Car insurance costs more in the Toronto area than anywhere else in Ontario and keeps rising

The GTA is officially the most expensive place to be a driver in Ontario, new data shows, at least when it comes to car insurance.

The region has seen the average price of auto insurance increase steadily over recent years, hitting $1,616 in December 2020, according to a report from rate comparison company rates.ca.

This is nearly 10 per cent more than just two years prior, when insurance in the GTA was, on average, $1,473 per year. The highest average rates currently are in Brampton ($2,698), Mississauga ($2,372) and Vaughan ($2,334).

In the City of Toronto itself, prices ranged from $1,695 to even more than the highest-priced cities — $3,000— based on location, averaging out at $2,201, versus the smaller cities with the lowest rates: Brockville, Cobourg, Kingston, Napanee and Port Hope, where premiums averaged at $1,103 at the end of last year.

Ever wondered if your car insurance rate is really fair?

All it takes is a quick search with #RATESDOTCA's Insuramap to see how your current rate stacks up against that of your neighbour's ➡️https://t.co/9zx2hqkDpn pic.twitter.com/Ut3bYfUV6P

— RATESDOTCA (@ratesdotca) January 6, 2021

These numbers are even with insurance companies vowing to give customers a break in 2020 due to everyone driving far less during the pandemic and amid lockdown orders.

When looking at Canada as a whole, our province generally tends to have the highest rates for drivers, making the Toronto area perhaps the priciest place to own a vehicle in the entire country.

Before the lower COVID-19 premiums, other experts estimated the average insurance costs in Ontario to be as high as $1,920 per year as of mid-2020, and even pricier in Toronto, tacking another few grand onto the already untenable cost of living in the city.

What's interesting is that insurance providers can charge you more based on your area or postal code — something that Ontario Legislature may soon change.

Many consider T.O. and locales like it to be very car-centric as far as design goes, but public transit and other modes of transportation will forever be, by far, the cheaper and more eco-friendly way to go.