It has been awhile, but I'd start with seeing about adding them to my policy as an additional driver on my cheapest car. That should be the cheapest.
However, if you're talking about a car for their very own, good luck! Especially a new one.....
However, if you're talking about a car for their very own, good luck! Especially a new one.....
Mine just turned 16 and with a 4.0 GPA, drivers school, & the AAA drivers program the insurance co (AAA basta$%S) are tripling my month cost. She is getting a 2000 model Ford with just liability coverage, the wife and I have new models with full coverage and they are going to town on me so I am all for checking out other insurance companies.
Get ready to open your wallet. My daughter is 18 and here insurance is more than my wifes and mine combined. She even gets State Farm discounts for no wrecks or tickets, good grade discount, and a Browns driving school discount.
this is what i was going to say. IIRC from when i turned 16, you just have to show them as the primary driver on one vehicle, so make sure it's the oldest one you have. We actually had four cars at one point (for a three person family) because it was cheaper to keep the 14 year old accord with 250K miles just sitting in the driveway than to have my insurance calculate against a newer vehicle. We actually had an offer to sell it to someone, but we did the math and the value of the car was far less than the insurance hit.
Depending on the company, accident free discounts generally follow the policy, not the driver. At State Farm they start at 3 years and then grow until they max out at 10 years. I filed a collision claim on my diesel truck in 2010 and lost my 10 year accident free discount. As soon as it was repaired, I moved it to the policy I had my race car on and canceled it's insurance (because I pulled the engine anyway). I instantly got the 10 year accident free discount back.
Now for how you can use this....
If you have a policy with a larger discount like that, you insure the kids car on that policy. They will be rated on it but the discount as a percentage will save you more money than how much your car will increase because you have to move it to a newer policy without the discount. It's like yours going up 25%, but theirs dropping 25%. Their 25% savings is a lot more.
And as mentioned above, you can buy a 20-30 year old car for a few hundred dollars, black tag it and just insure the kid as a full time driver on it. Then let them drive a vehicle that is insured as your spare. If you do this, crank up the liability coverage on the car they are actually driving. It shouldn't be as much of an increase since it's under your name. But if they cause an accident, you are liable (you are anyway if they are living in your house and driving your car even if they are rated full time on a car and are 18 years old). Make sure you have enough liability coverage to cover your net worth. I see people exceeding their policy limits ALL the time.
Now for how you can use this....
If you have a policy with a larger discount like that, you insure the kids car on that policy. They will be rated on it but the discount as a percentage will save you more money than how much your car will increase because you have to move it to a newer policy without the discount. It's like yours going up 25%, but theirs dropping 25%. Their 25% savings is a lot more.
And as mentioned above, you can buy a 20-30 year old car for a few hundred dollars, black tag it and just insure the kid as a full time driver on it. Then let them drive a vehicle that is insured as your spare. If you do this, crank up the liability coverage on the car they are actually driving. It shouldn't be as much of an increase since it's under your name. But if they cause an accident, you are liable (you are anyway if they are living in your house and driving your car even if they are rated full time on a car and are 18 years old). Make sure you have enough liability coverage to cover your net worth. I see people exceeding their policy limits ALL the time.
