Expert: Bennie719 - 2/26/2008

Question
I own two vehicles (in addition to my primary vehicle) that I seldom ever drive but occasionally have a need for. Since some insurance companies extend libility coverage to their policy holders when driving vehicles owned by others, would the same not hold true for my own vehicles?

Answer
Hi Max,
Although most insurance companies provide discounts of up to 40% for each car that exceeds the number of drivers on the policy, all policies contain EXCLUSIONS stating the cases when your policy will NOT follow you.
The following 4 are standard in all policies.
Your own policy does not follow you when:
1. You are driving a car that has been left in your care and custody.
2. You are driving a car that is provided for your normal use.
3. You are driving a car owned by someone else residing in your household.
4. You are driving a car that you own and do not have insured (Unless you have owned it for less than 30 days).

If you desire to be able to drive either of the spare cars at any moment in time, you have no choice but to keep them insured.

If you are going to know several days ahead of time before driving one of the spare cars, you can remove coverage (as long as it's parked on private property) and then have coverage added back on the vehicle before using it.

In many states (such as California) you would also be required to re-register the vehicle an non-operational at the time you removed insurance and when you want to use it, add it back to the insurance policy and re-register it as operational.
This would be quiet a hassle if you were going to use the vehicle for several short periods during the year.

I hope this information has been of help.
Your feedback by rating my answer will be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area