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Parked Cars and Insurance

Do you have a car at home that you don’t plan on using? One that will stay parked throughout the year? If so, you may have some questions about insurance, and car status is part of the process of discovering who has the cheapest car insurance in California. Is it even worth insuring it? If so, what type of insurance do you need, or should you have? While some of these questions can be tough, we are going to help inform your decision-making process.

Storage Coverage

If you have a car that you don’t plan on using during the year, car insurance companies offer a specific type of insurance coverage for you: storage coverage. Storage coverage is meant for vehicles that you don’t really plan on using, but that you would like to have protected from certain damages. These may include theft, vandalism, damage caused by the weather, as well as specifically hail and lightning, and damage caused by animals.

This type of coverage can be much cheaper than traditional insurance because it drops liability and collision coverage. It is meant for vehicles that are used very infrequently or not at all, that require repairs, or that are owned by a member of the military who is deployed. Storage coverage allows you to keep your vehicle insured, so that you don’t risk lapse of coverage and issues with your vehicle’s insurance history, without requiring you to pay more for coverages you may not need, because of your vehicle’s lack of use.

Drawbacks of Storage Coverage

While storage coverage may protect a vehicle that is not being used from some damages; and while they attractively save you money on premiums for coverage you likely will not need while your vehicle is not being driven, it may not help you meet vehicle registration requirements. As most states require some form of liability coverage, opting for storage coverage could put you and your vehicle at risk of license and registration suspension. Some states may allow you to get around this by insuring another vehicle. But it would also most likely be necessary to drop registration, or register for planned nonoperation for the vehicle in storage.

Another drawback of storage coverage, or opting to not insure your parked vehicle at all, is that you will not be legally allowed to park your vehicle on a road. Thus, you would need a driveway, garage, or somewhere else off the road to store your vehicle without paying for liability insurance. If your vehicle were somehow hit by another vehicle or person anyway, with only storage coverage, any damages sustained would not be covered.

Thus, storage coverage may be useful, and a great way to save money when a vehicle is not being used, but it comes with risks and costs.

If You Are Looking To Insure Your Parked Vehicle In Some Way

If you decided that you want some form of coverage for your parked vehicle, or any other vehicle, we’ve got the answer to the question, “Who has the cheapest car insurance in California.” Get-A-Quote makes finding the best car insurance quotes easy, with one simple quiz that tells us everything we need to know about you in order to give you access to the best quotes available. If you are looking to insure your vehicle, and want access to the best quotes, try Get-A-Quote.