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Auto insuranceclaims are on the rise across the country according to a new report released by the Insurance Research Council (IRC). The report, issued this week, found that the increase in costs is reversing previous trends of relatively stable costs that have even declined in some cases.

Auto Insurance Claims Severity and Frequency Increasing

The new Insurance Research Council report, titled Trends in Auto Injury Claims, 2011 Edition, has revealed some shifts in previous auto insurance claims trends.

In the previous few years, reports from the IRC found that while injury claim severity (the average cost of injury claims) has been on the rise, it has always been offset by declining claim frequency. However, according to the 2011 report, the frequency in which claims are filed has increased, resulting in an overall jump in claims costs.

PIP Claims Have Impacted Total Claims

Among the types of auto insurance claims studied by the IRC, the organization said personal injury protection (PIP) claimsalso known as no-fault injury protectionseemed to have had the greatest impact on the claims cost increase.

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has published the latest version of its Comparison of Insurance Costs report, which shows how particular  2008–2010 models’ average collision claims costs measured up compared to the average for all vehicles.

Not surprisingly, it was a Masserati that ended up with the highest average claim cost. The average collision claim for a two-door Maserati Granturismo came in at 326 percent higher than the average for all cars.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Chevrolet Express 3500 cargo series had the lowest average collision claim cost. The Express 3500′s average was 69 percent lower than the average for all vehicles.

The report does not indicate vehicle safety or differences in the cost to insure the vehicles, although many insurers do use the scores in the report to set a “base rate” for the collision portion of insurance premiums. Cars with a higher susceptibility to damage may get charged an extra premium because of their less-than-sterling track records.

The effect of the scores on premiums, though, are likely to be slight. The NHTSA s

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