ISO’s Personal Auto Physical Damage Rating Symbols

ISO’s Personal Auto Physical Damage Rating Symbols are codes that indicate the relative risk of loss for each private passenger vehicle series and each model year. Each Symbol has a corresponding Symbol relativity, or factor, that you can use to develop premiums for individual comprehensive and collision policies.

Like all ISO products and services, Personal Auto Physical Damage Rating Symbols are advisory. You may use them without modification, modify them, or choose not to use them.

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How ISO develops the Rating Symbols

ISO assigns preliminary Symbols based solely on the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of each vehicle. Then, we examine actual loss experience for that vehicle and make adjustments — both upward and downward — to arrive at the Rating Symbols.

If the vehicle’s loss experience is consistent with that anticipated by the current Symbol, ISO does not adjust the symbol. If the loss experience is better than that anticipated by the current Symbol, ISO decreases the Symbol, resulting in a lower cost to insure. If the loss experience is worse than that anticipated by the current Symbol, ISO increases the Symbol, resulting in a higher cost to insure.

There are many reasons we may need to adjust a vehicle’s Symbol

For example:

  • Some vehicles with similar MSRPs are more attractive to thieves than others.
  • Some vehicles with similar MSRPs are involved in more collisions than others.
  • Some vehicles with similar MSRPs are more expensive to repair than others.

We review loss experience for a given model-year vehicle multiple times to determine the continued adequacy of the vehicle’s Rating Symbol.

By adjusting the Symbol based on actual loss experience, ISO’s Symbols promote equity.

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Use VINMASTER® to identify an automobile’s current Symbol

With ISO’s VINMASTER and your software, you can identify an automobile’s current ISO Physical Damage Symbol quickly and easily without knowing its vehicle identification number (VIN).