Tourist driving a residents car (insurance)?

[Julian30]

Hi,

Just a quick question, I have friends who are residents who I'll be visiting and staying with in June and I just wondered if anyone could tell if it's legal for me to drive one of their vehicles (with their permission, I have licence etc) without securing additional insurance?

I'm asking because I read that it's the car that's insured and thus it would be legal for me to use my friends car but I just wanted to check.

Many thanks.

[paully]

yes in Spain its the car that is insured, as long as the driver is licensed, by their own authorities Spanish or otherwise, to drive

[Johnrgby2]

The only thing to bear in mind is there are age restrictions to the insurance , mine is over 25, but I have seen one where it is over 29.

[SheilaW]

The insurance cover is also reduced to the minimum when being driven by someone else. That can be a nasty surprise if/when they total it .

[yorkiecouple]

Just checked up on my insurance Sheila and my cover remains the same as if I was driving.

[PHo]

Mine is unchanged too

[SheilaW]

Oh, OK - that's a nice surprise then . I'll have to check with my insurer again as either I misunderstood or things have changed since I spoke about it about five years back.

[calculator]

People are being way too simplistic on this matter. It's not just a case of saying "the car is insured in Spain, not the person".

I could go into several points, but it's too time consuming. All the insurance companies have different conditions. It's not sufficient to just read the first page summary. Read your policies (in Spanish only) from start to finish. The exclusions for non-named drivers are immense.

The obvious exclusions are based on age, but also years in possession of a valid licence (5 years on my policy).

Additionally, the amounts covered for various issues is less or non-existent for non-named drivers. Complementary Civil Responsibility is a good example of that.

Payouts on injury/death will also be limited.

It is always better to have additional drivers named in the policy.

So, a tourist driving a resident's car - how is the tourist going to explain to Guardia Civil that they have authorisation to drive it. Most likely, they'll be detained until proof is provided. A little inconvenient to say the least.

[DaveW]

I think you should check with the insurer first rather than take a chance.

[Julian30]

Many thanks everyone, sounds like I'll be better off borrowing one of their bikes