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Owning an unregistered car

HiroconHirocon Registered User regular
edited September 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
My car insurance is up for renewal. I'm considering just letting it expire to save money. I'll get a bus pass instead of driving. If my insurance expires, my California vehicle registration will be canceled. But, I still want to keep the car, in case I discover that I hate taking the bus, and want to start driving again in the future. Is it legal to own an unregistered car if I just don't drive it? I'm in the San Diego area.

Hirocon on

Posts

  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Hirocon wrote: »
    My car insurance is up for renewal. I'm considering just letting it expire to save money. I'll get a bus pass instead of driving. If my insurance expires, my California vehicle registration will be canceled. But, I still want to keep the car, in case I discover that I hate taking the bus, and want to start driving again in the future. Is it legal to own an unregistered car if I just don't drive it? I'm in the San Diego area.
    If you let your insurance lapse, when you try to get it again, it will be much more expensive.

    Thanatos on
  • GdiguyGdiguy San Diego, CARegistered User regular
    edited September 2008
    http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffvr01.htm

    whether they'd actually do anything I can't say

    Gdiguy on
  • pacbowlpacbowl Los AngelesRegistered User regular
    edited September 2008
    You can let it lapse and nothing will happen in the short term. In the long term it will be much more expensive to bring the registration up-to-date. Letting it lapse isn't illegal and they won't come after you or anything. You can register it under non-operational status, which is $17 and it kind of "freezes" the registration so if you want to bring it up to date later, you dont pay late fees. Mind you if you do this you cannot drive or even park the car on the street. In a private driveway or garage is fine.

    pacbowl on
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  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    pacbowl wrote: »
    You can let it lapse and nothing will happen in the short term. In the long term it will be much more expensive to bring the registration up-to-date. Letting it lapse isn't illegal and they won't come after you or anything. You can register it under non-operational status, which is $17 and it kind of "freezes" the registration so if you want to bring it up to date later, you dont pay late fees. Mind you if you do this you cannot drive or even park the car on the street. In a private driveway or garage is fine.
    Honestly, the costs of registration, even with late fees, are going to pale compared to the increase in your insurance you're going to get once you let that lapse.

    Thanatos on
  • pacbowlpacbowl Los AngelesRegistered User regular
    edited September 2008
    What if he just cancels the insurance instead of letting it lapse? I'd say that's a better idea.

    pacbowl on
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  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    pacbowl wrote: »
    What if he just cancels the insurance instead of letting it lapse? I'd say that's a better idea.
    It's the exact same thing. The next time you walk into an insurance company, they're going to ask you how long you've been without insurance, and then they're going to fuck you in the ass.

    Thanatos on
  • CauldCauld Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Thanatos wrote: »
    pacbowl wrote: »
    What if he just cancels the insurance instead of letting it lapse? I'd say that's a better idea.
    It's the exact same thing. The next time you walk into an insurance company, they're going to ask you how long you've been without insurance, and then they're going to fuck you in the ass.

    He should be able to get insurance that's predicated upon the car not being driven and is thus much cheaper. When I went to college I got that kind of coverage a few times. My parents were paying my insurance then so I don't know how much it was, but it was considerably cheaper.

    OP: If you do this, you can't keep your car on the road, though I assume you know that.

    Cauld on
  • SentrySentry Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Thanatos wrote: »
    pacbowl wrote: »
    What if he just cancels the insurance instead of letting it lapse? I'd say that's a better idea.
    It's the exact same thing. The next time you walk into an insurance company, they're going to ask you how long you've been without insurance, and then they're going to fuck you in the ass.

    this is mucho true. I was without insurance for like, less then a month and my bill skyrocketed.

    the point is, if there is ANY gap in your insurance history, they will fuck you.

    Sentry on
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  • ImprovoloneImprovolone Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    I'm in like with Cauld. Call your company and see what the rates are if you have no plans to drive the car. Buy the plan for a month, see how it goes, and continue from there.

    Improvolone on
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  • RNEMESiS42RNEMESiS42 Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Hmm, when my car was out of commission and I wasn't able to afford fixing it yet, I put my insurance on hold for abut eight months. I don't know what it was called, but I didn't cancel my insurance, I just told them I wouldn't be driving my car anymore because it was inoperable in the garage. It didn't affect me negatively at all.

    RNEMESiS42 on
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  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    edited September 2008
    Cauld wrote: »
    He should be able to get insurance that's predicated upon the car not being driven and is thus much cheaper.

    In the UK, these are called FTO (Fire and Theft Only) and ADFTO (Accidental Damage, Fire and Theft Only). They're usually very cheap, but bear in mind that most insurance companies won't let you take one of these out if you're a new customer. Usually you can only change an existing policy for one of these at renewal.

    japan on
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