My son got his license in March and then he got his own car in May. I gambled and did a $1,000 deductible and guess what, he got into an accident. A minor one but still I had to pay the $1,000 deductible. I thought about putting the car in his name and then he get his own insurance but then I don't have the option of taking the car away from him if I need to (for punishment). I did get a good student discount, a discount from allstate because they are going to take the premium directly out of my checking account. So really to get the lowest price, you need to buy an old car so you don't have to carry collision, only liability. Ask for a good student discount. Ask if there are any other discounts, such as if you insure house or do an umbrella policy. I actually went with my old Allstate agent who really looked into getting me discounts so that might be a route for you to take. Personal attention from someone you can talk face to face vs. someone over a phone who doesn't really care about getting you a low rate.
As long as your child is on a JR license as a parent you have control over the license. there are restrictions to hours drivng, the cinderella law, but provisions for return ing from work are in there too.
The kids love to advance and remove the jr license provisions but they do help a parent with monitoring control/ I can tell you that there is nothing more horriffic then going to a parents home to tell them of a horrendous crash their child was in. There are far too many divirsions for a 16 yr old to be handed the keys to a car as far as I am concerned after living the aftermaths....no matter how responsible, reliable the kids are, their parents have lost them too.
I couldn;t believe, not just teens, but adults TEXTING away as they drive! Big diversions, if others are in the car, huge chance of not having aletness radar on.
Because of my profession I allowed the kids to get a permit after 16 IF they had a part time ob. they stayed on the permit for a year until 17 to get their license. At 17 they had a Jr license that I was able to control to revoke under parental rights.
At 18 they got their own car, insurance and SR license. There is so many more cars on the road now, people not only teens paying attention, it is elderly, not all of them, it is adults always rushing and not defensive driving.
The liability comes when a child is in a car in your name and you own a home and something drastic happens. IT could devastate you. Especially if you child is issued sitations and in a reportable accident, or lent the car to someone and your insurance drops you, increases your rate higher then what the kid would ever have in the first place, or the damage they incure is more then the policy and they go after you.
The insurance for a shild is affordable as said in prior post, buy the older car you are willing to eat the cost if in a collision, do not but performance cars no matter how much they beg, nothing sporty....
I have to admit I never did it, but I did have two sons that were stopped in one car a blak firebird like KITT, and the other in a Dodge daytona fast backstyle, the state trooper I know progiled them as they drive that route all the time now in Civic's and Corrolla and have never had a problem.
My older dd was stopped in the daytona too, and the officer walked up and saw it was her and the whole story was different. It looked like a sticker was missing was the excuse,
A 16 year old is not ready to be handed the keys...
My opinion based on 20 years in law enforcement and two many tragidies. I could tell you each one and how I still see it on the parents faces.
The underage driver that rammed my crusier took away my carrier she was only months after her 17 birthday and at a party doing whippets and a candy bowl of parental med. chest pills, along with booze.
she also was the neice of a police officer.
There are a ton of nuts on the road and we meet them everyday. How do we think our babes can react to these idiots without lots of on road supervised driving experiance. Taking the extra year to train your child while in the car is well worth you time and their patience and understanding.
There are buses and parents to get to school. Two fatalities were on the way to school, I read another one this past week after snow the night before. Even more after school and on weekend nights with friends in the car.
As a parent that has lost a child, not to a car accident, but an accidental death, there is nothing worse. There is nothing worse then losing a child.
I guess that is another reason I take teen driving so very serious.
Di
