Why you should not lend your car to just anyone

A mate wants to borrow your ute to shift furniture, or your cousin is down for a holiday and wants to borrow your small hatch, rather than rent a car.

Should you say yes and just throw them the keys?

When someone borrows your car, it could cost you, and it could ruin a beautiful relationship too.

That ‘someone’ could be a good friend, a relative or a respected colleague, but don’t feel guilty about saying ‘no’.

Before handing over the keys, ask yourself:

• Is the car mechanically safe?
• Do you know for sure the driver is competent and trustworthy?
• Will they be covered by your insurance policy?
• Do you know where the driver is going in your car?
• Can you be certain the driver will pay for any fines or other costs incurred?

If your car is a rusty, dinted old bomb that blows oil smoke and pulls a little to the left under brakes, you may not care if someone borrows it.

But what happens if the car breaks down and leaves your friend, colleague or relative stranded?

The last thing you want is to be phoned at 2am to drive an hour into the country to meet the driver – let’s call him Ernie – who is stranded with your car by the side of the road.

Maybe you don’t have roadside assistance membership? And maybe the driver doesn’t want to pay out of their own pocket for your car’s breakdown?

Worse still, what if a mechanical failure in your car results in a crash and there are injuries (or worse) involved? How would you feel then?

Ernie is a bit of a muppet. He’s driving your ute in the rain and decides to enjoy himself with a little power oversteer at the exit from a roundabout. The ute slides off the road – because Ernie has not only overpowered grip at the rear, he’s too slow to correct the slide.

Within seconds the car has cannoned backwards off the road with Ernie clinging to the wheel for dear life.

He climbs out of the wreckage unharmed, but the ute is a write-off, not that it was comprehensively insured anyway – being so old. Ernie rings for a taxi and leaves the ute there, letting you know where it is, but at least offering to pay you a sum of money for the wreck.

Before long, you have emergency services and maybe the council knocking on your front door, asking when you’re going to have the vehicle removed. And you still have to chase Ernie for the cash.

Even if Ernie doesn’t do any panel damage, his preference for valve-bouncing revs and tyre-smoking abuse of the drivetrain could wear out the clutch, universal joints, a differential – if it has already seen better days – and the engine itself.

Bottom line: Don’t let Ernie near your car.

Most insurers will cover a driver who is not named on the policy, the usual exceptions (like driving drunk) notwithstanding.

However, if your car is expensive or exotic, the insurer may have stipulated particular terms in its policy. And those terms could be, among other things, limiting the use of the vehicle to drivers over a certain age.

Even if the driver is covered, they may have to pay an additional excess because they’re under 25. In that instance, the onus is on you, the owner of the vehicle, to pay the excess in its entirety, and recover that amount from the driver, assuming they were at fault for the crash.

The insurer won’t even begin to process your claim for third-party damage unless you pay the excess first.

This needs little explanation. If your car is frequently borrowed by others, you may not recall specifically who was driving the car at a certain place and time.

The fine for charging past a speed camera over the limit is high, but it’s much higher still if you refuse (or are unable) to nominate the person driving at the time.

In this event, it would be cheaper for you to swallow your pride and pay the fine – also accepting the loss of demerit points – rather than standing on principle and stating that you have no idea who the driver was at the time.

In yet another scenario, Ernie has been caught by the police doing donuts in your car. The next thing you know, your car has been impounded, and the police are threatening to crush it…

At the end of a night out, and hungry for some take-aways, Ernie drives his mates in your car to a 24/7 fast food outlet. While Ernie’s inside waiting for the order, one of his mates in the car park gets into an altercation with another driver and all hell breaks loose.

Ernie returns the car to you with a smashed mirror on the passenger side and a boot-sized dint in the rear door. He argues that he shouldn’t have to pay for the damage, since he didn’t cause it.

When it comes to lending Ernie a car, don’t be like Bert. Say no, because the friendship should survive that. If not, there’s always Elmo or Grover instead…