IIHS and HLDI insurance loss data: what it shows about cars

The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) publishes insurance loss results for hundreds of car, SUV and pickup models: how often each model produces claims and how much those claims cost, compared with the average for all passenger vehicles. The results show which models are expensive to insure because of the car itself (repair costs, theft appeal, injury risk), not because of who drives them. They are free on the IIHS website and are one of the few public, model-by-model views of real claims.

Who IIHS and HLDI are

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) was founded in 1959 by three insurance associations, and its affiliate HLDI was founded in 1972, according to the IIHS "Who we are" page. Both are nonprofits wholly supported by auto insurers and insurance associations. IIHS runs the crash tests behind the Top Safety Pick awards; HLDI analyzes claims.

HLDI's database draws on companies representing more than 85% of the U.S. private passenger auto insurance market, which IIHS describes as the largest repository of its kind. It covers vehicles insured for personal use, not commercial fleets.

Insurer funding does not make the numbers marketing. They are pooled claim records, adjusted statistically, and the stated purpose is safety research. But HLDI does not publish what any insurer charges, and its results are not your premium.

What the numbers measure

HLDI reports losses under six coverages: collision, property damage liability (PDL), comprehensive (including theft), personal injury protection (PIP), medical payments (MedPay) and bodily injury liability.

Three measures sit behind every result, as described on the IIHS auto insurance research page:

• Claim frequency: claims per 100 insured vehicle years (one vehicle insured for one year).
• Claim severity: the average payment per claim.
• Overall losses: frequency multiplied by severity, or the average loss payment per insured vehicle year. IIHS describes this as the average cost of insuring a vehicle for a year, excluding administrative costs.

Each result is indexed so that 100 equals the average for all passenger vehicles. A model at 150 has losses 50% above average; one at 70 is 30% below. For 2022–24 models, IIHS says the all-vehicle collision average of $604 per insured vehicle year was set to 100.

On the make-and-model tables, collision, PDL and comprehensive show overall losses. The injury coverages show claim frequency only.

How HLDI keeps the comparison fair

A sports car and a minivan attract different drivers, so raw claims would mostly measure the drivers. According to HLDI's make-and-model page, results are adjusted for driver age, gender, marital status, population density, state, model year, calendar year and whether the policy is standard or nonstandard. Collision and comprehensive are also adjusted for deductible.

Results are grouped by vehicle class and size and rated in five bands, from "substantially better than average" to "substantially worse than average," with "insufficient data" for low-volume models. They cover a span of model years (for example, 2023–25 models) and include claims from first sale through the start of the following calendar year.

Two limits matter. New models have no results yet, because registration and claims data take time to accumulate. And when a model is substantially redesigned, the older version's record may not predict the new one.

A worked example

Say you are choosing between two hypothetical small SUVs and plan to carry full coverage:

SUV A costs more to fix after crashes: 28% above the all-vehicle collision average. Using the $604 average for 2022–24 models, an index of 128 works out to roughly $773 in collision losses per insured vehicle year, against about $568 for SUV B. SUV B's comprehensive number is the warning sign. A result 60% above average in that column often points to theft or costly glass, so you would check whether the model is on recent theft lists before buying.

Neither number is your price. They tell you which costs an insurer's vehicle rating is likely to reflect, and which questions to ask when you quote.

What the data has shown

HLDI's published findings explain much of why some cars cost more to insure:

• Size and class. Collision and PDL losses generally rise with vehicle size, because bigger vehicles cost more to repair and do more damage to what they hit. Injury claim frequency for occupants falls as size rises.
• Luxury and sports cars. Collision severity is high because the cars are expensive, but claim frequency tends to be lower, partly because these are often extra vehicles in a household.
• Theft. IIHS notes that theft losses soared from mid-2020 for Hyundai and Kia models without electronic immobilizers, then began to taper after an anti-theft software upgrade arrived in February 2023. For 2022–24 models, theft losses for large two-door and large four-door cars were more than five times the all-vehicle average, driven by Dodge Challenger and Charger variants. See The Kia and Hyundai theft wave and insurance and The most stolen cars in America.
• Safety technology. HLDI found vehicles with electronic stability control had collision losses 15% to 17% lower, research that helped make the feature standard.

How this connects to your premium

Insurers price the vehicle through their own rating plans, often using a vehicle symbol or similar model-level rating built from their own and industry claims data. HLDI results tend to move in the same direction because they measure the same thing: what a model costs in claims. Your actual price also depends on your record, location, coverage and the insurer's other rating factors. The article on how the car you drive affects your insurance rate covers that side.

Crash-test ratings and loss data are different tools. A Top Safety Pick tells you how well a car protects people in standardized tests. HLDI tells you what happened in real claims, including theft and repair costs that crash tests never measure. The guide to vehicle safety ratings and insurance costs compares the two.

How to use HLDI results when car shopping

1. Find the model's class and size on the IIHS make-and-model tables and compare it with direct rivals, not with all vehicles.
2. If you will carry collision and comprehensive, weight those columns most heavily. They drive the physical damage part of your premium.
3. Check the injury columns for a read on how well the car protects occupants.
4. Treat a very high comprehensive result as a theft or glass flag and look up recent theft reports.
5. Before signing, get real quotes using the VIN or exact trim, as described in check insurance costs before you buy a car.

Key takeaways

• HLDI publishes model-by-model insurance losses indexed to 100, the all-vehicle average, using claims from insurers covering more than 85% of the market.
• Overall losses combine how often claims happen and how much they cost; injury results show frequency only.
• Results are adjusted for driver and location factors, so differences mostly reflect the vehicle.
• High collision or comprehensive results often mean higher physical damage premiums, but your quote is the real test.
• Loss data and crash-test ratings answer different questions; use both.