With affordability continuing to loom as a major factor in auto retail, insurance costs have emerged as a key factor in auto sales.

And according to the latest data from embedded automotive insurance marketplace Polly, the younger the car buyer the more important it is to take care of insurance at the dealership.

Polly’s 2025 Embedded Auto Insurance Study — a survey of 1,023 Americans who had purchased a vehicle from a franchise dealership in the previous 12 months —showed 84% of millennials and Generation Z buyers want the option to buy insurance for their car during the purchase process.

That’s almost 20 percentage points more than the 66% for all age groups.

The survey also found 73% of those younger car shoppers would purchase F&I protection products if they could save money on insurance while buying a car (56% for all respondents), and 85% of all car buyers purchased F&I products when insurance was introduced versus 53% who did so when it wasn’t addressed.

In addition, 52% of all respondents and 69% of millennials and Gen Z said they would likely buy a nicer vehicle or add accessories if they could save on insurance.

Polly said those numbers point out how embedding insurance into the vehicle sale can drive additional revenue opportunities for dealerships and cited an analysis of more than 1 million dealership transactions showing an 18% greater F&I gross when insurance was introduced at the dealership.

Other findings:

  • More than 70% of all car buyers purchased at least one F&I product, with Gen Z (ages 18-34) leading the way at 85% and millennials (34-44) next at 82%.

 

  • Overall, insurance costs matter more to car shoppers than the vehicle’s brand, with 62% of respondents citing insurance as important compared to 56% for brand. Safety (75%), overall cost of ownership (71%), performance (67%) and fuel efficiency (63%) topped the list.

 

  • 94% said having a digital auto insurance app available at the dealership increased their satisfaction with the car-buying experience, and 54% said they had a better experience when in-dealership insurance options were presented.

 

“Our 2025 Embedded Auto Insurance Study underscores the critical role of embedded insurance in modern car dealerships,” Polly chief marketing officer Mike Burgiss said. “These findings highlight a paradigm shift in car buying, where consumers prioritize total cost of ownership and in-dealership convenience over brand and tech.”

The study is available for download here.