Insurance group 8: what it means & typical cost

What does group 8 mean?

Cars in this band are typically cheap, small-engined and inexpensive to repair — the lowest-cost end of the UK insurance group scale. Ratings on this 1–50 scale come from the Group Rating Panel — run jointly by Thatcham Research and the ABI — so group 8 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.

Group 8 is towards the very bottom of the scale, so cars rated here are among the cheapest in the UK to insure as standard. See our roundup of cheapest car insurance groups for how it compares to the rest of the low end.

How much is insurance group 8?

On our published methodology, the insurance group 8 average cost is about £370 a year for a driver aged 30–49 in a medium-risk postcode on comprehensive cover, with most quotes falling between £295 and £465. That is the insurance group 8 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 8 insurance cost of roughly £1,000 for a 17–20-year-old.

So is group 8 insurance expensive? Measured against the rest of the scale, it is at the cheap end — groups 1 to 10 are the least expensive cars on the road to cover, and nothing on the scale is meaningfully cheaper. 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 8 in the very low band. The insurance group 8 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 8E. The insurance group 8E cost is identical to plain group 8: the letter identifies which derivative was rated, not a separate price band. However you phrase it — an insurance group 8E average cost, an insurance group 8E price, or a 8E insurance group cost — you are asking about the same figure above.

Prefer to run the numbers on your own circumstances? The car insurance group 8E 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 8E 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 8

These models from our dataset typically fall in or around group 8 — 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 Fiesta — typically groups 2–20
• Ford Fusion — typically groups 7–14
• Vauxhall Corsa — typically groups 2–17
• Vauxhall Adam — typically groups 8–15
• Seat Ibiza — typically groups 4–17
• Nissan Note — typically groups 8–15
• Toyota Yaris — typically groups 4–15
• Volkswagen Up — typically groups 1–12
• Volkswagen Polo — typically groups 4–19
• Mazda 2 — typically groups 5–14
• Fiat 500 — typically groups 1–12
• Fiat Panda — typically groups 1–9
• MG 3 — typically groups 4–11
• Kia Picanto — typically groups 1–10
• Smart ForFour — typically groups 3–11
• Peugeot 307 — typically groups 7–15
• Mitsubishi Colt — typically groups 3–10
• Dacia Sandero — typically groups 2–11
• Hyundai i10 — typically groups 1–9
• Toyota Aygo — typically groups 6–13
• Skoda Fabia — typically groups 2–14
• Suzuki Swift — typically groups 8–24
• Peugeot 208 — typically groups 8–20

Why some group 8 cars show a letter, like 8E

You may see group 8 written with a letter suffix, such as 8E or 8D — 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.