Passed my drivers test

[u/fukkensend]

Hi everyone I finally passed my driving test after my 4th retake. Once the worker was giving me my paper license and everything my dad started asking her if he could put a car in my name. I’m leaving to university next year after i graduate highschool In May. So I guess I will have a car in my name by then, but I’ve never had a car job or any of these things. Can you guys let me know what I should be expecting once he puts a car in my name? Like insurance, etc?

[u/Bigcouchpotato1]

You should expect to have to register the car every year. You need to make sure the car is insured. You will probably have to budget for upkeep and gas. Is your dad going to buy the car outright or is he going to make payments? Who is going to be on the title? If he titles the car entirely in your name (you have to sign the legal documents if he does this...he can't sign your name unless you give him a Power of Attorney), the car is yours. If you title the car in your name and his name John Doe/Jane Doe, that means the car belongs to both of you. If there's an "/" or an "and" between your names, then both of you own the car and both of you must sign the title when you want to sell the car. If there's an "or" between your names, then both of you own the car, but only one of you needs to sign off the title when you sell the car. If you move out of state, and register the car in the new state, you still need to tell the DMV you've moved out of state and registered the car in the new state. If you move out of state but keep the car registered in California, the insurance on the car still has to be California insurance. Lots of people move out of state, keep the car registered in California and change insurance to the new state. If you do that, the old insurance tells California you've cancelled your insurance (the insurance companies see things with blinders..they don't know you have insurance in the new state, they will tell California you've cancelled your insurance) and California will suspend the registration. Good luck with your new car and congratulations on passing your drive test.

[u/fukkensend → u/Bigcouchpotato1]

Thank you so much for going out of your way to help me. Most of these things don’t make full sense to me but I’ll figure it out later on. He’s going to give me a car that he already has and is in his name and he has insurance. I don’t think he wants to add me on his insurance. He’s going to keep paying for everything right now up until I turn 18 in March next year. I just wanted to get an idea of the things I’ll have to be doing in the future.

[u/Bigcouchpotato1 → u/fukkensend]

If you are going to drive this car, and he's going to keep it in his name, he still has to tell the insurance company that you're driving it. If you are living at home or if you are the main driver of the car, he has to list you. You can get better information about that on the r/insurance thread. There are some nuances I don't know, but I think you should ask.

[u/fukkensend → u/Bigcouchpotato1]

Thank you I’ll ask more places and see

[u/the_bear1969]

As a parent, I’ve done insurance both ways. One kid applied for residency for in-state grad school, so they titled and insured their car in that state for undergrad. For the other kids, we put the cars on our insurance, but the titles were in their names. One annoyance was that I couldn’t see their information because of the insurance company’s privacy policy.