You make some great points but in my brother’s experience the age of the driver makes more of a difference than the brand. Around the time he turned 25 he made a switch from a 84 Civic 1500s hatch to a 86 VW Jetta and his insurance went down considerably. Good grades do help with insurance rates as well.
That’s kind of interesting.
Honda and VW are not labelled as a “luxury/premium” category of brands.
If you drive a BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Cadillac, Porsche, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, etc, it is labelled as a luxury/premium brand by the insurance company. Since I presume some young drivers are the most reckless driving those types of cars, the insurance company charges you more.
There have been cases of young drivers being plain reckless with luxury cars:
These videos are probably the cause of insurance for higher prestige brands being high for drivers between the age of 16-24.
Like I said my first policy on my 59 vw was $26 for six months in 1966. Yeah I was included on the family policy and I always got the good student discount. Can be tough if you are on your own though.