Parking a Car for a While

People stop driving a car for all kinds of ordinary reasons: a deployment, a long trip, a rebuild that will take a year, a second vehicle that only comes out in summer. The instinct is to cancel the policy and save the money. That instinct is usually wrong, and here is why.

A parked car can still be destroyed

Theft, vandalism, fire, a tree, a flood, a neighbor's water heater, someone reversing into it in the driveway. None of those need the car to be moving. Comprehensive coverage answers to that entire category, and it is the piece you keep when you stop driving.

If your situation is broader than this city, the Auto World Insurance Services guide to car in Storage in California walks through it step by step.

The lapse problem

The second reason not to cancel is the registration. Insurers report coverage to the DMV electronically, and a registered vehicle with no insurance on record can have its registration suspended. What a gap cannot do in California is set your price when you come back: the absence of prior coverage, by itself, is not an allowed rating criterion (Insurance Code section 1861.02(c)). You can lose a loyalty credit with the company you leave, though.

The two clean ways to do it

Comprehensive-only, sometimes called storage coverage. You drop liability and collision and keep comprehensive on the parked vehicle. The car stays protected against the things that happen to parked cars, the DMV keeps seeing an insured vehicle, and the cost falls substantially. Availability and rules vary by carrier, so ask directly.

Planned Non-Operation with the DMV. If the vehicle will not be driven or parked on a public road at all, California lets you file a planned non-operation certification instead of paying full registration renewal. Read the DMV's current instructions before filing, because there are timing rules and the vehicle genuinely must stay off public roads. Note that a lender or lessor may still require physical damage coverage regardless.

Do not do this

• Do not cancel and then drive the car "just to move it" — that is uninsured driving.
• Do not assume a lender will accept comprehensive-only. Many loan contracts require collision as well. Ask them.
• Do not forget to restore full coverage before the first drive back. Set a reminder against the date.

Where the car sits matters

A locked garage, a gated lot and a street space are three different risks. Tell your agent which it is, and if the car is moving to storage at a different address, mention that too.

Tell us how long and where and we will set it up so the car is protected and your record stays clean.