Maybe I’m just thinking out loud but circumstances are a little delicate and unexpected….

So, unfortunately, we are likely going to imminently inherit a city car (Seat Mii) from the MiL who is ill and won’t drive again.
Mrs Rock has a Fiat 500 and will probably take on Mii, as is the MiL’s wishes.
Our daughter is learning to drive and may pass in the next few months and will probably take on our 500. These are the thoughts in my head.
We can put the Mii in Mrs Rocks name, so she officially owns two cars?
If we start to use the Mii, then we need to insure that. So we will have insurance on two cars.
Or, find somewhere to park the 500 and SORN it and transfer cover to the Mii?
But if we do that, then that rules out the daughter using it for practice.
Can the daughter insure a car on a provisional license? And we transfer the log book of the 500 to the daughter?

Might be overthinking this but MiL is pushing to get her affairs in order quickly and all our minds are a bit foggy.

Can the daughter insure a car on a provisional license?

yes. it will be cheaper than when she passes (but still not cheap) as she will always be accompanied by a competent driver.

Would it be worth getting insurance quotes on both cars for your daughter and letting her have the cheapest?

Easy to transfer the logbook, but the Fiat will then gain an extra owner so depending on the insurance costs, could your daughter not acquire the Mii?

We’ve a not dissimilar situation. MrsF and I have our own cars, son has his. Daughter is currently learning. We picked up a 60 plate Aygo about a year ago as son needed a reliable car for work (his is modified – used for track), and also for daughter to learn in. I insured it for all four of us to use. Upon renewal I took my son off it as he had a works van. Roll on 6 months and he was made redundant, so needed access to the car again, so on he went for an additional £200 a year.

Daughter is a student so the car is registered in my name, but I can’t see her using it a lot as she’s really not bothered about driving – even though is taking lessons and doing fine. Our main goal is we won’t have to keep giving her lifts once she passes.

Do get quotes for daughter as I expect the MII will be alot cheaper being a city car. It’s been quite useful having this extra car, although added cost. Don’t get me started on my son’s modded car – it keeps breaking.

We can put the Mii in Mrs Rocks name, so she officially owns two cars?

Yes, you can own as many cars as you want (or can afford)

If we start to use the Mii, then we need to insure that. So we will have insurance on two cars.

You can have insurance on two cars in the same person’s name – Might be worth looking at Admiral or Direct Line or anyone else who offers multi-car insurance, the more cars you insure the cheaper it gets.

Thanks for the comments so far, some good points. Under normal circumstances this probably wouldn’t be so hard to deal with but there is a lot of emotion attached.

Multi policy’s not always cheaper.
Had a mid life crisis as my wife calls it and bought a cheap mx5.
Multi car was £200 extra add to my everyday vehicle insurance. Stand alone policy was £120 😐 using the ncb from being a named driver on my wife’s insurance.
Named drivers can bring costs down in some cases my van is cheaper with my wife as named driver
Who knows how insurance companies come up with policy costs?

The Aygo, with two youngsters is costing £850 a year (gone up from last year) whilst my car is less than £150. I’d hope the 500 would be a similar amount, but do double check. Could your daughter have the MII ? MIL doesn’t need to know and the Mrs could still use it as a named driver.

The qukcker you can get your daughter building No Claims Discount the better.

Price will go up when she passes.

Have you and the wife as named drivers.

NB – may be cheaper to have the daughter on the Mii than the 500.

always cheaper and less hassle to have only one car, if you can possible manage it. i have my drive to work small car, and the bus for going away. different insurance policies. i have to put reminders in the calendar for mot, insurance and tax or i forget.
see how much to get daughter added as a second driver on one of the cars, assuming she isnt going to be the main driver. Confused is very good for that.

All good advice. We had a ‘learning car’ in our house that was mine, my daughters, my sons etc. It was an old Fiat Punto so we were not bothered about the number of owners in the log book. We just passed it round over a few years. It got 2 of my 3 through their tests and first year or so of driving.

Only issue was I bought it, gave it to child 1 (birthday present), bought it from child one to keep for child 2, gave it to child 2, bought it from child 2 for child 3 (but scrapped it before they were ready).

So basically I bought the same car 3 times! Kids think I’m stupid, I think I’m generous 😉

The issue may be having your NCD on more than one car. Some companies allow it some don’t. Maybe best to start with someone who does multicar policies.

Also worth pointing out that most insurers don’t mind if the policy holder isn’t the owner/keeper of the car, if it’s someone in the close family. My daughter learnt to drive in a Citigo that I own. Whilst learning she was named on my policy (for a surprisingly low additional fee). Once she passed her test, we took out a new policy in her name, with me as the named driver, because she was going to be the main driver going to school every day (20 mile round trip). I remained as the owner of the car as I’ll revert to being the policyholder once she heads off to Uni. Saves having extra ‘owners’ in the log book.

PS the citigo seemed to be one of the cheaper insurance options for new drivers (we bought ours about 3 years ago with a view to daughter learning in it) so the Mii should be similar, I would think – same car, basically!

Only issue was I bought it, gave it to child 1 (birthday present), bought it from child one to keep for child 2, gave it to child 2, bought it from child 2 for child 3 (but scrapped it before they were ready).

Why did you keep transferring ownership back to yourself? Why not just leave in child 1’s name until child 2 was ready, and then straight on to number 3?

Also worth pointing out that most insurers don’t mind if the policy holder isn’t the owner/keeper of the car,

Some do though.  We got stung with this when my daughter first started to drive and had her as the policy holder on the family car. So now it’s back in the missis’ name it’s had 4 owners rather than 2. 🤦‍♂️

It’s probably not going to be worth much when it finally goes so no biggie in the grand scheme of things probably.