The way insurance grouping is assessed involves monthly meetings by the Group Rating Panel, which is also made up of members from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) as well as Lloyds Market Association (LMA), in which they make recommendations of insurance groups for each new passenger car which is built to a UK specification. Research carried out by the Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre is used to determine how the panel will assign cars to one of the twenty insurance groups.

High performance vehicles are placed in the highest groups, as these have a greater chance of costing insurers the most in insurance claims. Although insurers will take note of panel recommendations, occasionally they will choose to calculate car insurance premiums in their own groupings. There are ways of reducing the cost of your insurance claims, which generally involves adding security features such as an alarm or immobilisation system, visible Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) or installing high security door locks. In order to ascertain which group your car falls in, check with the ABI database.