Insurance group 36: what it means & typical cost

What does group 36 mean?

Larger, faster or more expensive-to-repair cars — bigger SUVs, performance hatches and executive saloons — land in this band. Ratings on this 1–50 scale come from the Group Rating Panel — run jointly by Thatcham Research and the ABI — so group 36 means the same thing whichever car carries it, whether it's a compact hatchback or a performance model. Read our insurance groups explained guide for how the panel scores every car.

Groups 34–38 sit closest to it in cost, so they're worth comparing if you're weighing up a slightly cheaper or slightly pricier trim.

How much is insurance group 36?

On our published methodology, the insurance group 36 average cost is about £975 a year for a driver aged 30–49 in a medium-risk postcode on comprehensive cover, with most quotes falling between £780 and £1,215. That is the insurance group 36 cost before any no-claims discount is applied, so a settled driver with several claim-free years should expect to pay less than the midpoint. Age changes the picture completely: the same car gives a group 36 insurance cost of roughly £2,625 for a 17–20-year-old.

So is group 36 insurance expensive? Measured against the rest of the scale, yes, by most standards. This is the expensive half of the scale, where bigger, faster and harder-to-repair cars sit. For context, our estimates put group 1 at around £220 a year and group 50 at around £1,275 on the same assumptions, which places group 36 in the high band. The insurance group 36 price you are actually quoted will also move with your postcode, mileage, claims history and excess — the group sets the car-side base rate, not the final figure.

You will often see this written with a letter on dealer listings and quotes, as group 36E. The insurance group 36E cost is identical to plain group 36: the letter identifies which derivative was rated, not a separate price band. However you phrase it — an insurance group 36E average cost, an insurance group 36E price, or a 36E insurance group cost — you are asking about the same figure above.

Prefer to run the numbers on your own circumstances? The car insurance group 36E cost calculator on our pricing page lets you change the age band, postcode risk and cover type rather than accepting our midpoint. One thing we cannot give you is a car insurance quote for group 36E itself — no one can, because a quote prices the driver as well as the car, and the group is only the vehicle half of it.

The estimator sits on our group-by-group pricing page, and the insurance group prices table shows all fifty groups side by side. For the factors that sit outside the car entirely, see what affects car insurance price.

Example cars in insurance group 36

These models from our dataset typically fall in or around group 36 — trim and engine choice can move a specific car up or down within its range, so always check the variant table on each model's own page:

• Ford Ranger — typically groups 29–41
• Nissan Navara — typically groups 30–41
• Toyota GR Yaris — typically groups 32–38
• Land Rover Discovery Sport — typically groups 26–37
• Volkswagen Golf — typically groups 10–37
• BMW 3 Series — typically groups 22–43
• Audi A4 — typically groups 24–43
• Audi Q3 — typically groups 20–42
• Mercedes-Benz C-Class — typically groups 28–46
• Mercedes-Benz GLA — typically groups 25–46
• Mercedes-Benz CLA — typically groups 26–45
• BMW 1 Series — typically groups 18–36
• BMW X1 — typically groups 21–36
• Land Rover Range Rover Evoque — typically groups 25–36
• Land Rover Defender — typically groups 36–50
• Polestar 2 — typically groups 32–44

Why some group 36 cars show a letter, like 36E

You may see group 36 written with a letter suffix, such as 36E or 36D — the letter flags a specific trim or derivative, not a different cost scale. See our insurance group letters explained guide for what that means in practice.