Car insurance comparison engine Confused.com found that over 40 per cent of people who unnecessarily pay the top rate of car insurance could afford a more expensive car using the money they could save if they shopped around for a better deal.

Managing director of Confused.com, Kate Armstrong, said: "While we don’t expect drivers to automatically upgrade their cars based on the money that they would have saved by finding the cheapest car insurance, our research does make a very important point - that unless you shop around for insurance, just as you’d shop around for a good deal on a new car, you could be flushing money down the drain."

Confused.com found over 40 per cent of car owners fail to get a quote from anyone else other than their own insurance provider when they are due an upgrade.

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