Michigan no-fault insurance laws are confusing, at best, and seem even worse when it comes to insuring a newly licensed teenaged driver.  Most teens today, it seems, have their own car.  And, while most teenagers are glad to have their own wheels, and simultaneously furious because they are driving “a piece of junk”, every auto insurance sales agent in Michigan will tell you that this is the way to go.  By the insurance company’s recommendation, it is less expensive to spend a few hundred dollars on a car exclusively for the teen and insure it as such, than it will be to add the teen to the insurance policy of one of the existing vehicles in the household.  A word of warning: be sure the car is titled to the adult, because even if titled to the teen, the parent is legally responsible for the teen’s actions with the vehicle until he is 18.

Insurance premium rates are predicated on some combination of the value of the car and the experience of the driver.  In this case, two negatives comes about as close to a positive as we are going to get.

Just in case you are considering it, the days of buying a second car “for my wife”, insuring it in her name, and letting the teen do all the driving are also over.  If there are 3 vehicles in the household, and 3 drivers, each of them has to be listed as primary driver on one of the vehicles. 

This seems to go against the no-fault insurance laws of Michigan where the car is insured, not the driver.  For example, if you get into an accident while driving your girlfriend’s car, you cannot have the accident run through your insurance company because you were the driver.  It must go through her insurance company because that is who the vehicle is insured through.  Now you are not listed as a driver on her policy, so why can’t it go through your insurance?  And similarly, why does the teenager have to be listed as primary driver on one of the vehicles in the household if he could just drive his girlfriends car instead.

Confusing.

Seems like the insurance companies are making this stuff up as they go along.  Confoundedly though, they are really good at comparing notes and getting their stories straight, because they will all tell you the same thing.  So maybe we have to assume that they aren’t just making it up, and that they actually know more about the insurance laws than we do.  But I’m still skeptical.