Insurers publish a collision loss index per brand, where 100 is the market average. It measures what it actually costs to put that manufacturer's cars back together, averaged over every claim.
The spread is a factor of five.
| Brand | Collision (repair) | Comprehensive | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bentley | 419 | 644 | 72 |
| Maserati | 310 | 318 | 93 |
| Tesla | 212 | 139 | 92 |
| Porsche | 198 | 200 | 60 |
| BMW | 194 | 229 | 91 |
| Jaguar | 191 | 170 | 85 |
| Mercedes-Benz | 172 | 217 | 85 |
Bentley and Maserati at the top are unremarkable — expensive cars cost expensive money. Tesla at 212 is the row worth stopping on, because a Tesla is not a Bentley and its repair bills behave as though it were closer to one.
Why the Tesla number is high
Three things stack, and none of them is about the price of the car.
The structures use aluminium extrusions and structural adhesive rather than bolted steel panels. That is excellent for stiffness and weight and awkward for repair: damage travels further through a bonded structure, and sections that would be straightened on a steel car get replaced instead.
The approved repairer network is small. A brand with thousands of certified shops has price competition between them; a brand with a few hundred has waiting lists, storage charges and whatever the shop quotes.
And the sensors sit where the damage happens. That is true across the modern market, but it compounds when the panel behind the sensor is bonded aluminium.
The bottom of the table is the useful half
| Brand | Collision (repair) | Comprehensive | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiat | 78 | 71 | 79 |
| Jeep | 79 | 95 | 120 |
| GMC | 83 | 98 | 106 |
| Subaru | 86 | 101 | 75 |
| Mazda | 86 | 88 | 87 |
Steel panels bolted to a steel structure, produced in volume, repairable by any competent independent shop. That is the whole formula, and it holds across four brands with nothing else in common.
Subaru at 86 is the interesting one, because Subarus are not cheap cars and the brand appears at the wrong end of several other insurance measures. Cheap to fix is a property of construction, not of price or of how the car gets driven.
Read the third column too
Jeep is the case that breaks the intuition entirely: collision 79, property damage 120.
It is among the cheapest brands to repair and among the most expensive to be hit by. Those are not in tension — one measures what happens to the Jeep, the other measures what the Jeep does to whatever it lands on. A tall, heavy vehicle with a high bumper line is cheap to fix and expensive to be underneath.
Which of those two numbers matters more to you depends on your cover. Full cover pays both; liability-only pays the second one.
Before you buy
Two practical moves, neither of which takes long.
Get the insurance quote on the specific model and trim rather than the brand, because within-brand variation is large and the badge average hides it. And on a used car, find out where the approved shops are — for a brand with a restricted network, "the nearest certified repairer is 140 miles away" is a real ownership cost that appears the first time somebody reverses into you.
Whether the car has already been through that process is a separate question, and a free VIN check is what answers it.
Frequently asked questions
Which car brands cost the most to repair?
By collision claim index, Bentley leads at 419 and Maserati at 310, but the notable entry is Tesla at 212 — above Porsche (198), BMW (194) and Mercedes-Benz (172). Aluminium structures, bonded panels and a restricted approved-repairer network all push the figure up.
Why is a Tesla expensive to repair?
Three reasons stack. The structures use aluminium and structural adhesive rather than bolted steel, so damage propagates further and repair requires specific equipment. Panels are often replaced rather than straightened. And the approved body shop network is small, which means longer waits, more storage, and less competitive pricing.
Which brands are cheapest to repair after a crash?
Fiat at an index of 78, Jeep at 79, GMC at 83, then Subaru and Mazda at 86. Steel bodywork, bolted panels, high parts volume and a large pool of independent shops that will take the work all push the cost down.
Does an expensive car always cost more to insure?
For repairs, largely yes — but the relationship is looser than expected. Jeep sits at 79 for collision while carrying a property damage index of 120, meaning it is cheap to fix and expensive to be hit by. Which half dominates your premium depends on cover levels and the car's value.
Denis Kataev is a serial solopreneur and the founder of ForCar. With 15+ years in software engineering and 10 years in SEO, he builds data-driven products end to end — backed by a sharp eye for design. At ForCar he mines proprietary vehicle datasets, turning raw numbers into buying advice you can actually trust.
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