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Car insurance costs in smaller vehicles are higher. For example, a GMC Sierra pickup truck costs $1,121 to insure, according to Insure.com. The smaller, more fuel efficient Honda Civic costs an average of $2,353 each year to insure according to the same source.

Comparing the most expensive vehicles to insure with the least expensive, the 10 least expensive only includes vans, SUVs and trucks. The most expensive to insure are exclusively convertibles, sedans and coupes. (See below for rankings)

One of the biggest factors in calculating insurance rates is how a vehicle will do in an accident. In many cases, that has a lot to do with the height difference between cars. (Use the 'True Cost to Own' Calculator to calculate your insurance rate by going to www.edmunds.com/tco.html)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been studying driver injury rates in small and large vehicles since 1993. Its data showed for every one driver injured in a van or truck, one-and-a-half will be hurt in a passenger car. (Click here to read the study)

With the average difference between insuring a small car and a large one, and with gas at more than $4 a gallon, a driver driving a small car at 40 miles per gallon would have to drive 15,000 miles a year before the driver started to save more money than a someone driving a large car at 20 miles per gallon.

California is the sixth-most expensive state in the U.S. to insure a car, and San Diego pays one of the state's highest rates.

*Data by Insure.com, via Quadrant Information Services. For more information, click here.