I'm surprised nobody has linked to this yet....insurance companies publish their vehicle ratings. Here's a picture of the full BMW lineup from State Farm.
http://www.statefarm.com/insurance/a...rating/bmw.asp
Actually BMW vehicles are generally rated very well (read that as tending toward cheap to insure). Also notice convertibles score better better than their hardtop counterparts. My agent said that for whatever reason convertibles tend to be in less wrecks, he thinks the reason is the drivers feel less protected and drive more carefully.
Believe it or not, its the econoboxes that get hammered with poor ratings and higher rates. Look up a Civic, Scion tC, Rabbit, Altima. They are all rated very poorly. Basically everything you'd find on a college campus = higher rates.
Here's the Honda lineup for example, look at how a Civic coupe is rated.
http://www.statefarm.com/insurance/a...ting/honda.asp
Same pathetic rating for a Scion tC
http://www.statefarm.com/insurance/a...ting/scion.asp
Whereas a 3 series convertible gets an almost perfect rating.
There is hidden costs in being poor, higher car insurance premiums is one of them. You can quote me on that.