Insurance coverage for private sale test drive?

[Elkins45]

If you're doing a private party sale of a vehicle that only has liability coverage and the potential buyer wrecks it during the test drive, who pays? If they have insurance on another vehicle can the owner of the wrecked car file a claim with them or do they have to sue in small claims court and then hope they can collect?

I can't see an insurance agent being all that happy to add collision to a vehicle and then having to cancel the entire policy a couple of weeks later after it sold.

 

[CKN]

Its not your problem how happy the agent is. If the vehicle is worth at least 5 grand get full coverage for it.

 

[dishdude]

Cover yourself and add full coverage if that's a concern. Anytime I've sold a car private party, the buyer either barely drove the car around the neighborhood or didn't even bother with a test drive. You as the seller need to control the situation, don't meet up with anyone that throws out any red flags and control the test drive. If you're not comfortable, end the meeting. I can usually tell from the first message if it's someone I want to deal with or not.

 

[f355spider]

Your insurance is always the primary, regardless of who is driving it. If you have no coverage or insufficient, then the driver's kicks in, assuming he/she has insurance...

Gotta agree with others, you need to cover yourself thoroughly, get full coverage.

 

[fsdork]

You could always take the angle of encouraging the buyer to have you drop it off at a shop of their choice for an inspection, including road test by the mechanic. That way it's on the shop's insurance if they wreck it.

It wouldn't let the buyer get a feel for the car, but at least they wouldn't have to worry that you're hiding something.

 

[mrsilv04]

If you only have liability only on the vehicle, and the prospective buyer has full coverage on their vehicle. Your vehicle gets damaged somehow by the prospective buyer.... is your insurance company allowed to subrogate the claim against the propective buyer's full coverage policy?

Those who don't know what subrogation is... you're lucky.

 

[f355spider]

You could always take the angle of encouraging the buyer to have you drop it off at a shop of their choice for an inspection, including road test by the mechanic. That way it's on the shop's insurance if they wreck it.

It wouldn't let the buyer get a feel for the car, but at least they wouldn't have to worry that you're hiding something.

Its generally still the case that your insurance is the primary coverage, even when your car is at a repair shop. I subscribe to Sports Car Market magazine and they have a legal column and these situations/questions come up frequently and the attorney who writes the column covers the subject at least a couple times per year. Your policy underwriter may try to claw back from the auto repair shop, but that is a separate issue.