UK Car Insurance Company reports buyers downsizing

In the depths of the worst recession since the 1930s, and possible the worst ever in the car industry, Swinton – a UK High Street Car Insurance Company – is claiming their statistics show that buyers are downsizing their cars to save money. I think we should probably file this under the category of ‘Stating the bleedin’ obvious’.

Swinton say that it has seen an increase of 25% in quote requests for smaller engined cars in the last six months and a decrease of 20% in car insurance quotes for cars over 1.8 litres (which, short of the big-engined cars being scrapped begs the question: What’s happened to the big-engined cars? Did they just disappear, or are they just not being insured?).

But this got us thinking. Although it is obvious that people do tend to look for ways to economise in a recession, and getting a smaller car is certainly one way to do it (unless you are going to lose a shed-load of money on your old gas-guzzler), is the statement from Swinton as clear-cut as it seems?

If you’re a regular reader you will be well-aware that manufacturers are getting more power out of smaller engines all the time. Which means that the average size of the car engine is dropping all the time. And new models are getting smaller engines than their predecessor – but often with more power and better economy. A good illustration is to look at what the new Porsche Cayenne Hybrid offers. V8 power from a V6. Or the new VW Scirocco R. It has a four-pot turbo instead of the V6 you would have expected until recently.

So yes, people are downsizing, but the figures are skewed by the manufactureres getting more power and economy out of smaller, more efficient engines.

I’d still like to know what’s happened to the 20% of big cars that aren’t being insured, though.