How insurance premiums drive up the cost of driving. I'm David Brancaccio. Consumer inflation was pretty

moderate in October with news this week. Prices rose 2.6% year over year, but inflation for specific

expenses can be all over the map. Just looked at the costs for driving. We've got gasoline down more than 12.5% from a

year ago. The cost of buying a used car or truck down about 3.5% but repair costs up more than

7% and insurance bills up 14% more than 5 times the rate of inflation overall. Here's

Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman.

Let's start with insurance. You can't legally drive without it. Mark Friedlander at the Insurance

Information Institute, an industry-supported research group, says insurers' costs and losses are up.

What we have seen, particularly since the pandemic, is a high level of accident frequency and severity.

At the start of the pandemic, insurance actually got cheaper for a little while, says Eddie Baranov,

Emeritus Professor of Insurance at Virginia Commonwealth University.

2020, you know, the rates went down like crazy because people were not driving.

But as people got back on the road, premiums headed up again.

Nearly 8% in 2022, more than 17% in 2023.

Mark Freedlander ticks off the reasons.

Number one is rising costs of repairs, more technologically advanced vehicles,

and higher wages for the auto mechanics who know how to fix them. Other factors, vehicle thefts,

rising medical costs for accident victims, more distracted driving the pre-pendemic. People are

playing with their phones, texting while

driving. Another force driving up costs, says Eddie Baranov. The weather. It's not just homes

that are being destroyed. Cows are being destroyed. Thousands of them, just in this year's

East Coast hurricanes alone. Add in floods and wildfires across the country,

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