I want to buy my D a car to use in school at Purdue Indiana. We are from Texas. Does it matter as far as insurance concerned that the car is registered to my name or hers? Is the law required that it registers in Indiana or Texas? Thanks.
I would check the Indiana DMV [or whatever it’s called] website. If D still has a Texas driver’s license and is registered to vote in Texas, she probably would not be viewed as establishing Indiana residence. The cleanest approach would be to buy a Texas car and register it in your name, with (a) D as a user on your insurance policy and (b) the insurance company aware that the car will be in Indiana. I would expect it to be more complicated if you buy what is already an Indiana car.
I agree with the poster above. If she owns the car, she probably can’t be on your insurance, and her insurance would probably be much higher. I have a son in college in another state, and the car is registered to me and insured in my state, his “home” state.
I agree,the best way would be to have you buy it, register it in your name and have D on your insurance, and let the insurance company know the situation ie that she will be at college with it. States generally have rules about residency and things like having to have a car registered there, but from what I know most states don’t consider college students permanent residents.
Be sure to call your insurance before you make a decision. We are in Texas and needed a car for our college D in Boston. Our insurance would not allow us to cover the car unless it was purchased/registered in Texas.
I agree with @TexasCollegeMom Talk with your agent. My son has a car registered to me in our state out of state at college. An issue is in the case where your child loans the car to a friend and the friend has an accident, its possible that a victim’s lawyers/estate will consider your assets if it goes to court. I am no insurance agent, but you may be opening yourself up to risk if it is registered to you and on your policy. This is the situation we are in and next time the car is back, we will put it in his name, and he’ll get his own insurance policy.
One extra piece of “insurance” we got was a manual transmission - there is some reduced likelihood that a friend will even know how to drive it!
“One extra piece of “insurance” we got was a manual transmission - there is some reduced likelihood that a friend will even know how to drive it!”
We did that when our 17 year old needed a car for an internship.
And I agree with LBowie. It may be cheaper in the long run for her to own the car in her own name and have an insurance policy separate from yours if your insurance company (or probably better, a different one) allows. We were sued when my daughter’s fiancee caused an accident out of state in a car she was in possession of but allowed him to drive that ill-fated day.
A manual transmission makes it nearly impossible to text and drive, which is a good thing.
Buy the vehicle in Texas. Indiana is the rust belt and cars have lower life expectancy there.
@OspreyCV22 : One of the best posts ever – on both points.
??? What the heck? We have bought all our cars save my very first one in Indiana. All have had nice long lives. We’ve driven most of them over 200,000 miles and they were (and are in our daughter’s case) still going strong.
Now for insurance purposes, you’ll need to check with your insurance company. One daughter was required by the state where she went to college to register her car in that state. We retained ownership of it, but did register it in her school state. Our insurance broker could not write a policy for a car registered outside our state, so we had to go with an online provider.
Our other daughter took a car with her to the opposite coast her last year of college. We left it registered in our home state and let the insurance company know that where it was for the school year.
Insurance aside, registration fees may differ in Texas versus Indiana. It is not a flat rate registration fee in Indiana. It is based upon the car’s value each year. So registration fees can be higher.
@treemaven : Do you not have snow? Do you not have road salt? I’m glad you’ve have good experiences with you cars. Perhaps you have done sensible things – like rinsing off the undercarriage. Putting Indiana in the rust belt is neither inaccurate nor an insult (in my humble opinion, based on one year of living in Illinois).
No insult taken. Just recounting that we’ve had no shortened car life and I’ve lived in the state since 1973. Yes, we deal with snow, ice, and road salt. And our cars are just fine.
A good sense of humor is to be admired. Not sure if that’s an aphorism, but I’ll toss it out there.
@treemaven Ask any antique car collector. The two best places to buy an older car are California and Texas due to the absence of rust on cars’ frames. It was not an insult. I was projecting that OP would be buying a used car.
You should read up on Toyota frame recalls in rust belt states.
I’ve lived in Indiana all my life and drive my cars to their rusty death. S2 has a used truck business and definitely prefers to buy them in Texas. Indiana vehicles may not have less of a life expectancy, but they certainly have more of a rust expectancy 
We registered cars to S1 and S2 and had them get their own insurance for exactly the liability reasons stated above. Also had the instant bonus of making them more responsible drivers who refused to let others drive their cars. They were able to get a separate policy with the same company and use our longevity and credit ratings.
I would want to be sure a Texas kid knew how to drive in West Lafayette snowy winters before sending a car to college. It’s an acquired skill.
Just want to add that this issue of young adults and cars and various states is very confusing. My son has one of our cars - with Maryland plates. The car insurance is in our names. He went to college in NC and worked in NC after graduation, so he got a NC license. Then he moved to Nashville TN for a new job. So, he is living and working in Nashville, with a NC license and driving a car registered in MD. This is kind of a mess.
Road salt is an issue, but salt from areas near oceans can be, too. I had a car recalled a couple years ago, and the recall was only in effect in cars in northern states that used salt on the roads. The tie rods were almost rusted through in the car, and the car company replaced them.
Do you spray the underside of the cars up North for extra protection against road salt?
At least back in the day when we lived in Michigan my parents would get the underside of the car coated (ziebart)when car they bought one. And they never had rust problems.
" An issue is in the case where your child loans the car to a friend and the friend has an accident, its possible that a victim’s lawyers/estate will consider your assets if it goes to court. "
Which is why I’ve never understood why DS’s GF lets him drive her car all the time…
I wouldn’t worry about the rust all that much these days, unless you are planning to buy an old clunker from the 70’s or early 80’s, it just isn’t an issue these days. They use salt where I live, and we have had some rough winters, and you just don’t see the cancer and rust issues you once did. Between double sided galvanized steel body panels and better quality steel on the underframe, it just isn’t that much of an issue.There have been issues, but most of them were due to faulty components, like the tie rod ends someone mentioned, but the standard build on cars today is light years from where it once was (if you are buying a classic car, on the other hand, places like Texas and California and Arizona are great places to avoid it, on the other hand, avoid Florida like the plague, their rust issues make the rust belt look good for those kind of cars).