4 Best Car Insurance Companies of 2022
State laws require every driver to have a minimum level of car insurance, but how much and what type of coverage varies by state. It’s not always easy to know how much coverage you need, or which company provides the best value, in part because each has its own formula for assessing risk and determining premium costs.
Finding the best car insurance provider is really an individual choice. We’ve selected the top auto insurers that are worth consideration in most situations. Progressive came out as our most versatile pick. The best place to start, however, is to compare quotes from multiple providers.
The research we’ve conducted is designed to help you narrow down the best car insurance options by answering a few important questions.
Compare the Best Car Insurance Companies
- Best Overall: Progressive
- Best for Young Drivers: Allstate
- Best for Discounts: GEICO
- Best for Custom Coverage: Liberty Mutual
With car insurance being so competitive, carriers are constantly changing their rates and mix of discounts and special offers. It’s recommended to shop around every year.
The best way to shop for car insurance when you want to save money is to compare quotes from highly rated insurers side by side.
Full Reviews of the Best Car Insurance Companies
Best Overall: Progressive
Progressive stood out above all the rest because it offers some of the most comprehensive coverage options. It’s worth a closer look if you still have a loan or lease on your vehicle or if your vehicle has custom parts, because it’s one of the few major auto insurers that offers custom parts and lease/loan payoff coverage.
Other optional coverages include roadside assistance, rental car reimbursement, ride-sharing coverage and a deductible savings bank, which reduces your deductible by $50 for every policy period you go without an accident.
The company also stands out for its flexible online tools that enable you to quickly customize your policy and compare different policies side by side. The Name Your Price Tool is useful for those on a budget who don’t want to spend hours fiddling with coverage levels trying to find something that suits their budget.
You should be able to find a policy that works for you here, but if not, you might be able to bring costs down further by taking advantage of Progressive’s many discounts or enrolling in its Snapshot program, which monitors your driving and rewards safe behavior.
Progressive’s customer and claims satisfaction ratings weren’t spectacular, but they also weren’t cause for concern. The company fell in the middle of the pack and received pretty average ratings all around. Ideally, you won’t have to bother with the company too much because you won’t need to file a claim. However, if customer satisfaction is a priority for you, a company like Amica might be a better fit.
Coverage Options:
- Gap coverage (loan/lease payoff if you owe more than the car is worth)
- Rental car reimbursement (typically $40 to $60 per day)
- Custom parts and equipment value
- Ride-share coverage
- Roadside assistance
Discounts:
- Bundled auto and property (12% average discount)
- Snapshot app ($145 average discount)
- Multi-policy (5% average discount)
- Multicar (12% average discount)
- Continuous coverage (discount varies)
- Name Your Price Tool (enter your desired premium and Progressive will design a policy)
- Teen driver (18 or under)
- Good student (discount varies)
- Distant students (more than 100 miles from home — discount varies)
- Homeowner (average discount nearly 10%)
- Online quote (7% average discount)
- Sign online (9% average discount)
- Paperless (discount varies)
- Pay in full (discount varies)
- Automatic payment (discount varies)
- Small accident forgiveness (your premium won’t be raised on a claim of less than $500)
- Large accident forgiveness (no premium increase in an accident if you’ve been a customer for five-plus years with no accidents in the past three years)
Customer and Claims Satisfaction: 856 (No. 21 of 25 on the J.D. Power survey)
Financial Strength Rating: A-plus (superior)
Best for Young Drivers: Allstate
Adding a young driver to your auto insurance policy usually comes with a hefty price increase, but Allstate customers can minimize the blow to their wallet by taking advantage of Allstate’s many discounts and special coverage options for young drivers.
There are discounts for teen drivers and college students getting good grades. You can also enroll in the Drivewise program, which monitors your driving and gives you discounts for driving safely.
Accident forgiveness is available as an optional coverage for those concerned about a single accident affecting their rates. You can also recoup some of the money you pay in premiums by driving safely. For every policy period you go without an accident, Allstate will send you a Safe Driving Bonus Check. It also offers a Deductible Rewards program that reduces your deductible by $100 for every year of safe driving with a maximum reduction of $500.
The company fared pretty well in most regions of the latest J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Survey, though its claims satisfaction ratings were nothing to brag about. This isn’t a guarantee that you’ll experience issues with the claims process, and many of the regions surveyed gave Allstate an above-average rating for claims handling.
Coverage Options:
- Accident forgiveness
- Sound system insurance
- Roadside coverage
- Personal injury protection
- Personal umbrella (covers liability in excess of standard auto policies)
- Rental reimbursement
- Classic cars
- Car insurance for travel to Mexico
- Ride-share coverage
Discounts:
- New car
- Multi-policy
- Smart student
- Vehicle safety equipment
- Early signing
- Responsible payer
- Smart Student (minimum GPA 2.7)
- EZ pay plan
- Paperless (Allstate ePolicy)
- Pay by automatic withdrawal and/or full payment
- Drivewise monitoring app
- Deductible Rewards ($100 reduction in your deductible for each year you’re accident-free up to $500)
Customer and Claims Satisfaction: 876 (No. 9 of 25 on the J.D. Power survey)
Financial Strength Rating: A-plus (superior)
Best for Discounts: GEICO
Not only is GEICO typically one of the lowest-cost car insurance providers in most states, but it also offers perhaps the deepest discounts available in the industry. That might explain why it usually comes up as a low-cost provider.
For example, it offers discounts to federal employees, members of the military, and members or employees of hundreds of organizations across the country.
Meanwhile, it offers a discount of up to 25% for having multiple vehicles on the same policy. And with the right mix of anti-theft and safety devices, you can qualify for another 23% in discounts.
Coverage Options:
- Roadside assistance coverage
- Ride-sharing
- Mechanical breakdown
- Collector vehicles
- Medical coverage
- Personal injury protection
Discounts:
- Multivehicle (25%)
- Bundling
- New vehicle (15%)
- Vehicle safety and anti-theft equipment (up to 23%)
- Good driver (accident free for at least five years — up to 22%)
- Good student (15%)
- Driver’s education
- Federal employees (12%)
- Members of the U.S. military (15%)
- Membership in or employee of hundreds of groups and employers
- Customer loyalty
Customer and Claims Satisfaction: 856 (No. 12 of 25 on the J.D. Power survey)
Financial Strength Rating: A-plus (superior)
Best for Custom Coverage: Liberty Mutual
Liberty Mutual is a well-established car insurance provider with a simple motto: “Only pay for what you need” — and it means it! The company might have the largest selection of coverage options, including a disappearing deductible, a lifetime mechanical repair guarantee, a better car replacement provision, original replacement parts and even special car insurance for teachers.
With a selection like that, you can build the policy you want from the ground up, which gives you a lot of control over the premium you’ll pay.
Coverage Options:
- Medical payments (extends to legal fees, bereavement costs, and pain and suffering)
- Personal injury protection
- Disappearing deductible ($100 annual reduction)
- Lifetime mechanical repair guarantee
- New-car replacement
- Better car replacement
- Rental car reimbursement
- 24-hour roadside coverage
- Loan/lease gap coverage
- Original replacement parts
- Teachers car insurance (covers vandalism, collision and stolen school supplies from your car)
- Driving in Mexico
Discounts:
- Homeowner
- Military
- Early shopper — get a quote before your current policy expires
- Good student (B average or better)
- Student away at school
- Vehicle safety and anti-theft devices
- Alternative energy vehicle
- Accident- and violation-free
- Right Track — save up to 30% with driver monitoring
- Bundling
- Multicar
- Automatic payments
- Pay-in-full discount
- Online purchase
- Paperless documents
Customer and Claims Satisfaction: 867 (No. 15 of 25 on the J.D. Power survey)
Financial Strength Rating: A (excellent)
How We Chose the Best Car Insurance Companies
Most people choose their car insurance based on price alone, but it’s not the only factor you should consider. You must also think about the financial strength of the company, the coverage and discounts it offers, how easy it is to manage your account and how satisfied other customers are with their claims experience.
Financial Strength
This is the single most important factor to consider when choosing a car insurance provider because if the company isn’t financially secure, it may not be able to pay you when you need to file a claim. Fortunately, this isn’t an issue for most of the top insurers who have been around for decades.
Just to be safe, we looked at financial strength ratings from AM Best, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s to verify that the companies we chose would remain financially solvent for years to come.
Coverage Options
All auto insurers will provide at least the minimum liability coverage required by your state in addition to collision and comprehensive coverage, which pay to repair your vehicle following a crash or another type of accident. Some car insurers also offer add-ons like ride-sharing, pet injury or custom vehicle coverage.
It’s up to you to decide which of these coverage options you need, but we placed a higher value on those companies offering more choices that would appeal to a diverse group of drivers.
Discounts
It’s difficult to compare auto insurers based on price in a review like this because quotes are particular and the company that’s cheapest for you may not be the same as the company that’s cheapest for your neighbor. More available discounts aren’t a clear indicator of a cheaper price either, though they can help reduce your costs somewhat.
Commonly cheap auto insurance providers have discounts for bundling home and auto policies and safe driver, vehicle safety devices and pay-in-full discounts. Car insurance pricing will also vary by state, so it’s best to find the right provider where you live.
Want to see rates by state? Whether you live in California, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania or any other state in the U.S., we encourage you to compare rates from several car insurance companies in your state.
Online Tools
In today’s digital world, you ought to be able to manage your auto insurance policy online or through a mobile app. When you have to file a claim or update your policy, you don’t want to bother with phone calls and paper forms. You should be able to make these changes and submit claim information online at your convenience.
The company should also offer online auto insurance cards and resources to help you learn more about auto insurance and how to choose the right coverage options for you.
Customer and Claims Satisfaction
You hope you’ll never have to file an auto insurance claim, but if you do, you want your insurance provider to treat you fairly and to resolve the matter promptly. Everyone may have a slightly different experience, but you can get a general sense of how companies treat their customers by looking at the results of customer satisfaction surveys like the J.D. Power (October) 2020 U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study, which is based on a scale of up to 1,000 points. We took these ratings into account and favored the companies that received higher customer and claims satisfaction scores.
The Bottom Line
Similar to motorcycle insurance or an extended car warranty, auto insurance quotes are highly personalized, so choosing the best company to work with isn’t always easy. It depends on your driving record, where you live, your budget and the coverage options you’re interested in.
But the four companies listed above are all reputable insurers with a long history of providing quality service, so you can’t go wrong if you choose one of them. Get quotes from several companies and compare them before you buy to see which offers you the most affordable rates on your car insurance.
