Say, hypothetically, someone was buying car insurance for the first time as a completely separate account (as opposed to being on their parents’). Assume, as well, that the person in question was buying a car off of a private seller.
Now, by my understanding, you can’t drive a car without insurance. But how do you buy insurance for a car you don’t own yet? Is there a grace period between the signing over of the title and the start date of the insurance? Or is it, after all, possible to buy insurance for a car you will, at some future date, own?
Couldn’t you give the insurance company the information they need about the car before you buy it? Year, make and model might be enough for them to give you a rate.
Assuming you don’t have liability insurance (the kind required by law), you should probably visit an insurance broker before you make a purchase. Then all you’ll need to do is call the agent w/ the particulars of your purchase and the agent can assure your coverage from that moment.
You don’t have to have a car at all to have your own auto insurance. Liability, uninsured motorist, and other kinds of car insurance are for you personally. It may be easier to go ahead and get that insurance before you buy a car at all. You will probably need it anyway. After that, you can just call your agent when you want to add your new car. That is the same thing every other person that buys a car has to do anyway.
I was in your situation just a few months ago (although I was buying from a dealer instead of a private seller) and I had agreed to buy my car a few days before the actual sale (when we did the paperwork). I just arranged my insurance purchase at the same time, it’s not a big deal. If for some reason the deal falls through, you can cancel it.
When I bought my current car – from a dealer, not privately – I called the insurance company in the salesman’s office once all the paperwork was finalized, before I took off with the car. It wasn’t my first car, but I expect once you have the year, make and model you should be able to talk to the insurance people before you have the car.