http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/SmallerCarBiggerInsuranceBill.aspx
"But does a smaller vehicle equate to smaller car insurance rates? The answer, surprisingly, is usually no.
According to Insure.com's research on auto insurance rates, switching from a larger vehicle to a small car such as a Civic or a Prius is likely to raise your insurance premium:"
Regardless of this, I can't put a six foot step ladder in a Prius or a Civic. The service and transportation industries will have no choice to pass the cost on to everyone else. Think a service call from a plumber is expensive now? The lag in service rates won't be long. All service industry folks I know are raising rates, adding surcharges, and they continue to re-evaluate daily. If you don't have spare keys to your cars or house, next time your out you had better get some good duplicates. A service call to make keys for a late model vehicle will like cost you more than $200 during regular business hours and more than $300 after hours.
"Small cars tend to increase insurance costs because they get into more crashes," says Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "There's a myth that a smaller car is more nimble and helps you avoid crashes, but smaller cars tend to have more collision losses."
"Little cars with smaller bills
The Mini Cooper, Volkswagen New Beetle and Volkswagen Golf are small cars that stay at "average" or better for all loss categories, according to the highway institute. Here, though, lower insurance losses may not be due to the car design but the fact that they tend to be driven by more-experienced drivers.
"There's a big safety downside to moving to a smaller car because you're putting yourself at more risk of injury," Rader says. "It all boils down to the laws of physics: People think about safety features like air bags, but no matter how many air bags you stuff into a smaller car, it's not going to be as safe as a larger, heavier vehicle."
Of course, whatever vehicle you drive, the vehicle model is only one of many factors that go into the price of your policy. Your own driving record, claims history and location significantly affect your premium."
PS: Sorry about the cut-n-paste.