If you just bought the new 2009 Mustang GT limited edition, good for you. Bad for your insurance rates, but good for you. Insurance is a numbers game that involves risk and reward. What does this mean? The lower your potential risk as a driver, the greater your reward (in the way of insurance rates). Driving a flashy sports car that looks great is fun, but it’s also expensive. On average, drivers with sports cars will pay almost double what drivers with safer, less risky cars will pay for insurance.

There are other factors that will influence your insurance rates, such as your age, gender, driving record, and where you live. However, they don’t always play as large of a role as the car you drive. Even if you’re 45, with a clean driving record and living in a safe neighborhood, you might still have high insurance rates because of your little 2-door Mitsubishi Eclipse that you just HAD to have.

There are cheaper ways to show off, especially if you’re trying to save money on auto insurance. Buy fancy clothes—those only cost you a lot of money one time. Or maybe you should get an expensive watch or bracelet to show off. It doesn’t matter what you do, anything is going to be better than buying an expensive car and paying top rates for auto insurance. If you’re buying a sports car to fulfill a childhood dream, just be prepared to pay for that dream. When you’re young and imagine having a flashy sports car, you don’t think about things like insurance. Now that you’re older, it’s an important consideration.

One way to get the car you want and still save a little money is to check out the overall safety of the car. If the car has plenty of safety features (such as airbags, anti-theft systems, etc.) and a good safety rating in crash tests, it won’t cost as much as the next sports car that isn’t as safe and could be like a rolling death trap.

Why do sports cars warrant a higher risk rating? Well if you think about it, it’s not hard to figure out. Sports cars go fast, and you’re going to want to drive them fast. You don’t see people street racing and speeding in their Oldsmobile; it just doesn’t happen. That’s why driving a sporty, flashy, fancy car will cost you more than driving a “mom car”, such as a wagon or a nice four door family car.