Auto insurance is 50% more expensive than five years ago. That changed how Americans shop.

For years, auto insurance was one of those household expenses many consumers barely thought about. A policy renewed every six or twelve months, the premium moved a little, and unless something dramatic happened, most drivers stayed with the same carrier.

That behavior has changed.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index for motor vehicle insurance increased from 567.463 in July 2021 to 856.080 in July 2026. That represents a 50.9% increase in the price of auto insurance in just five years.¹

For perspective, overall consumer prices increased about 22.3% over the same period. Auto insurance therefore rose at more than twice the rate of overall inflation.

And consumers noticed.

This wasn't ordinary inflation

It is tempting to look at insurance increases as simply another consequence of the inflation that affected groceries, housing and nearly every other household expense after 2021.

But insurance experienced its own unusually severe inflation cycle.

The cost of repairing vehicles increased dramatically. The BLS motor vehicle maintenance and repair index rose from 318.031 in July 2021 to 460.185 in July 2026—an increase of roughly 45%.

Modern cars also contain increasingly expensive sensors, cameras, electronics and safety systems. A collision that once required replacing a bumper may now involve replacing and recalibrating cameras, radar sensors and other electronics.

Supply-chain disruptions, labor shortages and higher replacement-part costs compounded the problem. The Insurance Information Institute identified these factors, along with increases in accident frequency and severity, as major contributors to deteriorating auto insurer results.

By 2022, the industry's personal-auto combined ratio reached 112.2. In simple terms, insurers were paying approximately $1.12 in claims and expenses for every $1.00 they collected in premiums. Triple-I described it as the industry's worst full-year personal-auto underwriting performance in decades.

Rates eventually had to catch up with losses.

And they did.

The result was a five-year rate shock

Insurance pricing normally moves gradually. Regulators review rate filings, policies renew at different times, and insurers adjust pricing based on their own claims experience.

That means the higher underlying cost of claims did not hit consumers all at once.

Instead, millions of drivers experienced something more psychologically powerful: renewal after renewal with another significant increase.

At some point, a household expense that once operated largely in the background becomes something consumers actively manage.

The data suggest that threshold has been crossed.

Insurance shopping became mainstream

J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study found that 57% of auto insurance customers had shopped for another policy during the previous year.

That was the highest shopping rate recorded in the study's 19-year history, up from 49% the year before.

57% of drivers shopped their auto policy last year—the highest in 19 years of J.D. Power data.

Even more important, shopping hasn't disappeared as rate increases have slowed.

In its 2026 study, J.D. Power found that the percentage of customers shopping declined modestly from 57% to 53%. But shoppers were obtaining more quotes than ever before—3.5 quotes on average—and increasingly using digital channels to compare policies.

That study was fielded from January 2025 through January 2026, so it captures behavior through the first full year of moderating rates rather than the market as it stands today.

That's a meaningful behavioral shift.

For decades, one of the great advantages enjoyed by insurance carriers was consumer inertia. Customers might complain about an increase, but changing insurers required enough effort that many simply renewed.

Five years of extraordinary rate increases gave millions of consumers a reason to overcome that inertia.

Once consumers learn that shopping can save them hundreds—or sometimes thousands—of dollars, it is difficult to make them forget.

Rates are beginning to moderate. Shopping may not.

There is some good news for drivers.

The extraordinary rate cycle appears to be easing.

The BLS motor vehicle insurance index was actually 4.5% lower in July 2026 than a year earlier, after years of steep increases.

Insurer economics have improved as well. Swiss Re reported that U.S. personal-auto underwriting rebounded substantially in 2024 as rate increases caught up with higher repair costs and vehicle prices.

But falling rates don't necessarily recreate the insurance market of 2021.

Consumers have now been conditioned to ask a question they previously asked much less frequently:

“Can I get the same coverage somewhere else for less?”

That question changes the economics of the entire insurance distribution market.

A consumer who automatically renews creates no shopping opportunity.

A consumer who checks three or four carriers every year does.

The bigger change may be consumer behavior

The most important legacy of the past five years may therefore not be that auto insurance became 50% more expensive.

It may be that a relatively passive insurance customer became an active insurance shopper.

That has consequences across the industry.

Carriers have to compete harder for existing customers. Independent agents and comparison platforms become more valuable. Digital quoting becomes increasingly important. Bundled households that historically stayed with one insurer for years become available to competitors.

J.D. Power's data already show that nearly half of consumers purchasing new auto policies—48%—now complete the purchase through digital channels rather than through an agent or call center, up from 36% five years ago.

The market may be transitioning from an environment in which consumers shop primarily because something went wrong to one in which comparison shopping becomes routine household financial management.

That would be a much more durable change than the rate cycle itself.

Insurance prices will rise and fall.

But after five years in which the cost of auto insurance climbed approximately 50%, American consumers have been given a very expensive education in the value of shopping around.

They may continue using it long after the rate shock is over.

Reviewing your next renewal? Use our car insurance renewal checklist to work through your documents, coverage and written quotes.