A commuter car for my college kid: the insurance quote, whose name goes on the title, and an out of state repo in Texas

i did this four years ago with my son. arizona is not texas but the insurance half is the same everywhere.

adding him to my policy, with the car titled to me, was far cheaper than a separate policy in his name. it was still the biggest single jump in any bill i have ever gotten. the thing that moved the number most was not him, it was the car. the same kid on a corolla and on a mustang are two different quotes and it is not close. a boring car with good crash scores and no power is about as cheap as a 19 year old gets.

ask your agent two things people forget. does the good student discount apply, we got 14 percent for a B average and nobody mentioned it until i asked. and is she rated as the primary driver of that car or as an occasional driver on yours. the honest answer to that second one costs money and the convenient answer gets a claim denied at the worst moment of your life.

nobody has said anything about the car itself so i will. a 2021 corolla LE is the 2.0 with the cvt that has a physical launch gear in it, and it is the hardest thing on your list to kill. i am a toyota tech, so of course i said corolla, and the elantra and the forte in that money are fine cars that i would not argue about.

on a 41,000 mile one i would want three numbers before i bid: brake pad thickness front and rear, because a kid driving in town eats brakes and that is a 500 dollar surprise in february; the date codes on the tires, since a 2021 car has four year old rubber on it no matter how the tread looks; and whether the cabin filter has ever been changed, which tells you how the last owner treated everything you cannot see.

ask for a photo of the brake rotor edge and one of the tire sidewall. if whoever is listing it will send those, the rest of the listing is probably honest too.

mine is the thread you have been reading. on your third question, from ohio, so the names are different but the shape is the same.

the out of state title came from the bank with the assignment and the lien release on it, and my county would not touch it until somebody had looked at the vin in person. that was one extra stop and a few dollars. call the lubbock county tax office and ask specifically whether texas wants a vin verification on an out of state vehicle and where they want it done, and ask before you bid, not after you win. mine was a ten minute detour on a saturday. in some counties it is an appointment three weeks out, and three weeks of temp tags and insurance on a car your kid cannot drive yet is the real cost.

and ask how many keys. i paid 155 for the second one and i am going to keep saying it in every thread until somebody saves themselves the money.

two things from the service counter side of the world and then this can sit quietly.

whose name is on the title does not matter until the day there is a wreck. if the car is titled to you and she is listed on your policy as the driver of that car, the insurance company has no argument available to it. if the car is titled to her and she is a driver on your policy, they have one, and they will make it at the worst possible moment, in writing, six weeks later. you landed in the right place for the right reason.

the other thing. when you buy it, come back and post the whole number. the price, the tax, the verification fee, the plates, the first set of brakes. every september and october there are parents reading this board who cannot find a straight answer anywhere about what a car for a kid actually costs, and yours would be the first one on the internet with the fees in it.