How much to insure Canada’s cheapest pickup trucks for 2023?

Canadians love their pickup trucks. In 2022, pickups made up almost a quarter of Canadian motor vehicle sales, and the Ford F-Series has been the top selling vehicle in the country every year since 2009. But for budget-minded Canadians, pickup trucks can be pricey to buy. Thankfully they are very affordable to insure.

Based on Driving.ca’s breakdown of the cheapest pickup trucks for 2023, here’s our ranking of the most affordable pickups in terms of auto insurance premiums:

To determine which trucks on the list had the best premiums, we ran quotes for each of them using our online auto insurance quoter. To eliminate rating factors unrelated to the vehicles themselves, we got quotes for five different drivers. They vary in age, gender, relationship status and postal code. Some have cleaner driving records while others have some tickets and/or at-fault accidents.

In order to see how insurance rates for pickup trucks compare with other popular vehicles, we also ran quotes with the same drivers for the Toyota RAV4 and Honda Civic.

Here are the drivers we used to determine our rankings:

All of the quotes are based on the following assumptions:

Not as much as you might think. The most expensive trucks on the list are the heavy-duty trucks, most of which had the lowest premiums of all. The biggest influence on premiums is how likely passengers are to be injured, not the value of the vehicle. For example, the Ford F-150 King Ranch⁵ is 92% more expensive than the F-150 XL, but premiums for the King Ranch are only 26% higher.

Using payment calculators on the automakers’ websites, we estimated monthly payments on all of the midsize trucks and the GMC Sierra 2500. All of the monthly payments below are based on an 84-month term and a $5,000 trade in.

The difference in the monthly payment from the Colorado to the Sierra 2500 is $423 a month, and you would only save $48 a month on your premiums, so clearly insurance costs won’t be a deciding factor in moving up to a bigger truck. But if you’re trying to choose between a Toyota Tacoma and a GMC Canyon (both midsize trucks), the $20 monthly savings in insurance will offset the extra $34 a month you’ll pay to finance the Canyon. And if you’re the type of driver that likes to keep your truck long after it’s paid for, you’ll continue to save on premiums.

When you’re shopping for a new truck, it’s a good idea to consider the total cost of ownership. That includes monthly payments, fuel, maintenance, and of course insurance. Before you buy or lease that new truck, even if you’re sitting at the dealership, give us a call for a quick, no-obligation quote on whichever vehicles you’re considering. Our insurance brokers will make sure you have all the information you need to make the best decision.

^{1 Estimated based on quotes for five sample driver profiles}

^{2 Gender X or non-binary means a driver identifies as neither male nor female.}

^{3 MSRP and monthly payments do not include HST.}

^{4 Insurance companies generally don’t rate a vehicle differently based on the trim or size of the cab, so rates for the Dodge Ram and Dodge Ram Classic with crew cab are the same as for a Dodge Ram with regular cab. Likewise for the Chevy Silverado.}

^{5 All of the trucks on the list come in a number of different configurations or “trims”. Although the F-150 XL starts around $46,000, the F-150 King Ranch starts around $90,000.}

^{6 Interest rates vary for different manufacturers from 4.9% to 7.99%.}

Feature photo by Universal