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.