Do you let people borrow your car?

[Karl_K]

A friend of ours has 2 cars and people are always bugging her to borrow one of them.
Some go as far as saying well your not using both at the same time and trying to guilt her into it.
We will not let someone borrow our car, but my wifey will at times give someone a ride if the situation warrants it.
What do you do?

 

[Bron357]

I let DH drive my car and he let‘s me drive his.
DD if she ever decides to learn to drive can drive mine, she can’t drive DH as it’s a high performance vehicle and here in NSW Australia, provisional drivers are banned from driving high performance cars.
Both my brother and my sister have expressed an interest in borrowing either of our cars when they visit (cheaper to borrow than hire) except I told them my car has a $5,000 up front accident waiver and DH car is $15,000.
They hire.

 

[nala]

Never!

 

[monarch64]

Noooooo. I’d rather spot you some money for an Uber or give you a ride or two before handing over the responsibility of loaning you my vehicle, regardless of how many I had!

 

[jaysonsmom]

Only family. My husband’s sister comes to visit from Europe once a year for about 2 weeks with her husband and kids. We usually let them use one of cars. We are a nuclear family of 4 with 4 cars, so we usually have a car to spare, we just have to share 3 cars between 4 people during their visit.

 

[chrono]

Family only and my family knows how to drive my manual transmission too.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

No, too risky, if I lend my car out and that person gets into an accident I could risk losing my car insurance at renewal. Insurance companies base the rate they charge you on the driving history of known drivers listed on the policy. Once you lend your car you become a much higher risk because they do not know who is being given access and what their driving history is.

Also we only have one car (DH has a company truck) so if anything happened to the car It would be a major headache.

 

[Lookinagain]

No, but no one really asks. When younger, my daughter asked a few times, but she had her own car. Mine was nicer. When she asked to use mine instead I told her no, I didn't buy her a car so that she could drive mine. She only asked one or two times and then quit asking.

 

[tyty333]

We do not have a "spare" car so it would be rare if someone asked. If someone needed to borrow our SUV so they could carry
something in it I would probably help them out by doing the driving. We have let family use my car when it made sense.

Edit...I would question the friendship of someone trying to guilt me into borrowing my car (when they know I don't want
to loan it out.)

 

[dk168]

Nope, never for the main reason that I hate having to adjust my cars/van after being serviced.

DK

 

[House Cat]

Family only. Our cars are insured for other drivers

 

[seaurchin]

Our grown kids can use our cars. They're responsible and also help us out if needed.

But I would find it pushy for anyone else to ask and obnoxious if they proceeded to argue when told no.

If a close, trusted relative or friend needed use of a car, I might possibly offer but I would still feel like it was pushy if they asked. There's way too much liability involved for it to be expected just because "you're not using it right now."

 

[pearlsngems]

No. My husband and I mostly drive our own cars, and our insurance policy lists both of us as drivers for both cars.

Our daughter has her own car with her own separate insurance policy. She doesn't drive our cars and we don't drive hers.

There is just too much liability to let others drive our vehicles, but I have given people rides when they were stuck.

 

[Calliecake]

I have never had anyone ask. If one in our family asked to borrow a car for a few days I would let me. We all have insurance and the cars are insured. If anything happened to a car my only concern would be that everyone was safe and unhurt. I’ve had a couple cars in the past that I really liked but at the end of the day they were just nice cars. Cars can always be fixed or replaced. The worst case scenario is I’d have to get a less expensive car.

I drove a stripped down Toyota Tercel for years and plenty of other inexpensive cars when I was single and life was fine. People are irreplaceable.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Only family. That said, my neighbor who is the ultimate car collector told me I could borrow his xyz mega $$$ car, so I guess he could drive my cheap one.

cheers--Sharon

 

[vintageinjune]

I voted yes, even though I can count the number of times I've actually lent my car out on one hand.
A friend of mine who moved out of state will be coming back for week long visit this summer, and I offered her the use of one of our extra vehicle since my husband works from home and we honestly only use it every few months at this point.
When I fly to another state to see my family, my brother or parents usually lend me a vehicle to use while there.

 

[Austina]

I let my DIL drive my brand new car once, never again!

It would be too inconvenient if it got damaged, not to mention the aggro of dealing with the insurance company. I wouldn‘t ask to borrow anyone else’s car either.

 

[AprilBaby]

I thought it said Cat, can you borrow my cat.

 

[TooPatient]

Until a couple of months ago, we only had one vehicle. Our second is a truck with 230,000+ miles, no shift display so you don't know what gear you are in, funky heater, and an engine light. That doesn't get loaned out ever because I would worry about someone accidentally going forward instead of backing or whatever. Our daily car is what we use regularly. I would not risk it being down because someone had an accident.

Outside of car dealer employees driving from the maintenance area into their on site car wash, no one other than the two of us has driven our cars ever. There is only one exception. My mom drove our car to pick up teriyaki one night a few weeks ago because it sounded good to my grandfather and our car was easiest to get out. That was about two miles round trip.

 

[PinkAndBlueBling]

Yes, we would let friends borrow our cars if they asked. I'm talking about friends who are like family, including their kids. We've borrowed cars, such as when we need a truck. We've also been given the use of cars while visiting friends & family.

Our kids have their own cars, but they can drive mine if they want. DH's car is a stick, which they don't know how to drive.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I would be very uncomfortable lending some thing as valuable as a car to anyone
In saying that Gary's son is a mechanic so he will take our car home if he's doing some work on it for his dad and also we have on occasion swapped vehicles if we needed to borrow his van

But in saying that our windscreen came back scratched from DILs diamond ring

 

[LilAlex]

Strangers? No.

Acquaintances? No.

Close friends with an unexpected need (car in the shop, etc.)? Yes -- several times.

Family? Of course. I will never own a car that is "just for me." To me, that's like Archie Bunker's chair. I have a fun car that I love to drive -- but anyone in the immediate family can and does use it. But they are pretty careful with it...

 

[Karl_K]

We dont for 2 reasons:
1: its old and finicky with some quirks.
2: in our state insurance follows the car.
If I loan someone our car and they get in a wreck my insurance would have to pay out.

 

[TooPatient]

Thinking more about it, I know several people we would be comfortable loaning our car to. They are the ones who haven't had a bunch of accidents and would be both willing and able to fix any damage that might occur. They also tend to be respectful of things that belong to others.

Those who would be more likely to ask us to borrow a car are generally people who have had multiple accidents, wouldn't be able to even cover the insurance deductible, have less good coverage (insurance mostly follows the person in this state), and treat things that belong to others as disposable junk.

Having had only one car has made it easy as no one asks to borrow our only vehicle!

 

[missy]

We only have one car between the two of us and we don't use it a lot. We cycle everywhere or walk. We use the car for doctor appointments and grocery shopping.

We would happily lend it to a friend in need. No one has ever asked but we are insured and it is not against our policy to let someone else drive the car. But no one has asked and I cannot see anyone asking to be honest as all our friends have more than one car and we only have one. But yes, if a friend or family member needed our car without hesitation we would lend it to them.

 

[Ibrakeforpossums]

Karl, can I ask what you drive?
I have a 2002 Honda Insight. It has a CVT and I baby it, would not loan it easily.

 

[Karl_K]

Karl, can I ask what you drive?
I have a 2002 Honda Insight. It has a CVT and I baby it, would not loan it easily.

2004 buick lesabre with a zillion miles and most of the dash does not work including the gas gauge. High beams only work if you hold the switch and if you adjust the tilt steering wheel more stuff stops working.

 

[Ibrakeforpossums]

Sounds like electrical gremlins. But an older Buick is wicked comfy.

 

[Demon]

I voted yes, family. But only some family.

 

[doberman]

I let only immediate family borrow my car. The last time was a few months ago when I lent it to my son to go to a residency interview in another state. His car and my daughter-in-law's car have a lot of miles on them.