It’s best to register the car in Iowa and get insurance there. You cannot sell a car in Iowa with an out of state license plate.
Oops, I read the transfer states the wrong way. I apologize.
Read the Iowa laws. MA and Ca are strict, so I would never want to try anything on those states. I found the laws differed for UG students vs grad students, because the latter often have grants in their own names.
I am just going to say this…150K miles is a lot of miles. Does it make sense to have a kid drive a car that may need more maintenance and possibly break down from time to time? I would rather lease an inexpensive new car with warranty for few hundred $$ a month for my kid and keep the old car for myself. If your kid is handy and able to fix few minor things then it may be workable, but I know my girls are totally clueless when it comes to cars.
^^ My car that I drive every day has 161k miles and I have driven it cross country a few times since it hit 150k. Cars last a long time these day. My BIL just gave his son his Subaru with 250k+ miles on it and bought himself the exact same car (same model year, same color) with ‘only’ 150k miles. He drives from his mountain house to his city house, about 75 miles, every weekend, but even his commute to work in the mountains is about 20 miles ones way.
New tires, new wipers, and I feel ready to go.
150,000 for a well maintained Subaru isn’t bad. The one our kid used had about that many miles. He drove it for two,years…and we sold it to a friend here who drove it for three more years…and sold it. My bet is is had 250,000 miles on it at the end of its use.
I think you need to decide…are you letting your kid “borrow” the car…or are you giving it to the kid.
If you are giving it to the kid…transfer the title, and insurance to the kid before he leaves your home state. Then it will already have the ownership step done.
Kid will likely need to get an Iowa driver’s license to register the car there. And insurance.
In our case…we knew the use of OUR car was temporary…so we didn’t do all of,that.
As an intermediary step you might want to change the car title to read Jane Doe OR Mary Doe. We did that with my daughter, who lives in a different state and was driving one of our cars. At some point after college when it became clear she was never going to leave where she was, she was able to register the car in that state and obviously insure it there and everything else, and I didn’t have to go up there to sign anything, etc. It just buys you some time if you are still deciding what to do, so that if it does end up making sense for her to register and insure it there, she can do it without any further input or effort from you.
Check with your insurance before you decide to make a title change adding your kid. Our insiriqcme was VERY clear…it was NOT allowed. If the kid became a part owner of the car…the KID had to get the insurance.
YMMV on this…but we checked THREE different states…and three different insurance companies (we changed plans) and they all said the same thing.
I’d suggest continuing to own it and listing her as a household driver and that she is going to college out of state. However, the insurance company may not want to cover her in another state.
The worst thing you can do is let her “borrow” the car - you cannot let someone just borrow your car for more than a week or two, because if anything happened to the car, your insurance company might cancel your coverage and not cover the accident. We had an issue with this in my family, and the insurance company was very clear - you have to list all drivers, and all drivers need to live with you.
But you have to call your insurance company to confirm, better to find out something annoying now than terminal later.
We kept ownership of our car. Our kid used it out of state for two,years while in grad school. The kid WAS listed as a driver on our policy, and maintained residency in our state.
We inquired FIRST about this with our insurance company. They knew the car was being used by a college graduate student…one of our kids…out of state. They were fine with that.
As I said…YMMV depending on your insurance company.
So…check that first.
Many iterations and it seems that states as well as insurance companies have their own rules so I’m sure you’d need to (1) check with your insurance company and (2) check the rules in Washington. We’ve had our CA car in PA, NY and DC while kids were/are in school and our CA insurance company (CSAA) has had no problem with it. The kids had to be students, I had to submit their addresses and I paid based on where the car resided. I do no recall being asked about grad vs. undergrad. My kids were undergrads and it didn’t occur to me to specify. The car is a prius and I believe it has about 140k miles on it. While I do worry when one takes a road trip, the car has never given us one moment’s trouble.
For us, the only downside is the liability. Should there ever be an accident involving a lawsuit, I do believe dh and I could be exposed.
Once the last one has graduated, the car will either be sold or, if one of our kids wants, it, we’ll gift it to them but require them to insure it themselves so we’re removed from liability.
I’m afraid to call my agent here. Too much experience with insurance that dumps you off the minute you tell them you are making a change that they don’t like. But will have to follow up with them, I guess.
@intparent Can you call the 800 number of the insurance company instead of your specific agent and ask the question more anonymously? (and perhaps from a phone they don’t recognize - my home phone gets matched in the system by my insurance company)
“I am just going to say this…150K miles is a lot of miles. Does it make sense to have a kid drive a car that may need more maintenance and possibly break down from time to time?”
I chuckle because both my kids are driving well-maintained vehicles with over 225K on them right now. 
Heck, sure they could break at any moment (just put new tires on one) or they could go for another 50K easily. What we do though - teach them to check the oil frequently as older cars need to be babied with the oil and we have roadside assistance for both. Ours is part of the insurance but there is always AAA.
Our vehicles aren’t Subarus but Subarus are VERY popular where I live and I know they are workhorses.
Block your phone for the call and ask the questions as general questions.
I am laughing as our D’s is also a Subaru–ala 1995. Going just fine. But going to be retired if she makes it
in a year. D was hit and the Insurance declared it worth $700 a few years ago.
We once called about a water leak issue and told the agent that we were not making a claim
but wanted advice. Got great advice and confirmed this was not going on our record.
It did not and we used the advice.
I think this question really depends on what state ups are talking about.
Maybe I’ll call from work. And I feel like I could call in Iowa and check on rates there with my own name. I can’t keep her on my AAA roadside plan, though. (Went through this with older D, unless she keeps my home as her perm residence, can’t stay on the AAA plan). But I will probably pay for AAA there for her just for my peace of mind.
Our roadside assistance through the insurance company is only $12 per year per car. We’ve used it twice and worked perfectly.
“For us, the only downside is the liability. Should there ever be an accident involving a lawsuit, I do believe dh and I could be exposed.”
That"s why we have an umbrella policy. It’s worth the yearly cost to make sure we don’t lose everything in the event someone sues us because of an accident.
just paid AAA $59 for D’s year. Have no idea what her address is on their site but I am not sure it matters.
We still pay D’s car insurance and we insisted she add the $1,000,000 umbrella as it is only about $89 a year.
Once your kid moves out of your address permanently, they aren’t supposed to be able to stay on your AAA roadside assistance.