Hi, I garage my Boxster in the winter and swithed the insurance to my SUV and...
 

Hi , My question has little to do with Boxsters specifically but maybe someone here has had the same experience.
I own two vehicles, a 2007 boxster I drive in the summer and an SUV I drive in the winter. I live in CT.
When I’m using the boxster I don’t use the SUV at all, in fact I disconnect the battery and it is un-drivable. And vise versa.
As such, I suspended all insurance coverage for the un-drivable SUV, and in the fall I’ll switch the insurance back to the SUV and suspend the insurance on the car.
This saves a good deal of money and it would be a waste to insure a vehicle that goes unused for months.
I received a notice from the DMV stating that the SUV’s registration was suspended for failure to continuously maintain liability insurance, (I did not realize this was required) and I am asked to either request a hearing or pay a civil penalty of $200.
I’ll pay the fine, but is there a solution that will work for this situation? Would it be possible to temporarily suspend vehicle registration to coincide with suspending insurance coverage on a vehicle that is not is use for 6 months at a time? Does anyone else remove insurance from a garaged vehicle and is there a way to deal with the registration requirement? Thanks

In California DMV has a form that can be submitted for "Non Operation". If your State has this you could send that in for the months that it is not on the road. That should solve the problem.

Even though you don't drive the car for part of the year, you should maintain some insurance on it. If the car is stolen, or if you have a disaster at you home and the car is damaged or destroyed, without insurance it would not be covered

I would check with your insurance company on what the best way is to deal with it.

I would also ask for the hearing, you could explane your situation and if there was still a fine, they would probably reduce it

I'm in NJ. We have some of the highest insurance rates in the 50 states. At one point it was obscene. I pay $100 a month for full coverage with a $1000 deductible. I have had no points since at least 2000 and have never filed a claim. Taking insurance off for six months (or less?) is not remotely worth the possible risk of fire, theft. And remember hurricane Sandy? I walked out my house and my neighbohrs giant tree was leaning on house at a 45 degree angle.

Maintain the comprehensive coverage when the vehicle is not going to be driven.

I can put a vehicle in "storage" with my insurance. But if I have an accident while driving it, they don't cover it.

I've got too many vehicles. Several are often in some state of repair and not driven.
I can move them to "storage" on my insurance. Costs 20% of normal. There are restrictions of how often they can come in/out of storage but that is how I would handle it here in Texas.

Mike

I'm in the exact same situation. I live in CT, have an Explorer for the winter and the 986 for summer (as well as a daily driver).

I put up either the Ford or the Porsche with a trickle charger, call GEICO and they just put on comprehensive applied to the stored vehicle.

Contact your local DMV office and ask them what the procedure is if your store a car for 1/2 the year and drop your collision and liability insurance during the storage period. Most states have a way to deal with it as it is actually a pretty common practice.
The license plates on one of the cars I store comes up for renewal during the winter, so every year I have to go to the DMV and sign an affidavit stating the car is not being driven at that time. Unfortunately, there is no good way to move the renewal date to sometime in the summer.

How did the DMV know that you were dropping the insurance for 1/2 the year? Did your insurance rat you out? Any NSA involvement? :)

I found this on the CT DMV site.... it looks like CT requires insurance coverage for any registered vehicle. I will compare the savings for removing insurance vs. DMV fees for canceling/ re-registering vehicles.

>>> If you plan to register a non-operational vehicle, keep in mind you must also maintain insurance coverage. Otherwise, cancel your registration and insurance, and return the vehicle's license plates to the CT DMV.

When you're ready to renew the registration on a non-operational vehicle, visit your local DMV office with:

conspiracy theory LOL

I believe at least in CA the Ins companies have to notify the DMV if insurance is canceled or dropped.
I could be wrong......

+1. Same here.

JayG also posted reason why: "If the car is stolen, or if you have a disaster at you home and the car is damaged or destroyed, without insurance it would not be covered.

And as Coaster noted, DO NOT drive that vehicle while insured at that level, because you won't have collision or liability coverage.

DBear

i did this last summer when i went out of town for 3 months. just called my agent (state farm) and told her i would not be driving the cars. she raised the deductibles to $999,999 (except comp) which dropped the premium to practically nothing.

since maryland requires the license plates to be returned if insurance is canceled (even if the vehicle is not driven or drivable) this is the only option.

you only pay a $100 in NJ? WOW!!! Who's your insurance co?

Looks like you have your answers covered, but one other option is to turn in one set of plates and then just transfer the one set of plates to whichever car you are driving. In NY it's around $10 to transfer plates to another vehicle.

you only pay a $100 in NJ? WOW!!! Who's your insurance co?

I have full coverage on my 04 and it runs around $500/year

Of course it doesn't hurt that I have no accidents or points

that's $100 per month. Progressive. By the way, I own property but its not insured with Progressive and not even in NJ so that rate is strictly car only with no discounts for having other kinds of insurance with them.

When I was shopping for quotes the other guys at State Farm and Allstate on the phone were like "what did Progressive quote? Umm yeah maybe we'll try you next year. Good bye". GEICO was close, but not close enough.

Try AAA if you can