Top 10 Insurance Companies

There are many ways to define the top car insurance companies when it comes to customer service, claims handling and overall company reputation but how much of a market share a company has is a pretty solid statistic that correlates quickly to how trusted a brand is by consumers. Every year the Insurance Information Institute of America publishes a wealth of data about the auto insurance industry including a list of the Top 10 car insurance companies by market share. In 2009 the top car insurance companies in America were:

Top 10 Car Insurance Companies by Market Share in 2009
Car Insurance Company	Market Share (2009)
State Farm Mutual	18.6%
Allstate	10.5%
Berkshire Hathaway Inc (GEICO)	8.2%
Progressive	7.5%
Zurich Financial Services (Farmers)	6.4%
Nationwide Mutual	4.5%
Liberty Mutual	4.4%
USAA Insurance	4.1%
Travelers	2.1%
American Family Mutual	2.0%

Who is the Best Car Insurance Company?
While some car insurance companies have substantially more market share than others you should always consider a number of factors when searching for the best car insurance company. Some local car insurance companies have significant market share (such as PEMCO in the State of Washington) but will never appear on any national top 10 list purely because they are regionalized carriers.
You also need to consider the fact that wide use of the internet is really only at a 10 year mark (maybe less) and most of the top car insurance companies of today are competing heavily with smaller car insurance companies who are embracing this generation of technology users who prefer online account management, online claims handling and more. While companies like GEICO and Allstate have surely risen to the challenge, companies like Esurance are quickly gaining market share on larger companies who simply have not changed with the times. The next 10 years will be interesting and we certainly expect to see market share of car insurance companies change significantly over the next decade.
Your goal of using any top 10 list should be to simply gather a list of car insurance companies as potential providers but never rely solely just on the top 10 carriers. Use car insurance comparison search engines and request multiple quotes from both regional and national car insurers before choosing an auto insurance company for coverage.