Brampton, Ont., has recorded one of the highest carjacking rates with around 5.25 incidents per 1,000 residents, according to a recent study conducted by MyChoice Financial, an insurance comparison service in Canada. Brampton, they said, tops their list of most expensive car insurance premiums in the province at $2,922 per year.
The study uses both company internal quote data and the Ministry of Transportation data to better understand and connect carjacking rates with auto insurance premiums across Ontario. MyChoice said Etobicoke and Scarborough have theft rates of 4.96 and 3.84 respectively, and corresponding premiums of about $2,030 and $2,710.
“As carjackings escalate, so does the urgency for comprehensive insurance coverage,” said Aren Mirzaian, CEO of MyChoice, in a statement. He added that the company seeks to empower users with “thorough insights into how such alarming theft rates can affect their insurance costs.”
However, MyChoice also noted that the auto theft situation in Markham and Richmond Hill, despite being among the most expensive for car insurance ($2,447 and $2,248, respectively), fall below the Ontario average for carjacking incidents.
“This discrepancy suggests that while theft rates significantly influence insurance prices, they are not the sole determinant, and other factors such as collision rates, population density and road conditions impact the rates in these areas,” said MyChoice in a news release.
In preparing its report the company looked at carjacking rates across Ontario cities with a population size of more than 100,000 people, then compared the data to monthly insurance premiums across the same cities.
