I honestly would be scared shitless lending a stranger my car.

apparent 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I wouldn't be comfortable borrowing someone's car, especially in the snow. If I were GP, I'd have driven it up next to my car, used the battery to jump mine, and thanked the stranger.

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rogerrogerr 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'd do it in a heartbeat in a situation like this, except that I have no idea what the insurance implications are.

Actually, maybe someone here knows: How much would I expose myself lending my ~$20k car with full coverage to a random idiot? For the sake of argument, say I'm reasonably assured they are legal to drive.

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SoftTalker 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Liability goes with the owner, not the driver. If you let someone drive your car, you are liable for any damage they do.

	▲	kube-system an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Not exactly -- legally speaking people are always primarily responsible for their own actions. However, basically all insurance in the US extends coverage to people who the owner allows to drive the car. But if you borrow someones car and you cause damages that go beyond their insurance limits, you can be personally sued for the remainder because you are still liable for your actions as a driver. There are some exceptions where the owner can also be held liable for damages that someone else does, especially when they do it recklessly (e.g. lending to a drunk driver)

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apparent 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I looked into my policy once, and it said that if I let someone else drive my car, the coverage from my policy would revert to the state minimum, around $15k.

If the driver has insurance, that would probably get tapped first, but if they don't have enough it could end up hitting your policy.

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Rebelgecko 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

YMMV, depends on state and your coverage.

When I looked into it for my situation, a one-off thing was fine. You'd get into trouble if you lent your car for an extended period of time or if it was something like you didn't tell the insurance company you had a spouse and they drove the car regularly.

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irishcoffee 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

We got a new fridge a few years ago, throw the old one up online for free. It worked just fine, but it was one of those freezer-on-the-left and fridge-on-the-right, split down the middle. Tolerated it for years, and finally saved up enough for a new one.

So, someone comes to pick it up. Well, 3 someone’s. A older woman, a younger woman, and a younger man. The man was missing a decent amount of teeth and had a decent amount of prison ink.

The car they came in to pick up this enormous full size fridge was probably only slightly bigger than the fridge. It wasn’t even close to being possible to fit.

I looked over at my 25 year old truck (I love that truck more than any other vehicle I’ve had) and made a decision.

“Hey look man, I love this truck. You can borrow it to lug the fridge. Please bring it back. I’ll even level with you, if you don’t bring it back odds are I’m not even going to report it stolen, I’m just going to be bummed. I get notes on my windshield all the time asking if I’ll sell it.”

Guy kind of looks at me. The other two people glance at each other, and the whole thing felt very strange. So we load the fridge and off they go.

I looked at my wife and said “I’m never going to see that truck again, huh?”

After about 4 hours I gave up. They stole it. I was strangely ok with it. I made the decision, knowing the risks, and had accepted them.

3 hours after that, they brought my truck back. The guy gets out and kind of started sobbing. The older woman (I assume the mom) was crying. Guy gave me a huge hug. Everyone was incredibly emotional.

I didn’t ask, but can only assume they considered stealing it. I also assume they used it all day long based on the mileage.

	▲	seg_lol 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That was a little nudge that proved to themselves that they can be better people.