speeding ticket in 2020
- Charlotte, Female, 61, single, Lakefield (K0L), four speeding tickets from 2019 to 2022
- Rain, Non-binary1, 43, common-law, Port Hope (L1A), three speeding tickets in 2022 and 2023, at-fault accident in 2023
- Johnny, Male, 28, common-law, Woodstock (N4T), at-fault accident and conviction for impaired driving in 2021
The quotes
| Sales rank | Vehicle | Units sold in 2022 | Thomas’ premium | Kara’s premium2 | Bartosz’ premium | Corazón’s premium | Charlotte’s premium3 | Rain’s premium | Johnny’s premium | Avg premium |
| 5 | GMC Sierra (SIERRA 1500 REG CAB 2WD) | 52,318 | $2,424 | $2,899 | $998 | $1,451 | $810 | $3,806 | $3,790 | $2,311 |
| 2 | Ram Pickup (RAM 1500 SLT REG CAB 2WD) | 75,740 | $2,610 | $2,899 | $954 | $1,441 | $777 | $3,841 | $3,681 | $2,315 |
| 4 | Chevrolet Silverado (SILVERADO 1500 WT REG CAB 2WD) | 53,281 | $2,471 | $2,991 | $998 | $1,451 | $810 | $3,806 | $3,790 | $2,331 |
| 1 | Ford F-Series (F-150 XL REG CAB 2WD) | 114,729 | $2,496 | $2,886 | $1,002 | $1,493 | $813 | $3,933 | $3,798 | $2,346 |
| 9 | Hyundai Kona (KONA ESSENTIAL 4DR 2WD) | 24,579 | $2,472 | $3,263 | $1,018 | $1,604 | $822 | $4,407 | $3,954 | $2,506 |
| 7 | Honda CR-V (CR-V LX 4DR 2WD) | 32,096 | $3,126 | $3,685 | $1,176 | $1,727 | $937 | $4,665 | $4,451 | $2,824 |
| 3 | Toyota RAV4 (RAV4 LE 4DR 2WD) | 55,921 | $3,114 | $3,777 | $1,189 | $1,771 | $1,032 | $4,843 | $4,518 | $2,892 |
| 10 | Hyundai Elantra (ELANTRA ESSENTIAL 4DR) | 24,559 | $3,373 | $4,074 | $1,268 | $1,868 | $986 | $5,195 | $4,804 | $3,081 |
| 6 | Toyota Corolla (COROLLA L 4DR) | 33,906 | $3,254 | $4,014 | $1,301 | $1,949 | $1,122 | $5,396 | $4,931 | $3,138 |
| 8 | Honda Civic (CIVIC EX 4DR) | 29,722 | $3,731 | $4,512 | $1,596 | $2,316 | $1,246 | $6,252 | $6,032 | $3,669 |
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Key findings
What we found was that the GMC Sierra will get you the best premiums on average, followed closely by the other three pickup trucks on the list (Ram Pickup, Ford F-Series and Chevy Silverado). The SUVs (Hyundai Kona, Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4) were somewhat pricier to insure, and the cars (Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic) had the highest average premiums. The Honda Civic came in last, with an average premium 59% higher than the Sierra.
A few other tidbits:
- On average, premiums for pickup trucks were 18% lower than those for SUVs and 41% lower than cars.
- Regardless of the driver, the Honda Civic had the highest premiums of all the vehicles on the top 10 list.
- Seven different insurance companies had the best quote for at least one of the vehicle/driver combinations (70 quotes in total)
- For a given driver, the spread between the lowest and highest quote was between 54 and 67%.
- For five out of seven drivers, the best quote for the GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado were identical, which makes sense because they are essentially the same truck, manufactured in the same factories.
What has changed?
The last time we compared premiums for Canada’s top 10 selling vehicles was in 2018. At that time, we only compared quotes for two drivers. The 2022 top 10 list is largely made up of the same vehicles as 2018’s, with the only new entry being the Hyundai Kona, which replaces the Ford Escape.
The results of the premium comparison were quite different in 2018, with the Honda CR-V leading the way with the lowest average premium and the Ram Pickup finishing second-to-last. The other striking difference between that comparison and this one is that this time around, the driver profile didn’t seem to affect the rankings. In 2018, the two driver profiles we used seemed to have a big effect on the vehicle rankings, whereas this time around, the Civic finished last for all the driver profiles and one of the four pickup trucks finished first.
| Avg ranking | Female ranking | Male ranking | |
| Honda CR-V | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Chevrolet Silverado | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| GMC Sierra | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Ford F-Series | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Ford Escape | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Hyundai Elantra | 7 | 8 | 7 |
| Honda Civic | 8 | 9 | 8 |
| Ram 1500 | 9 | 7 | 10 |
| Toyota Corolla | 10 | 10 | 9 |
We’ve got your best deal on auto insurance
Whatever vehicle you choose in the end, you’ll need insurance. Why not call Mitch before you buy, and get a quote on any vehicles you’re considering, so you have a better idea about the total cost of ownership. Talk to one of our auto insurance brokers today. We can get your new vehicle on the road in no time.
1 Some insurance companies have begun providing specific rates for gender X and non-binary drivers. For those that only have male and female rates, they run the quote as a male, then as a female, and the customer gets the lower of the two rates.
2 Without the at-fault accident, Kara would pay $1,493 to insure the Silverado. The accident has doubled her premium.
3 Only two of Charlotte’s four tickets are in the last three years. If she had a third, she would pay more than three times as much for the Hyundai Kona ($2,549) with a high-risk insurer.
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