9 Best Car Insurance Companies of 2024

If you own a car, you probably know you need to carry auto insurance.  All 50 states require drivers to have car insurance with certain minimum coverages, mainly to compensate for injuries and property damage due to vehicle crashes.

If you lease your car or take out a car loan to pay for it, you already know that lenders require additional coverage. This protects their financial interests if the vehicle is seriously damaged or totaled.

This coverage comes at a cost, of course. But you can do a lot to control that cost — and get more value from what you pay — by choosing the best car insurance companies for your needs.

The Best Car Insurance Companies

These are the best car insurance companies on the market right now.

• State Farm: Best Overall
• Root Insurance: Best for Good Drivers
• Auto-Owners Insurance: Best Customer Service
• USAA: Best for Service Members and Their Families
• Nationwide: Best Safe-Driving Discount
• Amica: Best General Policy Discounts
• Allstate: Best for Roadside Assistance
• Progressive: Best Application Process
• Geico: Best for Consistently Low Premiums

Each excels at one thing, whether rewarding loyal customers, offering low premiums, or providing potentially valuable policy add-ons like new car replacement.

1. State Farm: Best Overall

• State availability: Nationwide
• Collision Repair Grade: C

State Farm doesn’t blow away the competition in any specific way, but it offers undeniable value for drivers from coast to coast.

That’s enough to make it our best overall pick for car insurance customers. 

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2. Root Insurance: Best for Good Drivers

• State availability: 35 states
• Collision Repair Grade: C

Root Insurance offers coverage for good drivers. They say they do car insurance the ‘fair way,’ by monitoring your driving and rewarding good drivers with lower premiums. The average Root customer saves $900 a year on car insurance.

Root Insurance makes it easy to manage your policy using the Root app, and Roadside assistance automatically comes with every policy. It takes less than one minute to get started because everything is done on the app where you can choose a recommended insurance plan or choose your own.

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3. Auto-Owners Insurance: Best Customer Service

• State availability: 26 states
• Collision Repair Grade: B

Auto-Owners Insurance isn’t available everywhere, including big southern and western states like California and Texas. But if you’re fortunate enough to live in its coverage area, you can take advantage of its legendary customer service built on a network of loyal, hardworking agents. 

As long as you’re willing to go through a local agent to get a car insurance quote, which is probably the case if you’re seeking great customer service, you’d be hard-pressed to find better than Auto-Owners. 

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4. USAA: Best for Service Members and Their Families

• State availability: Nationwide
• Collision Repair Grade: C-

Let’s be clear: Most drivers are not eligible for USAA auto insurance. To qualify, you need to be a current or honorably discharged member of a qualifying U.S. Armed Forces branch or be closely related to someone who is.

That leaves out about 95% of the U.S. population. But if you’re fortunate enough to qualify for a USAA policy, you can look forward to a bevy of sign-up and loyalty incentives that — per USAA data — saved new USAA customers upwards of $700 in the first year after switching.

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5. Nationwide: Best Safe-Driving Discount

• State availability: Nationwide
• Collision Repair Grade: C

Nationwide offers direct and agent-based sales to serve the preferences of its diverse customer base. Although it’s widely available, it boasts a proportionally low share of customer complaints, even if its overall customer satisfaction rating can’t compete with the best of the best.

Where Nationwide really shines is on competitive pricing, broad policy choices, seemingly endless policy discounts, and a vast array of perks cut-rate insurers simply can’t match.

On the discount front, Nationwide’s safe-driving leads the pack. Drivers willing to install a tracking device in their vehicles qualify for an instant 10% car insurance discount. They may earn up to 40% off with safe-driving practices through Nationwide’s SafeRide program.

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6. Amica: Best General Policy Discounts

• State availability: Nationwide
• Collision Repair Grade: B

Amica is a smaller insurer with a big heart — and an unusually wide array of policy discounts. Policyholders who bundle home and auto save up to 30%. Multiple cars are good for discounts of up to 25% and young policyholders whose parents have been with Amica for five consecutive years qualify for an unspecified variable discount.

If you’re among the tens of millions of Americans living in a multi-car household, and Amica operates in your state, this provider should automatically make the cut.

Amica offers another unusual, although not unheard-of, solution that may reduce your long-term insurance costs: dividend policies, which pay back up to 20% of premiums over time.

Since you’ll pay more upfront and be set back when you file a claim, you should only explore a dividend policy if you’re confident you can avoid Amica’s claims department. If you can, an Amica dividend policy could magnify the company’s already competitive pricing.

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7. Allstate: Best for Roadside Assistance

• State availability: Nationwide
• Collision Repair Grade: D+

Allstate’s reputation precedes it. Despite high name recognition following decades of growth and untold millions in marketing investments, Allstate remains known for reasonable premiums and excellent customer service.

It does one type of customer service better than any other insurer on the market: roadside assistance. Allstate is the only major insurer that offers multiple roadside assistance and driver support programs of the sort AAA is known for. These plans include basic travel insurance coverages as well and are available 24/7.

If you run into trouble, you can get a tow, jump start, or assistance with a flat tire or lock-out. They offer annual plans for as low as $89 per year or pay-per-use plans for the budget-conscious.

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8. Progressive: Best Application Process

Progressive is another highly recognizable insurer with tons of discount opportunities and more than its fair share of add-ons. Like some of its fellow national providers, its high complaint incidence is partly due to its size. J.D. Power’s overall satisfaction rating finds most customers satisfied with, if not overjoyed by, Progressive’s service.

But Progressive’s real differentiator is a smooth, insightful onboarding process with two features worth noting:

• Transparent quote comparisons that show you at a glance how your proposed policy’s premium stacks up against comparable coverage from other top insurers — and whether it’s the lowest of the bunch
• The Name Your Price tool, which tailors coverage to your preset budget

The path of least resistance is to begin and complete your quote online, but you can chat with an agent or sales rep if you need more help.

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9. Geico: Best for Consistently Low Premiums

Geico is yet another household name with impeccable financials and extremely competitive pricing. In fact, Geico is the best auto insurer on this list for people seeking low premiums without compromising coverage.

That said, Geico is not for those seeking white-glove treatment. From onboarding to claims processing, this company is all about efficiency. You get what you pay for, in other words. According to Geico, the average person saves up to $500 a year switching to them.

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Types of Car Insurance

Before choosing the best car insurance policy for your needs, consider the different types of car insurance.

Liability Insurance

Liability coverage protects you financially if you are at fault for an accident and responsible for the damages to other cars, people, or property. Most states require a minimum amount of liability insurance to drive legally.

Collision Insurance

This coverage protects your vehicle in a crash. Liability coverage pays for the other cars in the accident, but collision pays for the damages to your vehicle. This could apply if you are in an accident with another car, or property, such as a telephone pole.

Comprehensive Insurance

Comprehensive coverage will protect you if your car has damage from another type of incident, not including a collision. This includes things like vandalism and theft or a natural disaster.

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

If you’re involved in an accident and are not at fault, but the responsible driver doesn’t have enough or any insurance, uninsured/underinsured coverage would protect you financially. 

Gap Insurance

This coverage protects your investment in the vehicle if you lease or finance the purchase. Since cars are a depreciating asset, you may owe more than the car is worth. If you are in an accident that totals the car, you would be responsible for the remainder of what you owe on the loan, but if the car isn’t worth enough, gap insurance would ‘close the gap’ and protect you.

Factors that Affect Car Insurance Costs

Like any insurance, certain factors affect how much you pay. The riskier you are, the higher the premiums an insurance company will charge.

Here are the most common factors affecting your premiums:

• Age
• Gender
• Driving record
• Location
• Type of car and year
• Type of Coverage

Many of the best car insurance companies offer many opportunities for discounts, helping you save money on your premiums. Always ask about the discounts and how you qualify to keep your premiums as low as possible.

It’s also a good idea to keep your driving record clean, check the insurance rates on specific cars before purchasing one, and look at your coverage options to keep your costs low.

How Much Car Insurance Do You Need?

The largest factor determining how much car insurance you need is your state laws. You should carry at least the state minimum, but in most cases, you should purchase more. 

Consider whether you need gap insurance if you financed the vehicle and what you could afford if you have a total loss. For example, do you need add-ons, like rental insurance coverage or new car replacement?

Think of your financial investment in the car and what would happen if you lost it. You don’t want to make yourself insurance poor, but you also want adequate coverage to protect yourself should the worst occur.

Methodology

We consider several important factors when evaluating car insurance companies. Ultimately, we select insurers that excel in at least one of these areas, and preferably more than one. 

Premium Range

The auto insurance industry is really competitive, so most auto insurers claim they have the best rates around. In truth, premiums vary quite widely across the industry.

Generally, direct-to-consumer insurance companies (also known as online insurance companies) offer more competitive rates than traditional insurers that require or encourage you to buy through an agent. We give preference to insurers that are cheaper overall, though we encourage you to use a quote aggregator like Policygenius to source multiple quotes quickly.

Geographical Availability

Most of the auto insurance companies on this list issue policies nationwide. However, some companies stick to smaller geographies or don’t offer certain products in certain states. All else being equal, we give preference to insurers that don’t discriminate by location.

New Customer Discounts

One sign that the car insurance business is competitive is its offer for new customers. Insurers need a steady flow of new customers to offset departing ones, and they’re willing to cut newbies a break to secure their business. 

We’re fans of companies known for generous new customer discounts, though the real tell is whether those low rates remain in later years. 

General Policy Discounts

Auto insurance companies offer a ton of optional discounts that can reduce your premiums:

• Bundle discounts for people who have multiple policies with the same company
• Multiple car discounts for households with more than one vehicle
• Homeownership discounts, which may apply even if you don’t have homeowner’s insurance with the same company
• Good student discounts for people who maintain solid grade point averages
• Paid-in-full discounts for people who pay their policies annually rather than monthly
• Low-mileage discounts for drivers who don’t use their cars much or at all (such as college students away from home)
• Affinity discounts for policyholders who work for partner organizations
• Hybrid and electric vehicle discounts

Our view on policy discounts is the more, the better. We order our list of the best auto insurance companies accordingly.

Loyalty and Safe Driving Discounts

Many auto insurance companies also offer discounts for loyal customers and policyholders who avoid trouble on the road. These include:

• Discounts for policyholders who agree to have their driving tracked by a device installed in their vehicle
• Claims-free discounts for drivers who avoid claims year after year
• Safe driving discounts for drivers who avoid accidents and citations
• General loyalty discounts for policyholders who remain onboard for years and years

We’re fans of insurers that make it as pleasant as possible for policyholders to remain loyal and reward longtime customers as they deserve.

Policy Add-ons

Every auto insurance company offers optional policy add-ons that can significantly enhance the value to the policyholder. We’re big fans of companies that go the extra mile here.

These add-ons do come at a cost, of course. One popular example is new car replacement coverage, which typically pays for a brand-new vehicle when a covered car is totaled before it clocks 15,000 miles.

Customer Complaints

Try as they might, even the best car insurance companies can’t satisfy every customer. There will always be disgruntled policyholders in the world.

That said, great auto insurers tend to have fewer customers dissatisfied enough to lodge formal complaints with industry associations or attorney general offices. While adjusting for total customer counts, we give preference to insurers with relatively low complaint volumes.

Crash Network Collision Repair Scores

When you’re involved in an accident, the last thing you want to do is feel overwhelmed by the lackluster options for repairs. Since you’re at the mercy of what insurance companies allow, we used the Crash Network Collision Repair scores to determine the best car insurance companies for our list. 

FAQs

You have questions about car insurance and car insurance companies. We have answers.

Do You Really Need Auto Insurance?

Yes, you really do need auto insurance. While approximately 13% of U.S. drivers go without auto insurance, doing so is the very definition of tempting fate. If you’re involved in a serious car accident that results in significant property damage or injury, you could be on the hook for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs.

Besides, carrying adequate auto insurance coverage is the law. Penalties for driving without insurance vary widely by state but are often stiff. They can include hefty fines — up to $2,000 or more, depending on the state — and reinstatement fees, temporary license or registration suspension (or both), and prison time, even for a first offense.

Does Car Insurance Cover Theft?

The only type of car insurance that covers theft is comprehensive coverage. If you buy a full coverage policy, it will include this coverage, but read the fine print to be sure. Comprehensive coverage would only cover the vehicle, though, not the items inside it. If you lose personal belongings, you must file a claim with your home or renter’s insurance.

Does Car Insurance Cover Rental Costs?

Many policies include rental car coverage, but not all do. Even those that include it have limits, so always read the fine print. They may limit the type of car you can rent, the length of time you can rent it, or only pay a portion of the cost, leaving the rest up to you.

What Exactly Is No-Fault Auto Insurance?

No-fault auto insurance covers certain costs arising from car accidents resulting in personal injury. Sometimes referred to as personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, no-fault insurance reimburses covered medical expenses and lost income due to injury up to predetermined coverage limits.

No-fault auto insurance is mandatory in about 20 states and may be subject to minimum coverage requirements. As the name implies, it provides coverage regardless of who is found to be at fault for the accident.

How Can You Save Money on Car Insurance?

First, consider how each of the factors outlined above affects your auto insurance premiums. Seemingly small changes to your policy can add up to big savings if you’re thoughtful about it.

Consider:

• Raising your collision and comprehensive deductibles
• Removing collision and comprehensive coverage altogether if you own your vehicle outright (otherwise, your lender might object)
• Installing a driving habits tracker in your vehicle
• Bundling your auto insurance with other forms of coverage, such as homeowners’ or renters’ insurance
• Driving less (and making sure your insurance company knows it)

How to Choose the Best Car Insurance Company

It should now be clear that high-quality auto insurance coverage at affordable rates is not difficult to find, even for those without perfect driving records. But that doesn’t mean drivers shouldn’t be discerning about their choice of auto insurer.

To weed out companies that don’t make the cut, limit your search to insurers with the following characteristics:

• Adequate financial stability, as measured by leading third-party evaluator AM Best
• High claims satisfaction ratings per J.D. Power, the gold standard in driver customer satisfaction metrics
• Aboveboard business practices, as measured by complaints lodged with state insurance commissioners and reported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners

Additionally, consider the more subjective factors discussed above: available policy discounts, ease of filing a claim and getting paid, customer loyalty perks, and more. 

Car insurance is a hefty but necessary expense. It’s worth taking the time to choose the best fit for your needs and find the best car insurance companies.