Kanetix unveils study of most expensive cities in Ontario for auto insurance

There's a lot of benefits to living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but unfortunately for drivers, auto insurance prices are not one of them.

That was the biggest takeaway from a study released by Kanetix Tuesday morning, which provided estimated premiums for every postal code zone in Ontario, while also ranking the 10 most expensive cities. The top honour—or top condemnation, really—went to Brampton, whose average estimated premium of $2,268 beat out Vaughan ($1,825), Mississauga ($1,788), Markham ($1,785), Toronto ($1,743), Richmond Hill ($1,709), Ajax $1,519), Hamilton ($1,497), Pickering ($1,450), and Whitby ($1,399).

With a few small exceptions, prices tended to decrease the farther away they got from the GTA. The only time they went up substantially after clearing that radius was in mid-sized cities such as Hamilton and London.

In the city of Toronto, the highest estimated premium was the $2,384 that drivers paid in the closely-bunched Agincourt North, Milliken, and L'Amoreaux neighbourhoods of Scarborough. Malvern and Rouge (also located in Scarborough) were close behind at $2,313. Other peripheral areas such as York and North York accounted for the next most expensive neighbourhoods.

Meanwhile, the least expensive auto insurance neighbourhoods in Toronto were clustered among the city centre, with Player Estates-Danforth, Mount Pleasant East, Rosedale-Moore Park, Church-Yonge Corridor, Bay Street Corridor, Waterfront Communities/The Island, and Leaside-Bennington leading the charge at an average of $1,437. The closest people can get to living in Toronto while paying an 'inexpensive' rate is by living in either Kleinburg ($1,310) or Whitevale ($1,144).